Drexel, Ohio by Drexel, Ohio

The music: call it soulbilly, white trash soul music, "vandyke park-trash" or any other thing, but whatever you may call it I think only in one thing: try to imagine a bohemian stage in a small wood theatre, and a solitary man sat in front of a piano and singing for an audience of naked dummies, well, that kind of music would be that done by DREXEL, add to it keyboards, horns, harmonica, guitars, bass, drums and "hysterics" and the image will be more exact, theatrical rock (& roll) music, more calmed in the first half of the record and more tumultuous and blurred in the second half, sometimes like a musical, sometimes like a decadent drama; with veiled blues and jazz touches, a little from the sixties and also from the seventies, and occasionally even something like a semi-prog delirium; strange and marginal but lyrical, and I say lyrical specially due to the particular vocal style, more declaimed than sung (although he sometimes seems to sing while he is strangled...). It's probable that often the lights of this theatre are put out, because then you notice a certain lack of light in the music, not darkness but density. And is it a good performance? yes, a good and different stage play is always a pleasure, although with this one sometimes one feels giddy...

Some other data: debut release.

Sound: sometimes it seems as recorded live, with a remote microphone... it does not sound bad, but could sound better...

GLOBAL GRADE: 7.5 out of 10

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From Norman Famous, Berkley, CA:

http://www.elsob.net/normanfamousreviewsnodemos.html

I didn't expect much when I saw Drexel's hand-made 8-song demo, but I listened to the whole damn thing straight through. They are certainly interesting. Funny, annoying, bombastic and at times completely over the top, but interesting. Their website is www.drexellent.com. The best thing I can say about a band is that they don't sound like anyone else. Drexel don't sound like anyone else.

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