Lorrie Ruiz & Chewy, Chewy

Refreshing funk. I’m not talking about the occasional whiff of your Old Spice-laden pits, but describing a modern dish of jazz/funk with an old-school garnish, and Lorrie Ruiz & Chewy’s first release, Chewy, serves it up just right. The disc gets funky right out of the box with “New Train,” and you begin to expect there will be some grooves to shake your ass to. First impressions of Lorrie Ruiz’s delivery lean to over-processed vocals and a commercial lyrical presentation. You picture the band’s audience as a bunch of 40-something divorcees in an upscale club who work too hard at looking casual when they should be working on their rhythm. The fact the band is from Seattle may lend credence to this, but I have to give the city — and the band, for that matter — more credit than that.

Don’t be fooled by the painful trendiness, because you’ll soon be rewarded. On “Don’t Wanna Let You See,” Ruiz starts to reel you in with her sultry voice and lyrical foreplay. Then just when you start to get connected with the disc, you get kicked in the seeds. While you’re on the floor, it’s also likely you’ll scramble for a razor — to slit your wrists with after listening to “Five Little Fingers,” a sad tale of an inner city youth whose absentee father is the cause of all his problems. The blame-it-on-dad theme is a tired one, in my opinion, yet the song is very powerful and elicits unexpected emotions. Listening again, sans my personal bitterness regarding the issue, the song really impressed.

This is where it really starts to get good. Ruiz dispenses with the foreplay, and you can feel the band just itching to break into a long bowl-packin’ jam. Chewy avoids lengthy jams, thankfully, as these don’t typically deliver well outside the live experience. The band does, however, show their improv skills without seeming unfocused and stepping on each other. To put it simply, the band is tight. On the most impressive track, “Is This Real,” the pace settles down, with a perfect dash of synth thrown in, and Ruiz reveals the pipes she was blessed with. The use of minimal but effective lyrics on this track is unique among the rest and is also one if its best attributes.

This five-piece band does well with this first release, and hopefully lacking a mainstream sound doesn’t affect future releases. All too often, “indie” is synonymous with “hack.” That’s not the case with Lorrie Ruiz and her band on Chewy; this crew is first-rate. You could spend all night with this disc and nothing but a heavy-bottom glass filled with smoky bourbon for company, but the funky pieces would mix just as well into the soundtrack for your next soirée at the loft.