Dead Confederate – Sugar

ARTIST: Dead Confederate

TITLE: Sugar

YEAR RELEASED: 2010

CHART ACTION:  None

SINGLES: Run from the Gun, Giving It All Away

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: None

LINEUP: Hardy Morris, Bradley Senn, Walter Howle, John Watkins, Jason Scarboro. Ben Wigler, J. Mascis, and Heidi Vandertee make appearances.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Second album from the moody Southern-psych-alt band tightens up their meanderings while not sacrificing the moodiness of the songs.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Dead Confederate still sounds like a soundtrack to a Southern Gothic dramatic film., but their second album is an improvement over their debut.

While they’re still full of angst, minor riffs, and moody arrangements, they’ve shed all of their former jam band proclivities and tightened up their arrangements so that the songs get from A to B without being stuck in the mire.

This album is good mood music for dark, dreary, thunderstormy, humid days. The kind that you find in the South in the summer. It’s also apt to give you some interesting dreams if you fall asleep to it.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: After this record, their drummer, Jason Scarboro, left to start a family. They went through scads of drummers before settling on one for their next recordings.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: No.

 GRADE: A-: A leap forward for a band that should have gotten more ink and play.

Dead Confederate – Wrecking Ball

ARTIST: Dead Confederate 

TITLE: Wrecking Ball

YEAR RELEASED: 2008

CHART ACTION:  None

SINGLES: The Rat (#39 Alternative), Start Me Laughing

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Heavy Petting

LINEUP: Hardy Morris, Bradley Senn, Walter Howle, John Watkins, Jason Scarboro

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Debut album from a grungier southern alt-country-rock band.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: After stints as a jam band that played long long songs, Dead Confederate regrouped themselves as an alt-rock band with a country tinge and some grungy influences from My Morning Jacket and other southerny rock bands.

The songs are split between guitarist Hardy Morris and bassist Bradley Senn, with Senn having the more melodic voice and more hookish tracks. (He wrote “The Rat” which was a minor radio hit). They still linger on songs for a bit too long – can’t take the jam band out of the band I guess.

Because of their tendency to meander on a track, the album rather much stands still at times. Some tracks are worthy, and the moody sound can entrance you, kind of a Southern Gothic. It’s a decent debut that’s worth a spin.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: They used to be called Redbelly or The Redbelly Band. Ick.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: A bonus track on iTunes. Remember when that was a thig?

 GRADE: B: Some tracks go on a bit long, but it’s a decent listen.