Free Will-owz

Comments (0) By John Garmon Wednesday, Aug 15 2007

Though the Willowz's music has appeared on the soundtracks to Michel Gondry's thoughtful tear-jerkers the Science of Sleep and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, it's Dazed and Confused that comes to mind when sampling the tracks from their new album Chautauqua. Though the band has been tagged as garage-revivalists and began life with a punkier edge, its current offering is so mid-´70s you'd expect the disc to come packaged in corduroy. Aero-Zeppelin guitars, shag carpet-coated bass, and stompy, tom-heavy drums provide a raucous backdrop for vocalist/guitarist Richie Follin, who sounds like Steve Marriott singing with his nose pinched. Though riffage reigns supreme on Chautauqua, the mellower tracks recall the acoustic blues of the Stones' Beggars Banquet, encouraging you to slip off your boogie shoes for a bit.

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Tonight's headliner, the Detroit Cobras, take its retrospection one step further, with a repertoire consisting almost exclusively of obscure '60s covers of the girl-group and R&B variety. A notoriously smokin' live act, the band is a more polished (but equally vitriolic) femme cousin to Oakland's Harold Ray Live in Concert.