Dirty Little Rabbits

With very little being released mid-summer, I pulled an unknown out of the hat. Come to find that Dirty Little Rabbits are a side project of Shawn Crahan, who is a percussionist in Slipknot. ("The Clown" - not the dead guy, who was "The Pig") I would have expected that a sideman in Slipknot would follow the singer's direction and take up a more commercial group and collect bigger songwriting royalties. And while DLR is farther away from metal than even Corey's Stone Sour, I'd still be hard pressed to call it commercial.

Joining Crahan (who is playing drums here) is an organist named Michael Pfaff and a very dynamic/enigmatic chick singer named Stella Katsoudas. Guitar/bass round things out, but the arrangements are clearly led by Pfaff; and Stella is so clearly the band leader that even Jeff Beck would sit back and take direction.

But on a first listen, I must admit, I'm at a bit of a loss for words. Crahan is not afraid to beat the skins, but leans back when he's supposed to. The organ takes me back to Billy Joel's pre-fame heavy metal effort Attila. 70s, Deep Purple, power rock. And then, to throw everything for a loop is Stella.

First of all, she's WAY over the top in the mix. Vocals are never muddled. She runs the gamut from cute and poppy like Letters To Cleo... to wordsy and poetic like Fiery Furnaces or Dresden Dolls... to just full on annoying like Juliette Lewis.
I think I like it. (3 of 5 stars)