Try and tell Calvin Johnson that he’s not a hulking, bucolic, regal figure in the pantheon of some new blues Americana. Go ahead, try, I dare you – because I’m not, even if I know where he hangs out these days. No, I’m going along with the story as long as he and his “Sons of The Soil” play tough, barrel-chested stuff in spite of being more a collection of dorm rat than dean of the department.
OK, back a step. Johnson isn’t some neophyte. He is, after all, in extractable from the Seattle/Olympia sound of the early 1990’s, a little band called Beat-freaking-Happening and the stalwart K Records. A DJ who introduced the Puget Sound to the sound of the Sex Pistols doesn’t have to make much argument for their place in the movement. Still, the resume doesn’t give old CJ the license to go all rugged on us… does it?
It does, in fact; the new record, Calvin Johnson & The Sons of the Soil is where its at. The songs (yes, there are individual songs, even if the whole record feels like the statement of some greater zeitgeist) are a cohesive, blundering mess of sometimes live performances, sometimes jammed out studio recordings. Johnson gives us two versions of a song called “Cattle Call” (marked as Parts 1 & 2) that gives the listener a glimmer of the legend’s oft-off-beat sense of humor, as does a song delightfully called “Tummy Hop” another live offering. These audience favorites are songs to hum to one’s self in a shower or car drive, their baritone quality reeking of silliness and sexuality. There is something like depth here too (it isn’t all indie fantasy) such as “Love Travels Faster”, a song of affection which serves to balance the whole piece.
It’s hard to put a finger on what the Calvin Johnson effect might be. If you open up Sons of the Soil there are smatterings of snapshots of rock star in the world: hand in hand with Sasquatch, amid barista groupies, and obligatory shots of instruments. There is the notion that he’s a cottage industry of cool. One I’m not going to argue with, especially in light of this, near perfection.
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