Jeff Dahl – Cursed, Poisoned, and Condemned

Jeff Dahl – Cursed, Poisoned, and Condemned / 2005 Steel Cage / http://www.jeffdahlrocks.com / http://www.steelcagerecords.com / Reviewed 13 March 2005

Jeff Dahl has to be one of those people that knows practically everyone, a Kevin Bacon for the punk rock scene. In many ways, eir music is the same way, with different influences and styles of punk filtering through and fitting themselves together throughout this disc. Instead of adegeneration of forms that is commonly evidenced with much of the new punk, Jeff’s music (in tracks like “Ya Feel All Right?) is straight from the elephant’s pooper – hot and fresh. “Ya Feel All Right?” uses rockabilly to fuel its energy, while the follow-up track, “Sweet Silence” has Jeff crooning in an Alice Cooper-esque style. The guitars laid down on “Sweet Silence” also follow from this seenties-rock tradition, almost being analogues to some found in the music of the best bands of yesteryear (think Kansas or the Outlaws). The seventies is strong in this one, as literally only a few minutes after “Sweet Silence” does Dahl return to that well in the strung-out, stoner-esque “Wicked Trail of Sin.” While Dahl has been in the punk scene for thirty years, working with bands like Poison Ideas, Stiv Bators, and Teengenerate, “Cursed, Poisoned, Condemned” is so much more than a “punk” album. It is the story, the autobiography of someone that has been around for longer than most punk fans (including your humble reviewer) have been alive.

The entire disc shuffles to a close with “Weak As A Kitten”, Jeff’s ode to the boner-inducing beautifulness of people in youth, replete with guitar riffs and a melody that will never let go of a listener’s head. By far, the track that has the most promise on “Cursed, Poisoned, Condemned” is the opening track, “Lost Faith”. “Lost Faith” is short, sweet and has Dahl maintain a Justin Sane style of vocals that work well alongside the instrumentation on the track. Where the disc is traditional in the sense that the guitar and drums take a position in the forefront, there are times on CPC where Jason’s bass come through to incredibly glory. Such is the case in the aforementioned “Ya Feel All Right?”, where the dense bass line laid down by Jason is the most noticeable googah in a track bristling with noisy and fury. Jeff Dahl may have been around for thirty years, but this does not mean eir is washed-up, devoid of all ideas like the Rolling Stones or Aerosmith. Rather, as times changes Jeff will incorporate new influences into eir music and make even more innovations for the scene.

Top Tracks: Lost Faith, Wicked Trail of Sin

Rating: 6.5/10