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SPLENDIDZINE.COM |
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Like any other marketable commodity, every fashionable indie-rock
scene has a shelf life. Once the A&R jackals converge and sign up
the Sloans, the Mudhoneys and the Stone Roses, it's only a matter
of time before the town is stripped to the rims and the
johnny-come-latelys are left fighting over the leftover Sandboxes,
Candleboxes and Inspiral Carpets. At the end, you can barely hear
the band over the sound of the bottom being scraped. Detroit, the
chosen scene-du-jour, has been hemorrhaging great bands without a
break for years now, and folks are beginning to wonder when the
well will run dry. Motown's death certificate may very well be in
the mail, but homeboys Gold Cash Gold are determined to ensure
that the Murder City doesn't snuff it on their watch. Their Times Beach debut is swaggering, flared-trousered, big-sunglassed classic rock for the new school. This quartet (led by singer/electric pianist Eric Hoegemeyer and axeman Steve Zuccaro) crafts good 'n greasy FM-radio-ready tunes that steam like asphalt on a hot summer's day. With some bigger sideburns and maybe a curly white-boy 'fro, they'd be Kings of Leon's city-mouse cousins. Paradise Pawned, Vol. 1 is Primal Scream's Give Out But Don't Give Up done right -- a hip-shimmyin' homage to the good old days of the Stones and Little Feat. Setting up shop right in the heart of Main Street, GCG put their best wares right in the window, front-loading their album with a fistful of stellar cuts. Opener "Diamond Mine", with its excellent keyboard pulse, feels as lived-in and familiar as a battered denim jacket. The gritty, hip-shakin' rawk and roll of "Vultures" and "Same Old Blues" shows off Hoegemeyer's tough sneer and Zuccaro's swanky riffs, while "Hard Times" builds a broken-hearted soul-rock ballad out of some killer Hendrixian riffage. The thunderous "Beautiful Stones" would be a set closer on anyone else's record, but here, it's the fifth track. In comparison to its terrific opening numbers, the rest of Paradise Pawned's merchandise seems a little shopworn: "The World in My Head" meanders without ever finding the right groove or riff, while "Damaged" tosses in several good ideas but overcomplicates itself by never settling on one as the dominant motif. A few of the slower blues-rockers plod a touch closer to the end, but these minor quibbles pale in the bright lights of Pawned's impressive opening salvo. Part of the reason why the '70s are still in vogue because the decades that followed them weren't half as much fun -- punk and grunge had their moments, but they rarely made their bread by enjoying themselves. Gold Cash Gold capture both the spirit and sound of the '70s -- that place where rock, blues, soul and funk joined forces to set asses a-wigglin', mixing them into a heady, raunchy brew. If you missed out on rock's glory days, here's a handy primer. |
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CLASSIC ROCK-U.K.. |
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The industrial city of Detroit has always been a breeding ground for gritty, honest music, from The MC5 and The Stooges to The White Stripes and Eminem, taking in the Motown roster along the way. Something about the bleak, factory-filled landscape of the Motor City induces a hard passion in its people that has benefited the music worked for decades. One of the city's new bands, Gold Cash Gold are no different in that their bluesy, soul-soaked rock'n'roll is the sound of raw emotion. This is a band that you need to hear, a band that can grab the heart in a similar way to The Black Crowes at their 'Southern Harmony...' best. Formed tow years ago, guitarist Steve Zuccaro and vocalist Eric Hoegemeyer had previously been playing together for years, and had developed the kind of chemistry commonly associated with Jagger and Richards, Tyler and Perry or the Crowes' Robinson brothers. The fuel for their partnership is the areas in which they contrast: Zuccaro's main love is dirty rock'n'roll ("It was all about Aerosmith until 1978, then AC/DC 'till the mid-90s"), while Hoegemeyer is passionate about reggae. Furthermore, the frontman enjoys spending time in the studio above anything else, while the guitarist prefers playing live. It's these key differences that make Gold Cash Gold stand out, a dynamic that helps them create magic in the studio and electricity on stage. GCG's full-length debut album 'Paradise Pawned Vol. 1', released on Detroit 's truly independent and gloriously community-oriented Times Beach Records, is simultaneously inspiring, sexy, spiritual and earthy; an album that blows your mind the first time it's played, and gets better and better with each spin. Each track resonates with emotion and memories both good and bad: the singer says that 'Vultures' "is about a time when the police stopped me for having a cracked windscreen, and they found a joint in my pocket. They fined me three thousand dollars, which was all the money I had just made from working on somebody else's album. And the police took it all for one fuckin' joint." Live, those same songs take on a whole new dimension. Hoegemeyer's stage presence is mesmerizing; vulnerable yet fully in control, writhing around his mic stand like a Jagger/Morrison hybrid and seemingly putting his whole self into each and every note. Zuccaro is the archetypal guitar hero, gifted with a laid-back stage presence that doesn't prevent him from pulling the odd rock guitar pose. Bassist Dino Zoyes and drummer Michael Falzon may be less compelling visually, but they provide tribal, hypnotic rhythms that are as integral, as they are tight. |
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| LOSING TODAY-U.K. |
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| Gold Cash Gold 'Vultures' (Times Beach). Another cracking debut release, sleek, mean, moody and damn sexy, Apparently this lot are named after a Detroit pawnshop and already have a debut long player 'Paradise Pawned Volume 1' kicking up a fuss amongst the Stateside in crowd, yes Gold Cash Gold do hail from Detroit, and before you all start moaning, this is the full shilling, classic unblemished unadulterated throw back rock 'n' roll very much in the mood of vintage AC / DC without the hair and all the metal nonsense but with a built in stripped down MC5 blues edge to it with a grooving Sly Stone found kicking around at the rear of the mix. Primed with licks like vice like grips 'Vultures' is a mother of a tune, direct and totally addictive. Flip the disc for the equally tasty and all together contrasting 'Diamond Mind' where Gold Cash Gold are found taking Motown soul on holiday to sample the lysergic sunshine haze of the 60's West Coast pop and get high on the blessed out fumes while borrowing elements of Genesis' 'Abacab'. Who said the best thing to come outta Detroit since the Model T? The essential purchase if you want to avoid peerage mockery and neighbourhood stoning. |
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| THE FLY-U.K. |
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| Supported by Maupa and The Unisex, Gold Cash Gold quite frankly blew the place apart last week which is why we couldn't resist the chance to get them back in straight away for a headline slot. Genuine Made In Detroit Rock n Roll they're signed to their hometown's Times Beach Records and should not be missed. Supporting, Maupa are intelligent, dark, beautiful. Think Elbow and Nick Drake. They come from Accrington but please, no renditions of the old milk advert. Oh go on then, just one, “… Accrington Stanley? Who are they? Exachhhhhtly… aagh get off… gimme some… get off!” The Unisex are Norwegian. Well done |
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| DETROIT FREE
PRESS |
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| The Lowdown: Forget about all the sub-genres that have taken over since real rock 'n' roll sank into the gutter. Gold Cash Gold is rock -- straight rock. It might even be in the gutter -- nasally vocals and a name off a pawn shop wall -- but it's still rock. With gutsy guitar riffs and straight-ahead vocals, Gold Cash Gold is unafraid to, pardon the expression, rock out. The LineUp: Singer-keyboardist Eric Hoegemeyer and guitarist Steve Zuccaro have been friends and bandmates for more than a decade. They were in the almost-famous band Charm Farm and did a stint backing up their buddy Uncle Kracker (with Hoegemeyer on drums). But in early 2002, the pair, who cowrite all of Gold Cash Gold's songs, decided it was time to do their own thing. "We just said, 'It's now or never. We've got to make a move and start doing our own music,' " says Zuccaro. So they recruited Dino Zoyes to play bass and Michael Falzon for drums and quickly became a band's band in and around Detroit. Paradise Pawned: The title of Gold Cash Gold's first release, "Paradise Pawned Vol. I" (on Royal Oak's Times Beach Records) refers to the band's name. Zuccaro and Hoegemeyer actually had the name in mind since 1995 when they were doing a photo shoot near a pawn shop with the words "Gold Cash Gold" splashed on the wall. The group's first video, for the cop-disparaging single "Vultures," even takes place in the shop, where the boys steal their instruments back after they pawn them. Stepping into the spotlight: A former drummer, Hoegemeyer was nervous at first to be out in front. But now, any apprehension he may have had has washed away. With his hair falling just long enough to shade his eyes, Hoegemeyer shimmies and shakes like a man possessed. The percussionist in him, however, is never far from the surface -- he's never without a tambourine or a pair of maracas. "If I'm doing something rhythmic," he says, "it helps me get into the music more." Back in the U.S. of A.: Just off a tour of the U.K., Gold Cash Gold has its CD-release party at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Magic Bag, 22920 Woodward, Ferndale. $7. 248-544-3030. With the Cyril Lords and Over Under Sideways Down. |
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| METROTIMES |
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| The original Gold Cash Gold is a decrepitly lovely Michigan Avenue pawnshop whose facade is at once imposing and discreet, with garish proclamations of easy riches still projecting from the wall face. It’s as fitting a rock ’n’ roll metaphor as any, full of the fading promises of glittering returns and reeking of cheery yesterdays — the perfect namesake for a band that may well be an anachronism amid shameless gestures of contemporary rock. Pawned is rich with the warmth of vintage tube amps, full of brash rhythms and melodies played with both kidlike innocence and coarse command. The songs are driven by musicians who conceivably spent thousands of hours at a tender age holed in their bedrooms listening to, among other things, Zep and Sly Stone on headphones. Drummer-turned-singer Eric Hoegemeyer, like any rock singer worth his weight in bony knees and liver damage, has a voice that takes a few spins to get acclimated to; his is equal parts bratty kid, innocent whimsy, and swaggering self-loather all wrapped up in leather trousers. The crowning moment here is opener “Diamond Mind,” two alluringly melancholic chords droning over a groove-rich beat and a Billy Preston-like organ under lyrics about the senselessness of seeing things with only one eye open. The tune sets the tone for the rest of the album, which has as much to do with opium dens and claret-hued Moroccan rugs — you can almost smell the hookah charcoal and amber resin — as it does Crowes- and Zep-inspired licks. “Damaged” is perhaps the album’s centerpiece, complete with a Jimmy Page nod slipped into the intro, a Bonham-precious beat, and a dramatic 8-step build out of the final chorus that would bend Bob Ezrin’s lips into a pleased grin. The four minutes hit home with autobiographical lines about a quixotic kid on a devil’s-music trajectory, penning lines to his love interest that run short ’cause he’s “out of weed.” The song is a time-honored tale of rock ’n’ roll isolation told simply and honestly, and with heart, and is, of course, without redemption. “Vultures” knocks trend-predator record-biz weasels with the opening line, “I seen the demons in the sewer vents/They shot me full of their compliments,” then proceeds to knock the listener out with a riff Mick Ronson forgot to make up. A riff mutiny in classic rock radio tradition using daylight as the decisive metaphor for drug-addled depression anchors “Same Old Blues.” And “Run Brother Run” is a bluesy lament built on juvenile self-pity saved by gnarly Hammond B3 lines and a guitar line that winks at the right hand of Duane Allman. Worthy is “Spaced Out,” a between-song interlude that lasts about as long as it takes to hit a bong. “Hard Times” would nestle nicely next to “Multi-Colored Lady” on Gregg Allman’s Laid Back: remarkable in how it sounds straight out of another era without coming off satirical or mocking. Paradise Pawned Vol. 1 is a Detroit rock ’n’ roll record worth going out and spending money you’ve set aside for that Jet disc. The band (singer/keyboardist Hoegemeyer, guitarist Steve Zuccaro, bassist Dino Zoyes and drummer Michael Falzon) just wrapped their first-ever UK tour and reports are that it was successful, complete with encores and invites to return. Gold Cash Gold will celebrate the local release of this record
at the Magic Bag (22920 Woodward, Ferndale) on Saturday, Nov.
1, with the Cyril Lords and Over, Under, Sideways, Down. Call
248-544-3030. |
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| METROTIMES |
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| What:
Unpolluted rock 'n' roll in the time-honored sense of the word.
The band has, for lack of a less hackneyed term, swagger. Eric
Hoegemeyer- vocals/electric piano; Steve Zuccaro-guitar; Michael
Falzon-drums; Dino Zoyes-bass. |
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| REAL DETROIT |
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| If you were forced
to play a Christmas song, which one would you play? "Pass
the Dutchie" by Musical Youth. It's not a Christmas song, but
I could switch up some of the lyrics to give it a holiday vibe. |
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| REAL DETROIT |
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| Gold Cash Gold's Eric Hoegemeyer
isn't afraid to tell the truth. "We were modelling our songwriting
after Journey for a little while. Honestly, we were....Journey's
bad ass." Although Hoegemeyer said he doesn't "have the pipes"
and he's too tall to emulate Steve Perry to the fullest, he
does admire Perry's songwriting. "The way he sings and he writes
songs, he ain't ashamed of his sensitive side." While Journey
may have invented the power ballad, Hoegemeyer (vocals, electric
piano), and his songwriting partner Steve Zuccaro (guitar),
have actually made an effort not to record all of their ballads
because there are just too many, and they don't want to be a
ballad band. "I'm a sucker for a ballad," Zuccaro said. But
in regard to Perry, he feels differently: "He ruined a whole
generation of men, " he laughed. |
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