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Oriphiel · 12-15-2014, 06:48 AM

My trip, as you can probably tell, was postponed (I should be leaving probably the day after tomorrow), and I found the time to make another entry!

I hope you all enjoyed The Barracudas, because I have another Garage Rock Revival act for you!

My First Holly Golightly Album

Gotta love the retro art-style!

Born in the 1960's, it wasn't until the 1990's that Holly's musical career began. After dating a member of Thee Headcoats (A pretty well known Garage Rock outfit fronted by Billy Childish), and subsequently being spurred on by Thee Headcoats to get more involved in music, they occasionally played live shows with her, and eventually helped to set her up with her own band (which she dubbed "Thee Headcoatees"). They would continue playing Garage Rock until the end of the 1990's, when they went their seperate ways. However, Holly had begun a solo career mid-way through the 1990's, a career that is ongoing to this day with the backing band "The Brokeoffs" (Her last album was released in 2014).

"My First Holly Golightly Album" is a little strange, with half of it being a compilation of older material scattered across her dozen or so previous albums, and the other half being new material. Released in 2005, it served the purpose of being an introduction for anyone interested in her music, while still putting out new songs for old fans to digest. Because of the range of material, I thought that this would be the best album of hers to look at today. Alright! Let's do this!

Holly Golightly

1. "Wherever You Were" - The ceremonies begin with a heavily reverbed guitar, and it sounds like something out of a song by The Cramps. The vocals are kept simple yet smooth, and the harmonica that comes in contributes to the retro Garage Rock sound, with everything adding up to make a great haunting number!

2. "Directly From My Heart" - Another track kicking off with a deep Rockabilly-style guitar riff, this one has three of the tools of the Garage Rock trade (an electric organ, background harmonies, and raw/sloppy vocals). She's got the vintage sound down pretty good, and if this song had been recorded analogue-style, it would have fit in pretty well on a compilation like Girls in the Garage.

3. "You Ain't No Big Thing" - The vocals here are a littler cleaner and smoother than the last track, and the reverb guitar from the first track returns. This is another song that really captures the vintage sound very well! My favorite track so far, it's definitely got a cut of class to it (while still keeping a bit of that Garage Rock edge).

4. "Walk A Mile" - She really has a thing for melancholy songs, doesn't she? This one is in the vein of the last few tracks, and is definitely a great number with fun guitar work and her trademark smooth-yet-rough vocals, but I think the album itself could have benefited from a change of pace (after all the slow songs, a fast one would have added some variety).

5. "Won't Go Out" - Kind of a Blues-shuffle, I think the deep guitar in the background serves as a good contrast with her vocals. Also, I like the Rockabilly-style guitar break that comes in halfway through!

6. "Sally Go Round the Roses" - A classic song that many people have covered (the first time I heard it was on Fanny's "Rock and Roll Survivors"). It works well with her musical style, having a penchant for slow and melancholy tunes. She's pretty good at Rockabilly style guitar breaks, huh? Anyway, it's another great track, but again, I have a craving for fast numbers...

While city-folk scramble for their money and power, the humble denizens of the country know what is best in life: Shotguns and chickens. Holly on the right, and I believe that is Lawyer Dave (of the Brokeoffs, her backing band) on the left.

7. "Your Love Is Mine" - I knew that the analogue-style would fit in great with her songs! This one is another haunting crawler that sounds like something "The Cramps" could have originally done, with it's reverb Rockabilly guitar. The backing vocals are fun, if a bit odd, and they add kind of a weird charm to the piece!

8. "Nothing You Can Say" - Well... this is one is actually really great! I didn't expect to like any of Holly Golightly's songs this much (as I was never much of a Thee Headcoatees fan), but i'm glad she proved me wrong. Right from the start, you're pulled in to the retro-style melody with a catchy bass line and fun harmonica work, not to mention her signature vocals. The guitar solo is also executed perfectly, and shares the old-world Rockabilly feeling of the rest of the album. Definitely my favorite song of hers so far, and probably the strongest song of the album!

9. "Black Night" - This one is an unplugged number with great acoustic guitar work, it definitely has a Blues/Folk feeling to it. Again, she's really got a knack for the slow and sad songs, and this one is handled just as well as the others. The slide-guitar work is pretty fun, by the way!

Only the roughest of Garage Rockers dare to play the bongo.

10. "Mother Earth" - With a smooth Jazz feeling to it, the Garage edge of this one comes from the analogue-style vocals and the return of the electric organ! It also has a dash of the Blues to it, with Holly singing about how no matter what we do or how long it takes, we all end up going back into the earth from which we sprang.

11. "An Eye For An Empty Heart" - Similar to "Black Night", with the slide-guitar returning. This one has vocal harmonies (and what sounds like a fiddle), which help to flesh things out.

12. "Further On Up the Road" - I like the twelve bar blues style guitar riff! Again, the analogue-style effect on the vocals is the perfect complement, and it works to great effect. This one is a bit rougher than the last few tracks, and casts a kind of road-house shadow.

13. "Run Cold" - The guitar and bass line that slam into you really have a "Louie, Louie"/"Have Love, Will Travel" feeling to them, huh? Or maybe I've just been listening to them too much lately. Anyway, this is another one of my favorites so far, being a great rough tune with fantastic Rockabilly guitar work and vocals!

14. "Can't Stand To See Your Face" - Man, if you like haunting and smooth crawlers, you will absolutely go crazy for this album! There are quite a few of them, but Holly gives each of them a different sound and is good at keeping them interesting and fresh. Well this is another of them, and I like it, but I think it would have sounded a bit better if sped up a little.

15. "Slowly But Surely" - This one is a nice change-up, with the electric organ taking the forefront, however all of these slow songs are kind of depressing me! Still, of all the slow and haunting numbers, this one might be my favorite, simply because it absolutely nails the retro sound, and everything works together very well to keep things smooth yet interesting.

16. "My Love Is" - Ah, I forgot the key element of slow retro songs, which this song introduces to great effect: finger snapping! Definitely takes it's cues from the love songs of old (Like Peggy Lee's "Fever").

17. "I Can't Stand It" - The end of the album! With a fast beat and a strong bass-line, this one is a great change of pace and probably should have come earlier in the album (to break up the wave of slow numbers). Again, Holly is great at hitting the vintage sound right in the bullseye.

Fun Fact: Her full name is Holly Golightly Smith, and she was named after Audrey Hepburn's character in "Breakfast at Tiffany's".

While Holly is very good at nailing the slow songs and giving them a very dark and compelling edge, the weakest point of this album is that it lacks variety. On their own, each song is great, but when they're stuck together they lose their power and end up sounding too similar. As I said before, the album could have benefited greatly from more changes of pace (not to mention experimentation). Still, tracks like "Nothing You Can Say" hit very hard, and give Holly Golightly a sound and edge that really can't be replicated. As a great collection of songs, and a wonderful introduction to Holly, I definitely recommend this album. Although I'll admit that it lacks the raw energy and speed of many other Garage Rock acts, it still has a unique bite to it that doesn't disappoint.

12-15-2014, 06:48 AM	#42 (permalink)
Oriphiel Ask me how! Join Date: Oct 2014 Location: The States Posts: 5,355	My trip, as you can probably tell, was postponed (I should be leaving probably the day after tomorrow), and I found the time to make another entry! I hope you all enjoyed The Barracudas, because I have another Garage Rock Revival act for you! My First Holly Golightly Album Gotta love the retro art-style! Born in the 1960's, it wasn't until the 1990's that Holly's musical career began. After dating a member of Thee Headcoats (A pretty well known Garage Rock outfit fronted by Billy Childish), and subsequently being spurred on by Thee Headcoats to get more involved in music, they occasionally played live shows with her, and eventually helped to set her up with her own band (which she dubbed "Thee Headcoatees"). They would continue playing Garage Rock until the end of the 1990's, when they went their seperate ways. However, Holly had begun a solo career mid-way through the 1990's, a career that is ongoing to this day with the backing band "The Brokeoffs" (Her last album was released in 2014). "My First Holly Golightly Album" is a little strange, with half of it being a compilation of older material scattered across her dozen or so previous albums, and the other half being new material. Released in 2005, it served the purpose of being an introduction for anyone interested in her music, while still putting out new songs for old fans to digest. Because of the range of material, I thought that this would be the best album of hers to look at today. Alright! Let's do this! Holly Golightly 1. "Wherever You Were" - The ceremonies begin with a heavily reverbed guitar, and it sounds like something out of a song by The Cramps. The vocals are kept simple yet smooth, and the harmonica that comes in contributes to the retro Garage Rock sound, with everything adding up to make a great haunting number! 2. "Directly From My Heart" - Another track kicking off with a deep Rockabilly-style guitar riff, this one has three of the tools of the Garage Rock trade (an electric organ, background harmonies, and raw/sloppy vocals). She's got the vintage sound down pretty good, and if this song had been recorded analogue-style, it would have fit in pretty well on a compilation like Girls in the Garage. 3. "You Ain't No Big Thing" - The vocals here are a littler cleaner and smoother than the last track, and the reverb guitar from the first track returns. This is another song that really captures the vintage sound very well! My favorite track so far, it's definitely got a cut of class to it (while still keeping a bit of that Garage Rock edge). 4. "Walk A Mile" - She really has a thing for melancholy songs, doesn't she? This one is in the vein of the last few tracks, and is definitely a great number with fun guitar work and her trademark smooth-yet-rough vocals, but I think the album itself could have benefited from a change of pace (after all the slow songs, a fast one would have added some variety). 5. "Won't Go Out" - Kind of a Blues-shuffle, I think the deep guitar in the background serves as a good contrast with her vocals. Also, I like the Rockabilly-style guitar break that comes in halfway through! 6. "Sally Go Round the Roses" - A classic song that many people have covered (the first time I heard it was on Fanny's "Rock and Roll Survivors"). It works well with her musical style, having a penchant for slow and melancholy tunes. She's pretty good at Rockabilly style guitar breaks, huh? Anyway, it's another great track, but again, I have a craving for fast numbers... While city-folk scramble for their money and power, the humble denizens of the country know what is best in life: Shotguns and chickens. Holly on the right, and I believe that is Lawyer Dave (of the Brokeoffs, her backing band) on the left. 7. "Your Love Is Mine" - I knew that the analogue-style would fit in great with her songs! This one is another haunting crawler that sounds like something "The Cramps" could have originally done, with it's reverb Rockabilly guitar. The backing vocals are fun, if a bit odd, and they add kind of a weird charm to the piece! 8. "Nothing You Can Say" - Well... this is one is actually really great! I didn't expect to like any of Holly Golightly's songs this much (as I was never much of a Thee Headcoatees fan), but i'm glad she proved me wrong. Right from the start, you're pulled in to the retro-style melody with a catchy bass line and fun harmonica work, not to mention her signature vocals. The guitar solo is also executed perfectly, and shares the old-world Rockabilly feeling of the rest of the album. Definitely my favorite song of hers so far, and probably the strongest song of the album! 9. "Black Night" - This one is an unplugged number with great acoustic guitar work, it definitely has a Blues/Folk feeling to it. Again, she's really got a knack for the slow and sad songs, and this one is handled just as well as the others. The slide-guitar work is pretty fun, by the way! Only the roughest of Garage Rockers dare to play the bongo. 10. "Mother Earth" - With a smooth Jazz feeling to it, the Garage edge of this one comes from the analogue-style vocals and the return of the electric organ! It also has a dash of the Blues to it, with Holly singing about how no matter what we do or how long it takes, we all end up going back into the earth from which we sprang. 11. "An Eye For An Empty Heart" - Similar to "Black Night", with the slide-guitar returning. This one has vocal harmonies (and what sounds like a fiddle), which help to flesh things out. 12. "Further On Up the Road" - I like the twelve bar blues style guitar riff! Again, the analogue-style effect on the vocals is the perfect complement, and it works to great effect. This one is a bit rougher than the last few tracks, and casts a kind of road-house shadow. 13. "Run Cold" - The guitar and bass line that slam into you really have a "Louie, Louie"/"Have Love, Will Travel" feeling to them, huh? Or maybe I've just been listening to them too much lately. Anyway, this is another one of my favorites so far, being a great rough tune with fantastic Rockabilly guitar work and vocals! 14. "Can't Stand To See Your Face" - Man, if you like haunting and smooth crawlers, you will absolutely go crazy for this album! There are quite a few of them, but Holly gives each of them a different sound and is good at keeping them interesting and fresh. Well this is another of them, and I like it, but I think it would have sounded a bit better if sped up a little. 15. "Slowly But Surely" - This one is a nice change-up, with the electric organ taking the forefront, however all of these slow songs are kind of depressing me! Still, of all the slow and haunting numbers, this one might be my favorite, simply because it absolutely nails the retro sound, and everything works together very well to keep things smooth yet interesting. 16. "My Love Is" - Ah, I forgot the key element of slow retro songs, which this song introduces to great effect: finger snapping! Definitely takes it's cues from the love songs of old (Like Peggy Lee's "Fever"). 17. "I Can't Stand It" - The end of the album! With a fast beat and a strong bass-line, this one is a great change of pace and probably should have come earlier in the album (to break up the wave of slow numbers). Again, Holly is great at hitting the vintage sound right in the bullseye. Fun Fact: Her full name is Holly Golightly Smith, and she was named after Audrey Hepburn's character in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". While Holly is very good at nailing the slow songs and giving them a very dark and compelling edge, the weakest point of this album is that it lacks variety. On their own, each song is great, but when they're stuck together they lose their power and end up sounding too similar. As I said before, the album could have benefited greatly from more changes of pace (not to mention experimentation). Still, tracks like "Nothing You Can Say" hit very hard, and give Holly Golightly a sound and edge that really can't be replicated. As a great collection of songs, and a wonderful introduction to Holly, I definitely recommend this album. Although I'll admit that it lacks the raw energy and speed of many other Garage Rock acts, it still has a unique bite to it that doesn't disappoint. Last edited by Oriphiel; 12-28-2014 at 03:09 PM.