Salt Lick Kids

Without trading in their boisterous energy, Guelph’s the Salt Lick Kids return with a markedly mature recording. On last year’s Salt Rock Shake Live the trio of Geronimo Geordie Gordon, Kid Clay, and Johnny B. Badd offered up a warts-and-all document of their frenetic stage show. With Lucky Low Life, the band have clearly spent a bit more time making a genuine studio recording, rendering new songs with clear enunciation and a tempered zeal. Gordon continues to grow as a vivid songwriter with "Days of Old” and "Down from Liberty,” blending folk and punk with equal conviction. The band’s interplay on "Bloodhound” is endearing, mixing a bouncy rhythm with haunting background vocals. Be sure to catch the train travelling down to "Low Life” because it’s worth the trip. "Nothing Ever Lasts” has the wits of an early Talking Heads song, while "Chicken” is a Kentucky fried romp. This trio have the precocious chops of the Super Friendz and their reverence for vintage soul and R&B informs the unique sound of Lucky Low Life.