Dollar Store
Plying the choppy sonic waves between the best aspects of the insurgent country ghetto and the vaunted Chicago noise guitar scene is Dollar Store, here with their gritty, self-titled debut. Fronted by current Waco Brother, former leader of Wreck, Dean "Deano" Schlabowske, Dollar Store takes bluegrass and country chord progressions and adds textures, volume, and loose, angular noise to make them thick and greasy in the finest rock ‘n' roll sense. Dollar Store's sound builds a sturdy bridge between the styles and sounds that define the fertile, exciting landscape of Chicago's underground music scene.
The genesis of Dollar Store can be found in those misty, distant days of an early-to-mid 90's beset by the likes of Stone Temple Pilots and Urkel. Deano was fronting the Steve Albini recorded Wreck, who were sharing the stage with the Jesus Lizard, Tar, Naked Raygun and the like at night, and working at the legendary Wax Trax label by day. A long-time affection for art-country punk rabblerousers The Mekons led Deano to approach Jon Langford to produce the final Wreck record. The two immediately hit it off and giddily formed a band whose intentions consisted of playing Hank and Buck tunes through Marshalls for free beer; thus the Waco Brothers were born. Through 10 years and six albums, the Waco Brothers have been the flag bearers for the left-leaning alternative country underground, with Deano's songwriting – among many Waco classics, he wrote "Red Brick Wall," "Pigsville" (WACOWORLD), "Harm's Way" and "If You Don't Change Your Mind" (TO THE LAST DEAD COWBOY) -- providing the pointed and piercing, down-and-out-guy counterpoint to Langford's over- the-top agit-prop bluster.
On their new CD, Deano and his band -- with special guests guitarist Dave Alvin (Blasters, Knitters) and pedal steel master Jon Rauhouse (Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, Sally Timms) -- have created a sound rooted in, and worthy of, these solid traditions. The songs are full of characters staggering through a world that has let them down; they are pounded into submission by work, abandoned by the world of mainstream music, and robbed of their dignity by the government. Through Deano, their voices have a plainspoken, cut-the-crap tone that charge the cynical stories they tell, at times with a stubborn hopefulness, at times just a sad acceptance … but always with compelling emotion.
Live, the band can whip up the same sort of intensity as the Wacos and Wreck. Dean's guitar and lead vocals are energetically joined by Alan Doughty's (Jesus Jones, Wacos) rollicking bass, Joe Camarillo's (Hushdrops, Wacos) dead-on rock drumming and Tex Schmidt's (German roots-rockabillies the Roughnecks) loud and rowdy lead guitar to serve up cathartic live sets – just ask those who witnessed their shows at the last CMJ Music Marathon in NYC and 2003's SXSW extravaganza in Austin. Keep your eyes peeled for Dollar Store's tour in the Spring of 2004.