Hell’s House Band, Dozen Lies

I’d never heard of Hell’s House Band before I got the chance to review their album Dozen Lies, and yes, my literal first impression was that this actually does sound like the house band in hell. The guitar work is gritty with a tangible, scummy blues feel. At least, that’s the impression I got from the first song, “Dozen Lies,” from which the album was named. The next song, however, gave me a weird Edie Brickell-esque feel with a slightly fuzzy walking bass line and a strangely accompanied Red Hot Chili Peppers harmonic vocal arrangement, and oddly enough, the rest of the album sort of gave glimpses of a Tom Waits vibe in the mix, to boot.

This band really caught me off guard. I enjoyed their range in songwriting, such that I never quite knew what sort of song was coming next — for example, a slow song usually led into a slower song, and the band pulled it off because the mood still varied among the more sublime moments of human experience. It’s hard to make a sad song not depressing, and in my estimation, that takes talent and work. I’ll admit that this isn’t the best band known to man and, unless it grows on me, I might forget about ’em and leave the disc in a pile next to my stereo. It is the band, however, that you hear in your best friend’s car that makes you ask him/her, “Hey, who is that you’re playing?”