newcritics

A rock band can be a wonderfully simple machine. Like cogs and gears, simple parts played by bass, guitar and drums performed with well-engineered timing can deliver a lot of horsepower and a magnificent grind. It doesn’t take virtuosity, genius, or even that much ingenuity, just well conceived parts working together–melodic choruses, guitar hooks, bass parts you can sing along with, drum parts that breakup and orchestrate a song, the processional hand clap or tambourine for color and propulsion.

The Whigs, an Athens GA-based trio (with, to date, an unsettled bass chair) formed in 2002 at the University of Georgia and now touring behind the recent Mission Control (their second album, but first to be released by someone other than the band itself, Dave Matthews’ Ato label), kicks it old school with this kind of lunch pail craftsmanship.

Rock trios have typically been virtuoso vehicles (think Cream, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, John Mayer’s late, lamented trio with Steve Jordan on drums), but the Whigs come closer to the style of the great trio+lead vocalist combos (the Who, Led Zep, the Smiths) where players and parts exist principally to serve the song. The Whigs strip it down further–replacing the rhythm section virtuosity of the Who, the stacked riffage of studio Zep, and the jangly internal movement of Johnny Marr’s guitar with the colorful clouds of sustained overtones that come from playing an electric guitar as hard as you can into a cranked tube amp. Right Hand on My Heart, the signature tune from Mission Control, ends with an entire final verse backed by rhythm and a single chord of sustained guitar hash that singer/songwriter/guitarist Parker Gispert allows to ripen into an a mellow, softening feedback as the song steadies to a close. It ain’t a new sound under the sun, but it connects with all the grand garage rock verities.

The Whigs are not a band without musical ambition–tho the band’s range is on broader display on it’s first album, Give ‘Em All a Big Fat Lip, recorded in 2005 in a vacant frat house with equipment that the band purchased on eBay for the purpose of recording the album, then resold when the recording was finished (like I said, lunch pail craftsmanship). That album closes with the nearest thing in the bands book to a windmill tilting epic The seven minutes of All of My Banks begins within the Lucy Sky with Diamonds electric piano and ends with Gispert’s beautiful “woman tone” lead guitar counter melody bubbling under the crash of the band backed by horns and flute.

Actually, in all, Fat Lip (which was rereleased by Ato) is a better album than Mission Control. In the mid-1980s, when the likes of the Pixies, the Replacements and the Lemonheads were stars, the post-punk power pop sound of songs like Technology, Violet Furs, and OK Alright would have made those songs break out college radio hits.

But between ‘em, Fat Lip and Mission Control possess enough excellent songs and good ol’ guitar rock to make The Whigs my new, unpretentious rock thrill of the moment. Young men with their hearts and guitars in the right place.

Here’s video of the band performing Right Hand on My Heart last January on Late Night with David Letterman.

And an early fan video of the band performing Technology at home at Tasty World in Athens.

The band’s live-from-the-road blog on it’s web site features charming tales of Chuck E Cheese and garlic farms, borrowed gear and gigs with four people in attendance. One of the most entertaining blogs I know.