Crimson Sweet named their first album Livin’ in Strut. There’s a “Strut Report” on their Web site, which is a fabulous image even if it only turns out to be a tour diary, and “Blood Transfusion” from their new record Eat the Night slays with the line “Strutting down the street.” So the Brooklyn trio knows how to walk. But what about gravel? Can they eat it? It certainly sounds like it when vocalist-guitarist Polly Watson gets cranked up. She absolutely rips on “Lady Linda on Fridays,” “Copper Flashes” and “Boulevard.” Most of this stuff grafts durable Dead Boys sleaze to vintage Aerosmith and a throb somewhere south of new wave, but right when you’re blabbing that you’ve heard it all before another nail pokes through the skin over Watson’s throat. And besides, she needs it bad, as she clarifies in, er, “I Need it Bad.” “Desperate and deluded/Born too late to Quaalude it/Let’s get loaded and do it all night.” You’d have to be washed in the blood of the lamb to say no to that invitation. Conversely, Crimson Sweet don’t sound like they’ve washed at all, ever, and that makes Eat the Night even more refreshing. Strut!
Johnny Loftus writes about music for Metro Times. E-mail [email protected].
