Soft Blows‘ “Landine” opens with a decidedly disco drum part, which makes sense because, for a little over 3 minutes, the song lays down a sweaty, dance-y groove in the tradition of rock bands seemingly inspired by Prince to get funky, be sexy and keep the guitars loud (a formula most notably executed by the Afghan Whigs). Soft Blows trade between male and female vocalists, with Alicia Romero playing the role of the sultry straight man to Seth Swift, the easily-excitable loose cannon. F-bombs are dropped, syllables are seductively stretched and cooing is handily applied. “Landine” stays pretty much in the dance groove pocket, with occasional flourishes of electric guitars and a screaming climax from Swift towards the end of the song.
The Soft Blows seem like they’re a lot of fun live, which we can all confirm as they play the Ball of Wax 39 release show at Conor Byrne on Saturday, March 7th.
For what it’s worth, I find Soft Blows to be much more fun to listen to than Afghan Whigs.
Pingback: Ball of Wax 41 Songs: Visceral Candy – Catastrophe | Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly