“douglas_charles”
Charles Douglas
The Lives of Charles Douglas
No. 6
According to the traditions of acupuncture, you can achieve great effect by positioning little pins on particular spots on your skin. Then again, there’s something to be said about being whacked by the fat end of a two-by-four. Charles Douglas’ music is easily called “straightahead” – your cousin’s junior-high garage band could be called straightahead, too, as could the raw fury of the Replacements, but what defines that large gap in listenability is beyond me. You either feel it in your gut, or it sounds like chimpanzees bashing on instruments. Douglas clearly writes on the high end, and when he rasps “I know I’m crazy/ I know I’m stupid/ I know I’m never gonna make it, make it” (on “Earlybird School”) you can’t help but scream along at the top of your lungs. Produced by Moe Tucker and engineered by Kurt Ralske (Ultra Vivid Scene), The Lives of Charles Douglas is a good time from start to finish.
