If The Hives were fronted by PJ Harvey then they’d probably be something like JULIETTE AND THE LICKS.
Ms. Lewis sounds like she was born to sing rather than act, and she’s not bad at the latter. Despite all the negativity that inevitably precedes and proceeds actors who turn their hand to singing and vocalists who moonlight as thespians, she is the exception that proves the rule. There is no hint of her holding anything back from her performance for vanity’s sake nor does she overcook the posturing and the mannerisms, totally convincing us that she was born to rock ‘n’ roll rather than to play at it.
Lifted from the album of the same name, ‘You’re Speaking My Language’ is two minutes of thrilling and pristine old school garage punk rock that sizzles with its Stooges/MC5 makeover: a chorus that’s chomping at the bit to take over from the verse, guitars that chop like a mad axeman, a hyper-active snare-drum in need of a suppressant and dirty, sexy, petulant vocals that have sufficient decibel levels to be barely contained by the PA system.
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Mind you, given the well documented excess of many Hollywood actors and celebrities I must confess that I have a strange longing to discover what the rider was like for JULIETTE AND THE LICKS when they played in the slightly less salubrious surroundings of Wrexham’s Central Station.
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