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 It only took a few days for the Demon Beat to write and record 1956. That may be a conscious homage to the musicians of that pivotal year in rock & roll who composed and recorded their now-legendary hits just as quickly, often turning out several tracks in an afternoon. Yet this West Virginia trio wasn’t looking to cut quick singles, but to create a morality play in five sprawling movements.
In the year 1956, rockabilly great Carl Perkins was hospitalized after a bad wreck. His long recovery arguably led to Elvis Presley’s version of “Blue Suede Shoes” eclipsing the Perkins original. The Demon Beat’s expansive, stream-of-consciousness rock epic sympathizes with Perkins, exploring his ensuing descent into bitterness and relative obscurity. Among other things, the band uses the Perkins/Presley dynamic to explore regionalism and a less-than-egalitarian shift from rural to urban music hubs in the ’50s. Sounds more like a novel than a record, right?
1956 is ragged psychedelia at its cathartic best. But the extended passages of squealing, damaging guitar come across as anything but excessive, with a soulful, precise rhythm section keeping the instrumental breaks engaging. The swaying, locked-in, bass-and-a-drumkit hits have more in common with mid-20th-century R&B. There’s a nervous, quavering Neil Young quality, owing as much to Adam Meisterhans’ voicebox as to the wide swathes of crackling overdrive in his guitar playing. Yet there’s a hardness in the buried, seething vocals that makes 55-year-old resentment feel fresh and dangerous.
Stark realism frames the moment of Perkins’ wreck in “Movement 2,” with the all-but-whispered lines, “Girls gonna scream their names / Flashing lights are on the way.” Several themes manifest within this hard Americana record. Presley is both a “son of a southern belle” and a “son of a bitch” to Perkins, as sung in the final movement. Perkins is almost portrayed as Hector to Presley’s Achilles when Meisterhans sings, “Went to the Heartbreak Hotel / He’s gonna get himself sent to jail.” Much as in Greek tragedy, fate, in 1956, is a mean bastard.
For more info on the Demon Beat or to buy the album, go here. |
