Last of the Juanitas have been in a three year slumber since their last release - the largely live EP Time's Up. Thankfully, they have picked up right where they left off, unleashing 10 songs in 25 minutes in their new album In the Dirt and retaking their place as the 00's closest thing to Unwound.
In "See You in Macrame, Cullpepper," the song explodes from the starting line, guitarist Brian Giles playing a pulsing, heaving guitar riff as the drums rumble all around him, and I'm singing to myself "Where's your enery? There's no energy," making it fit to this new music. However just as soon as those lines leave my head, the band throws a subtle change in tempo, emphasizing Lana Rebel's bass thump and settling down just barely before exploding yet again with a triumphant and crunchy guitar riff that carries the song out. And all this in a minute twenty six.
While the band is adept at speed and dexterity, they're just as successful at the slow pummeling. The album starts with a slow sway on "Baghdad" - the calm before the storm - as Lana Rebel plays a repetitive three note bassline. When the drums come crushing in, the band transforms into three mighty lumberjacks hacking away at some 15 foot thick trunk, like late great Touch and Go bands Mule and Tar. Rebel croons some vocals about the Iraqi desert sky while guitarist Brian Giles groans and strains in complete contrast.
This methodical beatdown of the guitar in "Baghdad" is, of course, followed by pure speed metal in the 68 second "H.R. Geigercounter," just short enough for the non-Megadeth fans. This frantic pace is continued in "Smashed By Nothing" as Rebel and Giles chant "Got nothing to say! Say nothing to you!" atop devil-horns-in-the-air guitar crunch, and much of the album flies by at similarly high speeds.
However, Last of the Juanitas always know how fast is too fast, how loud is too loud, and how raw is too raw, a clear indication of the band's Black Flag punk influence. The best witness of this is the title track, "In the Dirt," where scorching guitar and cymbol heavy drums lead the vocalist to grunt out near verse-chorus about a gravedigger's breakdown. Also great punk is "Took the Short Train," where in Shellac-like fashion, Rebel lays down a tremendous and fluid bassline while Giles tosses out guitar shards and rants non sequiturs like, "Arguably, Earth is not a spacecraft."
