Neverland Ranch Davidians - Neverland Ranch Davidians

  by Adrian Janes

published: 26 / 5 / 2023

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Review

In a similar spirit to how the Dead Kennedys hit upon their provocative name, so the Neverland Ranch Davidians invoke two polarising Americans, Michael Jackson and David Koresh, respectively known for Wacko behaviour and the Waco cult massacre. Although only a few of this album’s songs carry much social or political weight, there is a defiant, lo-fi rebel spirit animating it. Singer/guitarist Tex Mosley, once of the Afro-punk band Pure Hell, gives the band a gritty edge, notably on a cover of Ray Charles’ ‘I Believe To My Soul’. The album begins with an instrumental, ‘The Gospel’: formed from a rancidly resonant riff and slow Bo Diddley beat, the band brood their way to a feedback-splattered conclusion. Even more of a nod to seedy R ‘n’ R roots is a zesty version of Link Wray’s ‘Butts In My Beer’ which hurtles along on shuffling drums and scrabbling guitar. The songs largely swing between two main poles, energetic rock and roll or rockabilly (‘Rat Patrol’, ‘Liquor Store’) and a classically funky aspect, as on ‘Fatback’, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ and ‘Hen House’. The latter, by the way, is musically quite engaging (especially Max Hagen’s inventive drumming), but some might feel that, as much as the band draws on the past, in this case so too does their attitude to gender relations: “No, no, no there’s only one rooster here/You’ve gotta get back/In the hen house.” As noted, this is not an especially political album, but two tracks, and those among the better ones, do provide some social comment. ‘Stigmata’ sardonically speaks of religion in the face of urban violence: “The blood of your saviour/It flows in the streets/Someone is dying/Go fetch a priest”, and ends with a powerfully wrung-out guitar coda, bringing Jimi Hendrix or Robert Quine to mind. It’s followed by ‘Knee On My Neck’, a tom tom heavy rhythm and anguished vocal enough to evoke the murder of George Floyd and others without feeling any need to go into the kind of detail that, say, a Bob Dylan protest song about such tragedies would once have done. There’s a rawness to this album which is a useful corrective to so much blandly produced contemporary dross. It says something that it’s musics of fifty years and older which the Davidians have turned to in order to create something vital today.

Track Listing:-

1 The Gospel
2 Rat Patrol
3 Fat Back
4 Aqua Velveteen
5 Liquor Store
6 Solid Monkey Blues
7 Butts in My Beer
8 Boys Don't Cry
9 Hen House
10 Stigmata
11 Knee On My Neck
12 I Believe to My Soul

Band Links:-

https://www.facebook.com/neverlandranc
https://heavymedicationrecords.bandcam

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