The Snakes
The Snakes
Bomp
Well, the scene is set serenely enough at the onset. “Hourly Nightly” begins a two-minute turn back to the psychedelia and a future Pink Floyd where all is dreamy; a mellowing phase that segues into the likes of “Run Cherry Run” and “Little Deaths,” two hip-shaking, toe tapping tambourine songs from the days of The Troggs, The Turtles and those of the generally more wholesome community. “Scene From a Cadillac” will appeal to the more voracious appetite of the “then” rocker aiming for a step out from the crowd; the head bob accompanies the hip shake with a R&B gone punk insurgency, nearly diesel if not for the odd David Bowie byway of one Lenny Pops, guitarist, singer, and undoubted veteran of the tie-die variety. Where the many pre-punkers that came of age in the early seventies are well worn and widely embraced by the underground, there are those fall betweens of a retro/stoner/blues embodiment which The Snakes seem to fit comfortably within-usually safe, occasionally gritty, and generally well set and easy to catch. On one hand there’s the bell bottom curve of strobe-era Rolling Stones on and again to go with a perceptively Dylanesque tone, and Pops, the generally reserved singer, doing well to capture both Iggy Pop and Bowie, surprisingly so on the tender gone tenacious rocker, “Jesus’s Son,” which is definitely among the best of the bunch and a brotherly equivalent to the forgotten Urge Overkill-ers. Overall, we can sum up The Snakes (as sneaky, including a clever “sleeper” track for number eleven that goes heavy on the psych-fx for a soothing yet strong closer that I would’ve missed another second or two later) to owning a vivid preference for image over words (see inlay), a slightly less glitzy Black Crowes like style, capturing the essence of the blues, folk, and R&B, bore of a daisy-faced era, catchy and precursory to the rougher edged four on the floor blow out that saw the sun set on the chill out soon after.
Bomp Records: http://www.bomp.com
