Eddie Martin - Contrary Mary - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Vinyl LP pressing. 2020 . Look - if you weren't freaking out with a scrawny young Juiceboxxx at a basement show in Milwaukee when he was 15, or following his bizarre stint opening for Public Enemy in Canada a decade ago, or there for the launch of his Thunder Zone Energy Drink, or his recent champion stint on Las Vegas alt-rock radio, these are years of missed fandom you will never get back. But it's not too late to never forget this legendary, all-American, DIY-music lifer who against all odds keeps moving forward and confounding expectations. Because if there's one thing to know about Juiceboxxx, it's that he never surrenders. InchDid I mess up my life?Inch he asks at one point. Probably, but what else is there to do.

The beloved guitarist once again teams up with one of Dixieland's most legendary trumpeters for these wonderful late-period recordings. You'll hear both tightly arranged septet tracks and looser, more freewheeling stuff as they do Time After Time; Crazy Rhythm; Them There Eyes; Eddie's Blues, and more!

There are moments on Drunk Tank Pink where you almosthave to reach for the sleeve to check this is the same bandwho made 2018's Songs Of Praise. Such is the jump Shamehave made from the riotous post-punk of their debut to thesprawling adventurism and twitching anxieties laid out here.The South Londoner's blood and guts spirit, that wink andgrin of devious charm, is still present, it's just that it's growninto something bigger, something deeper, more ambitious andunflinchingly honest. The genius of Drunk Tank Pink is how these lyrical themesdovetail with the music. Opener Alphabet dissects the premiseof performance over a siren call of nervous, jerking guitars, it'schorus thrown out like a beer bottle across a mosh pit.Songs spin off and lurch into unexpected directions throughouthere, be it March Day's escalating aural panic attack or theshapeshifting darkness of Snow Day. There's a Berlin era Bowiebeauty to the lovelorn Human For A Minute while closer StationWagon weaves from a downbeat mooch into a souring, soullifting climax in which Steen elevates himself beyond the cloudsand into the heavens. Or at least that's what it sounds like. From the womb to the clouds (sort of), Shame are currentlyvery much in the pink.