Showing Loads of Spirit

By Tankboy in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 12, 2008 7:40PM

With the influx of classic bands from the earlier days of the Alternative Nation regrouping to perform those classics from the early '90s, so it's not surprising a number of newer groups are hearkening back to that sound. On their new disc, Neptune, The Duke Spirit takes firm hold of the aggressive guitar under brassy female vocals that easily cut through the squall. They easily adopt the soft-loud-soft dynamic created by The Pixies, perfected by Nirvana, and beaten into the ground by countless imitators.

What keeps us from writing them off is the solidity of their song craft, as the songs genuinely build the internal tension to lead to joyous releases that sound honest instead of merely trading in on familiar templates and singer Liela Moss' vocals stand out and trade on a raw sexiness crossed with a complete lack of fear, resulting in a delivery that sounds both threatening and uniquely inviting.

It should be noted that while The Duke Spirit do traffic mostly in familiar sounding songs, they do show the ability to expand and adopt slightly unconventional instrumentation and song structure -- as in the downright creepy, crawling slur of "The Step And The Walk" -- that proves their ability to carry off darker and more interesting offerings.

The Duke Spirit play Thursday, August 14, at The Empty Bottle, 1035 N Western, 9:30 p.m., $8, 21+

Photo from the band's MySpace page taken by David Bowman