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This Austin by-way-of Beaumont, TX “slacker rock” group hasn’t released anything since their 2008 six-song Newfangled EP, aside from the two-track 7” AA in 2011. So it’s nice to finally get this second full-length, following 2005’s Brown Orange Black and Gray. Smartly, Le Dope includes both AA tracks, “My Little Sugary Friend” and “Christ Sakes and Milkshakes.”
Judging by those two songs’ titles, the album cover shot of coffee and donuts, and the band’s moniker, you might get the sense that sweet stimulants are top-of-mind concerns. That’s likely so, but singer Robert Segovia’s esoteric, open-to-interpretation lyrics can also disguise deeper distresses. For example, on the bright, twinkly opener “The Dope,” he touches on issues of growing older in a complicated world (“The fur on our brow won’t save us now/’Cause we got enough worries to fill a century,” he muses). Meanwhile, on the snappy “Trouble with the Bayou,” he laments that “fashion kills culture,” while demanding “the head of the next John Fogarty” (Texas resident Segovia’s dig at the Berkeley, CA-born CCR singer’s claim to be “Born on the Bayou,” perhaps?). And on the droning “Flora and Fauna,” he’s irked by the lack of meaning in music, grumbling, “All that’s left are fake punk and metal songs/For us to sing along to.”
Segovia has an almost talk-sung delivery that’s dry and droll. His voice evokes J Mascis, Mark Eitzel, and Ray Davies, with hints of an M. Emmet Walsh-like drawl. Though he sounds introspective and erudite, his sardonic words often beget serious noggin scratching. On the laid-back “My Little Sugary Friend,” when he declares “If you lie to yourself/We can walk these paths forever/And never see the hegemony of the concrete,” you wonder whether he’s revealing his innermost thoughts to a concerned friend, or, as the title may insinuate, sitting alone in his kitchen under a saccharine-induced stupor jabbering to a chocolate glazed cruller.
Musically, their “quirky, yet finely honed and melodic indie pop” (per my Big T issue 64 review of Newfangled) still applies. However, their playing is more streamlined and sharpened on Le Dope, especially on the harder-rocking tunes. The shuffling, rubber-ball-bouncy “Christ Sakes and Milkshakes” and the buzzing, horn-flecked “That Dirty Old Road” have catchy, head-bobbing rhythms, while the hurtling “Willy Loman” and propulsive “Staying Up” veer more towards heavier, distortion-drenched noise/garage rock. As on Newfangled, it’s the album’s distinctive nature and welcoming vibe that draws you in. (lasnacks.bandcamp.com)
