58
Diet for a New America
Americoma/Beyond
58’s very rocking debut, Diet for a New America, is somewhat of an accidental record. The group began as a joke between producer Dave Darling and Motley Crue bassist, Nikki Sixx – an Internet-only “band” whose songs would be available for download on Sixx’s website. The thing is, 58’s music was just too good to keep secret. 58 is now a real band with Steve Gibb (son of Barry Gibb) on guitar and session drummer “Bucket” Baker on drums. Sixx and Darling share duties on vocals and bass. While some will unfairly prejudge 58 based on Sixx’s tenure in a band whose popularity has been on the slow decline for a decade, 58 sound nothing like Motley Crue.
The songs on Diet for a New America – which rank among the best Sixx has written – incorporate aspects of modern musical movements such as electronica and hip hop, but actually have more in common with songs by classic blues rockers like Free and Humble Pie. 58 also has the funk. The processed vocals of the urban-tinged “Killing Joke” flow through an R&B workout that has Prince and Sly Stone all over it, and fans of Lenny Kravitz will also find “Don’t Laugh” familiar.
There are some seriously radio-friendly hits as well, particularly “Piece of Candy,” about an Internet junkie turned cybersex superstar, with a “Na Na Na” refrain that will hook you after one listen. Perhaps the album’s best cut, “Shopping Cart Jesus” – addressing the search for spirituality amidst increasingly materialism – puts a techno-funk twist on a groove borrowed from the Stones’ “Heartbreaker” and compares favorably to Soundgarden’s similarly-themed “Wooden Jesus.” Towards the album’s end, 58 sober the listener momentarily with the reverent “All of My Heroes Are Dead,” an ode to rock’s many suicides and overdoses which contains the poignant lyric “You thought that your choice was no choice at all.”
By making a record without any conviction to trendiness, what emerges on Diet for a New America is the passionate expression of the band’s sense of fun and keen instincts for what makes for great rock and roll. As Sixx says in the final cut, “Who We Are”: “It’s who we are/It’s where we’re going/ and it’s where we’ve been.”
