Dexateens - Hardwire Healing

  by Andrew Carver

published: 9 / 12 / 2006

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Review

The first, self-titled, album released by Dexateens was an unholy racket of overamped Southern rock that put them squarely in line with bands like the Quadrajets. The second, ‘Red Dust Rising’, turned things down a bit. (Album No. 3, 'Teenager', was actually the first one they recorded, and sounds like their first release, but not as good). For Album No. 4, ‘Hardwire Healing’, the band seems well on its way to the territory of introspective southern rock lorded over by Drive-By Truckers. Truckers’ mainstay Patterson Hood’s production role on the album cements the impression. Another southerner who seems to have influenced the proceedings is Mark Linkous. The quiet ‘Downtown’ would have fitted just fine on a Sparklehorse CD, although Linkous would likely have chosen a more oblique description of going out and getting drunk. There are further echoes of Sparklehorse on ‘Nadine’, which goes straight acoustic. The twinkling pedal steel of John Neff adds a country feel to the relatively clean-sounding ‘Neil Armstrong’ - like the Drive-By Truckers, they also seem to have an outsize interest in the U.S. Space program: Perhaps the proximity of Huntsville, Ala. (location of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Centre, and subject of the Truckers’ scathing ‘Puttin’ People on the Moon’) is to blame. The laconic drawl of ‘What Money Means’ sounds like the Rolling Stones did circa ‘Sweet Black Angel,’ if only The Stones had actually been southerners. The ‘Teens heat things up on a few tracks like ‘Makers Mound’ with some gritty Neil Young and Crazy Horse guitar sound, but there’s nothing on ‘Hardwire Healing’ as noisy as their earlier recorded work. The stomping clatter at the end of ‘Fingertips’ does seem to try, but there can be no doubt the Dexateens are on their way to be Dexadulthood – and it suits them fine.

Track Listing:-

1 Naked Ground
2 Neil Armstrong
3 Downtown
4 Makers Mound
5 Some Things
6 What Money Means
7 Own Thing
8 Fyffe
9 Freight Train
10 Nadine
11 Outside the Loop
12 Fingertips