Knoxville Girls

Don't let the name fool you: this New York City combo counts Boss Hogg's Jerry Teel, former Gun Club guitarist Kid Congo Powers, and former Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert among its members. What they come up with is a predictably fractured take on country rock, like how the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion might sound if they spent a few years in Nashville. What the band obviously lacks in technical ability they make up for in audacity, dragging Hank Williams's "'Neath A Cold Gray Tomb Of Stone" through the New York sewer system, and tackling a track by backwoods bard Hasil Adkins. Their originals have a certain ragged punch to them, but the band still comes across as too inept for any discerning country-rock fan. I suppose the JSBX got the same reaction from the blues community when they first appeared, but Knoxville Girls still sound as if they need to make a few more albums before they're able to reconstruct country in their own image. For demented ears only.