Receive Weekly Email and Text Message Updates:
Sign up for latest info on concerts, dining, promotions and more!
Go!

Related Stories ...

Most Popular

Reader's Picks

Top Recommendations

A short list of San Francisco's most popular hot spots.
user content provided by: LikeMe.net & SF Weekly

National Features >

  • City Pages

    Michele Bachmann, Unmuzzled

    You don't need to read Sarah Palin's book to hear the ravings of a mad woman.

    By Matt Snyders

  • Miami New Times

    Pimp Daddy

    The rise and fall of a chubby sex-cult leader.

    By Natalie O'Neill

  • Riverfront Times

    Babe 'n' Arms

    Tom was a hot-tempered cross-dresser with a garage full of guns--and then he became Rachel.

    By Nicholas Phillips

  • Dallas Observer

    The Fight for Texas

    Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison are locked in a battle over the soul of the GOP. They're also running for governor.

    By Sam Merten

Blood on the Wall

Liferz (The Social Registry)

Share

  • rss

By Eric Davidson

Published on February 04, 2008 at 2:39pm

From the seething yet soulful din of this Big Apple bent-blues band's third record, it sounds like its members have spent the past three years on tour arguing over highway directions whilst munching on Funyuns and letting out hangover burps. Dropping licks from Roy Head's ol' R&B nugget "Treat Her Right" in the second tune ("The Ditch") implies this brother-sister combo heard the original before a DJ neighbor gave them the James Chance cover version. More saucy implications come from the greasy-fried parts — like the stubbornly sexy guy-gal carping and fat-fuzz riffs — scattered among the songs. Shufflers like "Lightning Song" show the group's post-Velvets-cum–Yo La Tengo indie scrapple, but the more sure-sounding speeders ("GO GO GO," "The X") seem to be the trio's focus now. Brad Shanks' vox, a bit less post-punky pinched than before, still occasionally drowns his desperation with cringingly needy wailing. When Courtney Shanks sings, though, the songs go go-go gritty ("Rize," "Hibernation") and flail like a garage-tethered Celebration. Liferz is at once a throwback to when indie bands still rocked, and a forward step out of lock-step garage rock.