Rock Star Reviews
Vietnam's Ivan Sunshine takes a look at the psychedelic record of the season, Gris Gris' For the Season.

GRIS GRIS
For the Season
Birdman 2005

It may not look like much from the outside (actually it looks pretty bad on the outside) - but the Gris Gris' second LP is as good as the album art is bad - which is - well.. fantastic.

The band's lyricist Greg Ashley tells us, “All the little children/Fuck their generation.” With its slithering guitars and heavy echo drums, For the Season kind of recalls EVOL/Bad Moon Rising-era Sonic Youth. In fact the first half of the record can be best described as Creedence jamming with The Sonics in the mid 80’s. Kinda creepy in the beginning - but takes you somewhere throughout the songs. Adding to their skillful play with rhythm, feedback, and killer organ tones, Ashley and company employ an eight-track tape machine to mesh the tracks together and get the “tape” sound you hear on all your favorite old records. The real beauty here is that they've managed to capture the sound of their live shows on tape - which adds to the overall sonic hysteria. My personal favorite, “Endless Tape Jam,” is a golden-oldies-flavored sweet love track in the middle of the album that initiates the second half with a massive rocking guitar-hero solo.

Fans of the first LP and anyone who caught them last spring will definitely be into this one.