Silkworm are one of those bands who have never really clicked for me,even though lots of cool people including Chris Brokaw and Steve Albiniseem to like them. Shellac are a band whose kick ass originality andhumourous spiky guitar antics have me rushing out to the record shop tobuy each new record on the week of release. A cover of Shellac song isa rare thing. So when Silkworm pay homage with the most obviouslycoverable Shellac song, "Prayer to God," based as it seems to be on theKettle Well murder ballad that Steve Albini and Zeni Geva hadpreviously thrashed out, it might just be a way into their world."Prayer to God" (otherwise known as The-Fucking-Kill-Him-Song) opensShellac's most recent album 1000 Hurtsand always seemed to me to be ripe for a reinterpretation by thatblackly flapping murder balladeer Nick Cave. I guess Silkworm will do,even if the royalty payments to the Electrical Audio Recordists and thethin hair care products warehouse manager who drums on his days offwon't buy them quite as much record shampoo. Well of course it doesn'tcome close to the original and since there's no way to out-rockShellac, especially with no drums, Silkworm take the only sensibleroute and quieten it all down with loose acoustic hillbilly threats.The big rock explosion of the original when Steve screams, "Him justfuckin' kill him," is taken down to an ominous whisper. The way theysing the final amen is almost as if they don't actually care about allthis revenge murder so much. Then they toss off a fairly uneventfulcampfire mandolin strum at a Pavement B-side that was originally mootedas an aborted A-side, and completely ruin a great atmospheric Bedheadsong. There's something about the vocal limitations of the thereeSilkworm singers that loses all the warm vulnerability of the Kadanebrothers. The best track here is their cover of Robbie Fulks' "LetsKill Saturday Night," on which they nail the world weary smalltownescapism of people who don't set themselves on fire with kerosene, butprobably talk about it from time to time. One of them does this reallyneat high pitched hoedown backing vocal on the chorus that makes thewhole damn EP. Appropriately the last song asks "Is That All There Is"and shows what a desolated inspiration Nina Nastasia has been to theirlost dreams. samples:
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