BarbarellatonesDevilsDildoReview

THE BARBARELLATONES
THE DEVIL’S DILDO
[SEX WITH LURCH MUSIC]
2008

It's hard to say the name of the new Barbarellatones disc with a straight face (no pun intended). Stirring up a signature stew of glam/goth/surf/psychedelic/world/folk/rock, The Barbarellatones’ mastermind, Robbie Quine, ages the material to a refined, decadent vintage in a setting rife with beautiful guitar arrangements, fantastic use of deathless, gothic organ, exotic sitar, and percussive rhythms.

Produced by Paul Roessler (45 Grave, T.S.O.L, Gene Loves Jezebel, et al), the new disc opens with the title track as one of Quine’s visions of b-movie exploitation. Kicked off with a strong backbeat and followed by sparsely phrased Mick Ronson-esque rhythm guitar, “The Devil’s Dildo” introduces the most impudently colorful organ part not heard since the classic psychedelic era of the late ‘60s, courtesy of Roessler. In actuality, maybe it’s never been heard in the form it’s presented here, as a bold hybrid treatment that mixes goth and psychedelic as one stylistic element. With The Barbarellatones, there’s rarely if ever one style in play at any given moment. In keeping with the often ambiguous sexuality of Quine’s lyrics, “The Devil’s Dildo” deftly presents a lurid fantasy from the top: “I got out of juvie; I went to a movie, a matinee called The Devil’s Dildo.” Gothic elements pour out in a juxtaposition of church, degeneration, and revelations of Satanic attraction, especially with Quine’s shameless proclamation that “Lucifer doesn’t care if you’re straight or gay.”

“Lion Of God” features Quine’s newly created style that he calls “Glindu,” a genre-bending combination of Glam and Hindu vibrations where Indian-influenced percussion and sitar blend with Psychedelic guitar and Glam-inspired profusions of melody that first introduced themselves on The Barbarellatones’ last release from earlier this year, Temple Of Shiva. On The Devil’s Dildo, Quine and company have expanded on the new style and even morphed it into ‘Glindu-Surf’ on the adventurous “Surfing In India.” On “Graduation Day,” the percussion isn’t as pronounced on an exotic level nor is the Surf blatantly there, but the sitar remains; the vocal adds an almost Black Sabbath Ozzy-era delivery; and the ocean is perennially present in an abstract way given the dirge-like quality of the drums, the depressed acoustic folk of a dark beach scenario, and Quine’s identity as a lifelong surfer.

Soulful and sleazy but not sleazy all the same, The Devil’s Dildo also brings to light again the sensitive, sad edge to Quine’s songwriting present on 2005’s Coldsore and 2006’s Interview With A Glampire, but one that took a minor hiatus on Temple Of Shiva from earlier this year in favor of a more prominent accent on the exotic and spiritual magic of India that’s a new focus for Quine. On The Devil’s Dildo, that sad edge has evolved as Quine has grown older by a year or two, evidenced on the beautifully melancholic ballad, “R.I.P. Mother Earth,” a more mid-tempo evolution of “The Sunset Club” from Coldsore. Both songs say goodbye to a mother, just a different kind although they’re relative because the earth is one thing to the mother and the mother is another to the earth. “My Friend Sean” continues the thread of evolution and, with its theme of loss, going through changes and friendship, is something of an emotional cousin to “David” from Interview With A Glampire.

The also melancholic but more reminiscent vibe of “Vision On The 405” cements The Barbarellatones, and Quine’s songwriting in particular, as a new form of the California sound, which is ironic considering that much of The Barbarellatones’ development that’s extant now in a creative sense took place in Hawaii. “Vision On The 405” showcases the potential and even present reality of what The Barbarellatones can do with guitars and subtle percussive elements. The intro is reminiscent of “Acid Test” from Coldsore; and the body of the tune, musically, takes a little from “Medicine Woman” off the same disc. “Vision On The 405” culls from past Barbarellatones work to create an older, more soulful whole. The fact that “visions” is in the title of the song is apropos as this track is as clearly realized from every standpoint as one could ask to hear. Lyrically, “Vision On The 405” more than just touches on Quine’s spiritual preoccupation with life and death as two sides of one in the same: “And I thank my guardian angel for keeping me alive. Father, why have you put me here? I’m longing to be free; this body is hell for me, but I accept it gracefully.”

The Devil’s Dildo isn’t without The Barbarellatones’ fetish for dirty hi-jinks. Where “Corn Huskin’ Man” from 2006’s Interview With A Glampire celebrates a redneck fantasy of masturbation, “Take It Like A Man” revisits hick territory in an even more blatantly comedic setting with the story of a white trash character who goes to prison and “takes it like a man” while his girlfriend cheats on him with his buddy at a truck stop. Humoresque musings find their way to the disc’s denouement, “Bottoming Out.” If there’s one song that makes drug abuse out to be lame as it truly is, “Bottoming Out” is it, replete with a flatulent tuba and an ass-dragging orchestral beat that’s fat as an elderly version of W.C. Fields. “You’ve just lost your car. Your girlfriend caught you down at the tranny bar. You can’t pay your rent; your career got up and went; and now you’re bottoming out. You think you have gout, but you’re just bottoming out.” There’s no glamorization here, but rather the accent is clearly on the ‘loser.’ “Nina Hagen,” featuring the alt.-post punk-new wave underground heroine herself on vocals, closes the disc. A sardonic assessment of a bygone scene, “Nina Hagen” is informed by a spy-fantasy of Quine: “Berlin. 1984. They’re still spinning Kraftwerk on the dance floor. I dress New Wave; I have a skinny tie with a recording device. I work for the FBI. I’m a double agent, also for the KGB on a mission from Moscow via Helsinki to find Nina Hagen!”

Each new record by The Barbarellatones expands on the sound of past releases while inventing new conglomerations relative to genres and sub-genres. While the songs have been at their most solid from 2005’s Coldsore onward, The Devil’s Dildo takes Quine’s vision one step further with the most adventurous engineering of it yet offered. It’s a bigger sound. The Barbarellatones have always had a strong vibrancy, but the aura of it continues to grow and evolve in the presentation of The Devil’s Dildo.

-- Greg Debonne

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