Cash Money – Halos Of Smoke And Fire

Chicago boasts a thriving indie-rock subscene involving bands that refract jazz and pop forms into mostly midtempo improvisations. Cash Money turns that conceit inside out by using Southern boogie as a reference point.

The result is a peculiar audience. Improv demands an open mind and attendance to nuances. Its intellectual posture offers a tempting vantage for a ZZ Top pie in the face. That Cash Money pulls this music off to the immense entertainment of all is a tribute to their grasp of that zeitgeist. Their obvious love of their source material, meanwhile, allays suspicions of irony that might deter fans who wouldn’t touch Tortoise with a ten-foot cattle prod.

Cash Money is two guys who make the racket of ten. John Humphrey jubilantly deconstructs and recombines aggressive, noisy guitar riff fragments copped from the likes of Freddie King and Led Zeppelin. His voice is drenched in Elvis via Johnny Cash. (In case these influences aren’t obvious, liner notes helpfully specify them, “in an effort to [thwart] misguided comparisons.”) On drums is Scott Giambino, who, in his words, tries to “keep up with” Humphrey.

Other musicians add touches of organ, harmonica, lap steel, violin and washboard, but Humphrey and Giambino’s sensibilities dominate this rampage. They relish the opportunities a duo affords to improvise interpretations, but strictly speaking, these twelve tracks are fully formed songs. Lyrics barely pull their weight, though, save such exceptions as “pry my heart open wide tonight, the beam filled skies of your searchlight” on “Do It Again”, or, “The mark of your lucky man is his grinning jackal’s teeth” on “Evangeline”.

Mostly, this record is about playing the hell out a bunch of guitars in one of indie rock history’s greatest live rooms. Halos Of Smoke And Fire was the last record made at uber-hip Idful studios before it met the wrecking ball. How ironic that it ends with “Evangeline”, a country song so authentic you’d almost swear it was a Butch Hancock cover.