V/A – I Love Guitar Wolf Very Much / 2005 Narnack / 13 Tracks / http://www.narnackrecords.com / Reviewed 29 November 2005
Okay, Guitar Wolf is a pretty famous band to those who are in the know. However, the amount of cultured music listeners who are not in the know about Guitar Wolf probably are still a majority, so Narnack is really doing a service to Guitar Wolf by culling together this collection of Guitar Wolf covers. This disc is really a who’s who of different artists, some current and some from earlier generations. On this album, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) take the older wave of bands to the well, while Lightning Bolt and Puffy Amiyumi keep things contemporary. Also of note are the bands that have not broke large on the scene yet; Cato Salsa Experience, Proch Ghouls and The Wildhearts all make a splash on this CD.
Interestingly enough, the fairly-close approximation of Guitar Wolf’s sound by Lightning Bolt is probably the closest thing one will find to the original bands. There are emo/indie-rock versions of tracks (Fast Fourier), hard, Rob Zombie-like versions of others (The Hellsquad), and with each subsequent track there seems to be a different genre approached. Porch Ghouls put forth a fun harmonica-driven bit of indie meets college rock in their cover of “Fujiyama Attack”; the track may just be the only one I’ve ever heard where the harmonica takes such a strong and active role in the shaping of the overall track sound. Much like the original Guitar Wolf tracks, the shortness of the covers allow individuals to move on quickly if the band does not really find themselves in a good situation.
Narnack has smartly grabbed a nice cross-section of bands that faithfully carry on the spirit of the original tracks; the styles may be wide-ranging, but it only makes sense when the original act did much of the same thing. The inclusion of Puffy Amiyumi in a track that is not overly poppy (such as there typical American-released fare) really gives listeners a chance to hear a different side of the band. In a sense, “I Love Guitar Wolf” is not a compilation that only honors Guitar Wolf, but really allows listeners to recontextualize their favorite bands while gaining some idea about a band that they might not have known about before listening to this album. Well worth the purchase price, whether one is a fan of new music, of the bands on the disc, or of Guitar Wolf themselves. Kudos to Narnack for creating a covers CD that expands upon the band, instead of constrains bands on the disc to do covers in the band’s own style.
Top Tracks: Cato Salsa Experience’s Planet Heart / Fast Fourier’s “Black Rock’N’Roll”
Rating: 5.6/10
[JMcQ]