Bassholes
Blue Roots

THE REVIEW

Dirty, filthy.

If John Lee Hooker and the Beat Happening copulated under acid in the sludge created near a petrochemical plant, the child (abandoned without remorse in a dumpster) would definitely be this Blue Roots. Specifically, the natural fathers of the prodigal son, born in A.D. 1992 and subsequently reissued on CD in '97, are two:

- Don Howland, married, an English and history teacher in a remote middle school in the American countryside, one of the founders of the monumental Gibson Bros (in which the good Jon Spencer also played for a couple of albums). Guitarist and lyricist in the Bassholes.
- Lamont Thomas, known as Bim. Drummer, African American, the only complementary of old Don. A necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of the group. Genetic carrier of those late 20's blues rhythms typical of Columbus (West Virginia), which make the rhythms of the Bassholes the closest thing to Robert Johnson drumming on the soles of his shoes.

Can a compact disc sound like a vinyl? You'll realize when you take Blue Roots out of the stereo: with astonishment, you'll notice that the pristine transparency of digital perfection has been replaced by a grooved, opaque black, the kind you loved to smell so much as a kid. Our guys waste no time in exhibiting the fruit of sin: just the opening of Judge Harsh Blues is enough to set the coordinates of an album that lends itself as a soundtrack to events ranging from an evening sprawled on the trusty armchair with a beer next to the left foot to the satisfaction of a loud belch issued on Via Montenapoleone. I Love it. Acquire it.