Buried within the countrified jangle of The Willowz’s Chautauqua (Dim Mak) is a sense of raw energy that has rarely been heard in the garage rock scene since the White Stripes. This back-home sensibility has earned them the attention of critics as well as high-brow names like Michel Gondry, the renowned director who featured two of the band’s songs on the soundtrack to his film “Eternal Sunshine” and directed their music video “I Wonder.”
Since the band’s inception in 2002, the Anaheim rockers have provided a plentiful amount of country and soul to go along with their hippy-ish good looks. With Chautauqua, the group’s third LP, they’re treading Kings of Leon territory while testing the waters of Zeppelin and the Band, which, while far from ground breaking, is near essential to any band in their genre.
On “Jubilee,” the album’s standout, vocalist Richie James Follin does a dead-on Jack White, while guitarist Aric Bohn rolls around on the slide guitar. The Willowz are at their best on bouncy affairs like these but falter when they turn up the distortion too much. Garage rock really got played out at the beginning of the millennium, but Chautauqua is good enough to warrant a listen.
– Mike Affholder
The Willowz (Dim Mak)