Review: Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs – No Help Coming (Transdreamer, 2011)

Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs – No Help Coming (Transdreamer, 2011)

Holly Golightly and the Brokeoffs (comprised of Golightly and multi-instrumentalist Lawyer Dave) continue to mash the hard-charging folk dynamic of Richard & Mimi Farina with a primitive (rather than the oft-labeled lo-fi), live-sounding recording aesthetic. The percussion prevalent on 2008’s Dirt Don’t Hurt continues to add punctuation, giving several of these tracks, such as the exotic “Burn, Oh Junk Pile, Burn,” the off-kilter feel of mid-period Tom Waits. But these blues are more hill-bred than Bowery, and the jittery twang of the title track will make you wonder what the Feelies would have sounded like if they’d grown up in Tennessee instead of New Jersey. Golightly croons a few tunes, and though it gets low and dark for “The Rest of Your Life,” the girlishness in her voice lightens what could be a Screamin’ Jay Hawkins track. Lawyer Dave hollers his tale of a summertime DUI, “You’re Under Arrest” and the duo comes together for a cover of Bill Anderson’s “Lord Knows We’re Drinking.” The album closes with a psych-tinged, foot-stomping take on Wendell Austin’s bizarre country novelty, “L.S.D. (Rock ‘n’ Roll Prison),” which may just explain the uniqueness of the Brokeoffs’ cracked country and blues sound.

MP3 | No Help Coming
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