Before singer-songwriter Kurt Vile grabbed the mantle as liberating one-man resistance movement against the emotional onslaught of demanding/annoying/soul destroying lovers (cf. the biting lyrics to «Heart Attack», «Dead Alive» and «Runner Ups»), Toilet Guppies' darling used to be Guy Blakeslee a/k/a Entrance, who was equally indomitable. But when this wailing, stomping, feedback feeding, banjo mangling freedom fighter went from soulful solo artist to fronting noodling bloos trio the Entrance Band, Toilet Guppies' man crush ended. Enter '70s funk rock riffage, completely unnecessary gee-tah solos at every turn, politically naïve lyrics calling for social change (see their ode to Martin Luther King, «MLK», worthy of a primary school essay, the likes of which we haven't heard since the superficial politics of soul music in the '70s—or that time Primal Scream sang their obituary for US civil rights legend Rosa Parks, only eight years before she was actually dead). All of the above relegated Entrance to irrelevance.
But earlier this year, Black Tent Press released the vinyl-only single «I Want You», b/w «A House Is Not a Motel», which vindicated Entrance and gives us hope that we may still expect terrific things from his camp.
«I Want You» is a cover of the Troggs' scuzzy garage rock classic, primitive to the point of brain death and absolutely brilliant as only the most basic can be. Blakeslee imbues, even elevates the original with his signature quaver of desperation and forlorn lust, as only he knows how. Blakeslee's voice will haunt you forever… Nice!
«A House Is Not a Motel» is a cover of one of the high points on Love's classic, but somewhat overrated Forever Changes record. You can't beat the original, but the Entrance Band brings it as close to doing just that as you could possibly expect. And there's hardly a guitar solo!
Fittingly for covers of '60s songs, these tracks are only available in the most annoying music format known to man, vinyl. If you're into such techno nostalgia, buy the 45 here. 500 copies only!
«I can't stand it alone on my own!»
«I can't stand it alone on my own!»
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