Search - Sex Mob :: Solid Sender

Let's just cruise...and give thanks to the drummer.

Sanson Corrasco | Bucharest, Romania | 06/26/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I only review things I really like. So here's Solid Sender. I doubt if it's helpful to try to label this music. Here's my advice. Try not to listen too hard. Don't make it into work. Let this CD sneak up on you. Like so. Imagine a summer night. In an open slow moving car, you are cruising a street of Memphis clubs, passing open doors. Atonal arhythmic horn squawks?someone tuning up, maybe?give way to loosely disciplined drum and bass lines from the club next door. Still you hear those raggedy horns. Further up the street you hear bits and pieces of...something. You sniff a melody you might have heard before. ...but,...maybe not. You round a corner.WHAM! you're slapped up straight by a Salvation Army Band...playing...wait...a burlie-Q version of...for a minute or three they ride a salacious and juicy groove...I know that song! But someone holds a note just a millisecond too long, slurring the rhythm. The other horns are knocked off the wagon. Well, it?s been a long night for the band, and hey, they're tired, but oops, now the whole thing is falling apart. Now what we're listening to is a drunk and tired Salvation Army band playing burlie-Q. But, wait! Hear that? Underneath it all is a throbbing sound. From a low-rider coming up the street, the bass player (hanging with the drummer til now) steps out with a snatch of melody?it's just a reminder, don?t you know? ?but it's as if he's thrown those rowdy horns a rope and?Oh sweet redemption!?he tows them back to virtue! You loop the block. You can?t pick the club you want, so you loop again. And again. Half a dozen times you recognize something you know, played just as surely it was never meant to be. Dissonance scritches your spine, but the next minute you're laughing out loud at the pure joy of recognition and the audacity of being alive. The whole funky scene is just too much. We don't need a club. We'll cruise, we'll catch a couple lines here, a scritch and a scratch there, pick up and lose bits of jazz and gospel and funk and rock and hip hop, and blur them all into a summer night.I came to this music by way of Tom Waits, to John Lurie and Marvin Pontiac, to Steve Bernstein, to Sex Mob. That's not to say that if you like those guys you will like Sex Mob, nor is it to say that if you don't like them you won't like Sex Mob. It's just telling you how I got here.Delia says this music is like fingernails on a blackboard. I try not to comment on her pedestrian tastes, but I listen when she?s not around. Better yet, I program this music not to come on until the party gets really loud. After a while people?who weren?t really listening til the groove suddenly jumped up and bit them?come running over saying ?WHO?WHAT?WAS THAT!?? "Well," I smug, "it's pure noisy raucous fun by stone musicians who don't play genres. They just play." (And, they mix and match and transition everything. They know just what they?re doing. But still, let's give thanks to the drummer for holding the raggedy thing together.)Amazon is going to ask you if this review was helpful. It's the wrong question. I want to pique your interest. Give this music a try. It's outrageous and it's fun. (And your friend/spouse/lover/mother may just hate it.)"

"Kurt Cobain, meet Louis Armstrong ..."

Troy Collins | Lancaster, PA United States | 05/16/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Solid Sender is Sex Mob's follow up to their brilliant debut - Din of Inequity. For the uninitiated, Sex Mob is Steven Bernstein's zany downtown cover band. A free wheeling jazz quartet that has a predilection for covering pop songs, both past and present. Bernstein was also the trumpeter and musical director of John Lurie's Lounge Lizards. You can see here how both artists aesthetic sensibilities and musical sense of humor cross common paths. The final Lounge Lizards album featured a piece where all the "lizards" were yelling in unison, and here Bernstein uses a children's choir on one track.The core group consists of band leader Steven on slide trumpet, alto sax shredder Briggan Krauss, drummer Kenny Wollesen and upright bassist Tony Scherr. Considering this is supposed to be Steven's foray into "sexy" music, there are lots of screaming horn lines accompanied by a steady back beat. This straight up rhythm section approach allows an easy pathway towards the interpretation of pop and rock song covers.The group's first album found the quartet joined by a few guest guitarists, and some hammond organ jamming ( courtesy of MMW's John Medeski ). Except for two guest appearances by DJ Logic, the group has mostly forsaken electric instruments this time around for the occasional company of strings. Logic's contribution to the title track however is stunning and is sorely missed on the rest of the album. Imagine a sort of down home dixieland stomp spiced up with madly scratched turntables.As for the pieces themselves, there are covers of Nirvana - About a Girl, AABA - Fernando, and Elvis - Don't be Cruel. There are a few others including Ellington's - Mooch and the Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday. All these cover tunes are uniquely conceived and arranged. The Elvis piece is almost unrecognizable in it's edgy deconstruction. The Nirvana tune starts out as a snappy New Orleans shuffle that devolves into a thunderous blow-out, one that eclipses even the original tunes' climax. Fernando is given a treatment that segues from somber introspective free jazz to anthemic riffing. And the Stones classic starts off somber and elegant, but gradually picks up it's stride for a raucous burn out , only to be ended in dub like fashion.The originals are mostly in standard stomp and grind mode with the thick, fat bass lines and steadfast drum beat providing a rock-solid backdrop for Bernstein's slurred yowls and Krauss' Zorn-like peals and squeals.Overall this is one rockin' affair, definitely not your father's jazz. Even the production values on this disc are set to rock music standards, heavy on the bass and volume.My only complaint is the inclusion of some short noisy segue pieces, the "Human Bidet" series, parts one through five, that crop up intermittently between full length tracks. They come off as needless filler. But otherwise, this is one solid effort. He he. Sorry, just had to do that.But seriously folks, this is a perfect entry point for listeners curious about the downtown jazz scene, but who were unsure where to start. As for the converted, let's just say this has got all the gusto and vigor with none of the meandering squeaky door noodling all too commonly found in this sort of affair."

Just received the CD, Simply Awesome!!!

Sanson Corrasco | 04/18/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you're a fan of jazz, r&b, soul or not, this album is an ABSOLUTE MUST. They are the masters; I bow down in humble appreciation to their God given talents. If you have any doubts, listen to "About A Girl" in the free downloads section."