On the sophomore album by Middle, Tennessee’s dirty, sweaty hot mess Those Darlins, that band rattles the cage of rock. Jessi, Nikki and Kelley Darlin — no relation, oddly enough — are a triple threat on lead, rhythm and bass guitar, joined by Linwood Regensburg who sticks it to the drums. They seem to have earned some street cred for their self-titled debut, and if the band can keep their heads on straight, I’d say they’re headed straight for indie darlindom.
Sounds Like:
The Runaways, The Rolling Stones, The Ramones (pretty much any rock band that starts with an R)
The title track on Screws Get Loose opens with a screwball riff that throws you right inside the slightly unhinged, sometimes untuned, always unapologetic mind of Those Darlins. Over rolling rhythm guitar, offkey lead tantrums and nervous drums, Jessi chalks up her mental instability to some troubled past as flippantly as if her doctor had just diagnosed her with ADD. More like a true crazy, “Hives” makes you wanna scratch an itch that isn’t even there. Its wiry lead, panicky beat, and agitated attitude sound like a Motown track on crack. A little more stable but just as hallucinatory, “Mystic Mind” rides on the magic carpet of a throttling guitar lick catching the wind of a steady tambourine. As if George Thorogood had teamed up with Jefferson Airplane, this song nails the rawness and weirdness of the 60s. “Sucking on a cosmic egg / Open up my third eye,” Jessi hums. Later comes the buzzy bass and banging drums of “Tina Said,” the sad tale of a brain-dead femme fetale. And just like that helpless friend you who keeps telling the same sob story over and again, this track, though repetitive at times, always stays just interesting enough with ascending bass lines and chanted choruses to keep you listening.
Best Lyric:
I went to a doctor / I guess I musta shocked her / When I told her what my trouble’s about
She didn’t understand me / Said I’m too demanding / And they don’t just hand that stuff out - “Screws Get Loose”
What’s driving Those Darlins so manic, you ask? Seems to be mostly boy trouble. “Be Your Bro” tells the trials of a girl who sincerely just wants to be friends with a guy who longs to hold way more than hands. Its jumpy, hormonal lead plays the part of the guy, while our narrator throws out bromantic activities for the two to partake in over a galloping beat and harmonized chorus. On “Boy,” Nikki Darlin picks things back up for rambling road song about the hearts that bend and break as the highway twists and turns. Fortunately, she finds a kindred spirit in a fellow traveler, in what sounds like a mellow ode to the Beach Boys until she has to leave him when it comes time to hit the next town. “Fatty Needs a Fix” details a different kind of feminine frustration — when a girl gets hungry. No really. In what sounds like a Runaways b-side, Those Darlins exclaim how their hunger for something thick and juicy is clearly more starved than their partner’s sexual appetite.
Music Video for “Be Your Bro”
Thematically, stylistically and sonically, “Bumd” wraps things up really nicely for Screws Get Loose. After holding things together for the previous 10 tracks, Those Darlins throw their hair (they never put up in the first place) back and forth over a track that highlights all the best of their brand of rock and roll — eclectic electric guitar, interesting chords, glorious harmonies, spastic drums and a generally anxious attitude. The reprise of he title/opening track comes back in for a very brief jam-out, as if after they collapsed from mental exhaustion, the player’s bodies involuntarily shook back into action for a few final twitches.
Key Tracks:
Be Your Bro, Let U Down, Tina Said, Boy, Bumd
So what diagnosis can we assign to the manic melodies of Those Darlins? Are they sick with Southern rock? Predisposed to Punktry? Suffering from Surfabilly? (You’ll notice not one of those genres references the band’s dominant gender. That’s because these girls rock harder than most dudes, so restricting their style “chick rock” or some other belittling, sexist genre wouldn’t do it justice — their music transcends those stereotypes.) I dunno… their MySpace page says “Country / Garage,” which I think is pretty accurate. But given their signature ability to mix those two styles with such a pop sensibility, I don’t think I can define their sickness as anything less than a new, never-before-seen strand of RocknRoller’s Disorder.
Overall Rating:
