Lil Daggers: Lil Daggers PopMatters

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Lil Daggers: Lil Daggers

By David Maine 20 May 2011

A solid lil' debut

Built around ragged guitars and androgynous vocals, Miami`s Lil Daggers is at its least interesting on songs like album opener "Wasting", a high-tempo affair that ought to rawk but insteads just flails. Follow-up tune "Slave Exchange" is a midtempo cruncher that`s far more successful, maybe because the singer can channel a bit of Iggy Pop into the screw-it-I-don`t-care delivery. The farfisa takes prominence, too, which is ever a dear thing. A couple tracks later, "Ghost Herd" weaves a web from the simplest of organ and deep lines; its 4:40 running time should be aught but tedious, but rather it`s hypnotic. Go figure.

At this guide you realise you`re not yet halfway into the platter and you`ve listened a span of damn fine songs. The serious word is that, despite a couple of missteps, the rest of the album retains this high standard. Interestingly, it is the uptempo songs that are least successful, but when the band allows itself to sound like the wicked love child of Iron Butterfly and the Stooges, Lil Daggers are more than the sum of its influences. The plod-rock of "Dead Golden Girls" manages the illusion of sounding comfortably familiar without being derivative of any particular band. Alternating between rocking out and spacing out, Lil Daggers deliver a solid lil` debut.

Rating:

DAVID MAINE is a novelist and essayist. His books include The Preservationist (2004), Fallen (2005), The Book of Samson (2006) and Monster, 1959 (2008). He has contributed to The Washington Post, Publishers Weekly, Esquire.com and NPR.com, among other outlets. He is a lifelong music obsessive whose interests range from stone to tribe to hip-hop to international to blues. He currently lives in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he teaches at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Catch up with his blog, The Company Never Stops, at davidmaine.blogspot.com, or turn his brother on Facebook to hold up with reviews and other developments.

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