produced
by Dan Allen and the buzzrats
recorded,
engineered & mixed by Dan Allen
with help from Vino Veasley &
Phil Tepley
recorded
at Fecal
Productions, Ypsilanti (MI)
and Luna Tunes Studios, Willis (MI)
mastered by Chris
Goosman at Baseline
Audio Labs
design,
photography and digital manipulations by Jeff
Westover
replication by World Class
musicians
Steve
Leggett
acoustic,
electric & 12-string guitars; piano, organ, percussion, vocals,
hums
Vino Veasley acoustic
& electric guitars, piano, foot stomps, e-bow, bass
Charlie Murphy gongs,
bells, chimes, shakers, tambourine, hand drums
Rob
Crozier bass,
harmonica
Phil Tepley electric
guitar, bass, thumb piano
Dan Allen drums, piano, glockenspiel,
percussion, electric guitar, vocals
Todd Perkins fretless
bass, electric sitar
Ryan Dolan trumpet
from
Allmusic.com
The
label of the Buzzrats' fifth album Heaven's Full of Monkeys is mocked
up to look like an old Paramount Records' 78, and the first words Steve
Leggett sings on the disc are "There's a string band on the corner/And
they're playing 'Poor Ellen Smith'." Right off the bat, the Buzzrats
plunge the listener into what Greil Marcus once called "The Old
Weird America," but while the patient chug of their guitars on
"Willow Tree" speaks of a calm buffered by weary resignation
that recalls a long-lost era in American life, there's never any escaping
that this music lives and breathes in the 21st century. While Leggett
may still dream of hearing his tunes pouring out of a five cent jukebox
on "78s," he's also looking for a woman with a smile like
Ellen Barkin, he spies the Mighty Diamonds singing on a Trenchtown street
corner, he marvels at the night sky over his trailer park, man-made
landscapes baffle the pelicans, and the musical Holy Lands of Memphis
and New Orleans are shadows of their former selves. There's a glorious,
elliptical poetry in Leggett's impressionistic lyrics, and the rich
layers of guitars (with Leggett, Vino Veasley, Phil Tepley and Dan Allen
all manning six-strings) and rhythms (Allen's drums and Charlie Murphy's
hand percussion face off against Rob Crozier and Todd Perkins' bass
work) are an ideal complement to the ebb and flow of lyrical images;
for sheer strength atmosphere, this album could be a sunnier but equally
resonant blood brother to American Music Club's Everclear. Heaven's
Full of Monkeys is a meditation on a world where the blues of past and
present have a surprising amount to say to one another, and it's beautiful
and truly fascinating listening that invites you to dive deep into its
heady pulse.
—
Mark Deming
more buzzrats albums: