BLACK WIDOWS:
Live on KXLU: CD
Most times, I immediately bristle at the words “instrumental rock,” ‘cause it’s usually a red flag for “I spent decades honing my craft and I’m gonna prove my musical prowess by using this geetar to jerk off in your ear for, oh, twenty-two minutes before doing it again on the second song, and so on.” Thankfully, Black Widows ain’t that kinda band. While there ain’t a word uttered in a tune presented here, they keep things concise, with the wankin’ low and the rockin’ up full. Hints of surf, garage, and other styles pop up here and there, naturally, but the sound remains consistently loud and well planned, and they manage to present enough diversity in the writing to prevent the seventeen tracks here from sounding like one big, boring blur. In all, this is one of those rare instances where the lack of yakkin’ really adds rather than subtracts. –Jimmy Alvarado (Vital Gesture)