Joel Silbersher – No Teeth 7”
What do you mean you don’t know Joel Silbersher?! Not to worry, you won’t be the only one! An album with Charlie Owen way back in 1995, a garage-blues effort in 2002 and an out-of-the-blue 7” last year (albeit a different version of a track included on 2002’s Greasy Lens album), the guy is hardly prolific as a solo artist. Better known instead for stints with late 80s to late 90s rock-bands Tendrils, Hoss, God (in particular their classic 7″ “My Pal”) and others, the Melbourne underground veteran now teams up with some members of citymates The Drones (Gareth Liddiard and Mike Noga to be precise) for the first entirely new Silbersher material in around 15 years.
Backed with two covers, “No Teeth” is a mess, but Silbersher won’t mind anyone saying so. A sprawling, noisy blues jam over which he growls his trademark ruminations, the ramshackle percussion hits like a kit falling down the stairs, white-hot guitar slide slicing through the hissing night air like a flash light. “I Don’t Want You On My Mind” is in turn a stab at the Bill Withers standard, one that emphasises the original’s bluesy groove and precise picking, but dials back its funkier elements in order to create some would-be soundtrack to a sexy Diet Coke advert if they were anywhere near as cool a brand as they thought they were. Rounding out the release, “Half A Mind” was once the property of 60/70s folksters The Holy Modal Rounders, but in Silbersher’s hands it’s now a dirty, boozy, nigh on unhinged stomp, the solos strangled out of his squealing guitar. Always leave them wanting more, they say. Silbersher always has.
~No Teeth is released 2nd June 2017 via Agitated Records.~