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DBaller's Pick of the week...VERBENA

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This is it guys and gals... check it out.

You'd never know it to listen to the Birmingham, Alabama, quartet's debut album, Souls For Sale (Merge), but Verbena used to play jangle-pop and even released a couple of 7"s with upbeat tunes and twee boy/girl duets that garnered comparisons to bands like Unrest. So, when it was released last spring, the group's scrappy roots-rock long-player came as quite a surprise. Clearly, the kids had been spending a lot of time spinning their old Rolling Stones records, learning how to play harmonica, practicing dirty guitar licks and figuring out how to snarl and sing at the same time. Not unlike Royal Trux's Jennifer Herrema and Neil Hagerty, Verbena's Anne Marie Griffin and Scott Bondy team up for vocals that show off their sharp, twangy Southern drawls. Griffin's voice, in fact, has a beautiful timbre; it's warm and rich and seeps into all of the songs' cracks like a thick, sweet syrup. After a handful of dates opening for the Foo Fighters, the band spent the end of `97 touring with the Jesus Lizard and will be in the studio recording its major label debut (for Capitol) during the coming months.
 
Verbena sold its soul to rock 'n' roll. In the two years since the Birmingham, Alabama, quartet last released new material (its most recent extended release was an EP compiling its two singles, both recorded in 1995), it has abandoned its janglepop beginnings and adopted a new identity as a roots rock band. The change is both dramatic and refreshing: Souls For Sale's got more oomph than those early singles and it's clear that the band members are really putting their hearts into the music. On "Me & Keith" (Keith Richards, perhaps?), guitarist Scott Bondy drawls out lyrics like "Remember the days where your friends are naked and strange" over a series of riffs that could have come straight out of a Rolling Stones' basement jam. Meanwhile, Bondy's duets with guitarist Anne Marie Griffin sound like less sleazy versions of those between Royal Trux's Jennifer Herrera and Neil Hagerty. Verbena's mellower numbers, such as "The Song That Ended Your Career," sound a bit like Matthew Sweet, but the band is better off when it's rocking out, loud and hard, full of piss and vinegar. Sweet home, Alabama: "Hot Blood," "Junk For Fashion," "Hey, Come On" and "Kiss Yourself."
 
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