Lost Somewhere Between The Earth and My Home
Rawer and bolder than fellow L.A. hardcore folkies X, the Geraldine Fibbers have lashed out with a frighteningly successful debut album.Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Homeis an oppressively heavy record, both musically and emotionally, that brings punk rock as close as it has ever come to sounding rootsy. Ferocious and painfully beautiful, singer Carla Bozulich can't seem to decide if she's Patti Smith or Patsy Cline. Similarly numbing and relentless, Daniel Keenan's bleeding guitar and Jessy Greene's weeping violin grind and moan like the Velvet Underground reinterpreting Creedence Clearwater Revival tunes. In other words, the Fibbers growl resembles 10,000 Maniacs--that is, if they really sounded like ten thousand maniacs. ThroughoutLost Between, Bozulich wails over broken and destructive relationships--that common lyrical bond between classic country and gothic gloom-rock--as if she'd met the devil at the crossroads, pierced his tongue, and then given him a ride with her to hell. She sings about sinking to a point so low that pitiful hate is the only place to turn--and where half that hate is violently thrust at those who've abused her, while the other half gets nursed inside. Sometimes she tells stories, like the grotesque tales in "A Song About Walls" and "Richard." Other times she just spews narcotized hallucinations like "Lillybelle" and "Marmalade." But always the imagery teeters nervously between goodnight prayer and bad nightmare.--Roni Sarig