Rob's Album Of The Week: Vudu Sister's Household Items

I remember when there was a time that if you were a musician trying to write songs that even came remotely close to the early 90's sounds of Seattle bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Screaming Trees and Mudhoney people thought you were silly. After listening to Vudu Sister's new album Household Items, my only reaction is "Who's laughing now?". Every track has that snarl that no band on earth has nowadays, and as always lead singer and guitarist Keith McCurdy knows how to tell amazing stories while strumming his strat.

Household Items was recorded at The Columbus Theatre with The Low Anthem's Ben Knox Miller handling the engineering and mixing of the album along with working with Vudu Sister on producing the record. Chris Paquette mastered the finishing touches at No Boundary Studios in the Olneyville section of Providence and here you have it. Vudu Sister's first album Bastard Children in my opinion was the best album I heard in 2012, it mostly consisted of McCurdy collaborating with a plethora of Providence's best musicians to create an awesome folk record. This time around, Household Items is a straight up down and dirty garage rock & roll record. McCurdy has that devil may care feel while Alex Garzone crushes mountains into pure dust on drums. When these two madmen get together, something brilliant always happens.

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Yea, you probably read this stinkin' album review blog every week. Maybe you read it to please your senses or you read it because you need something to piss you off. If it's the latter, then you have issues that you need to clear up with either your therapist or you favorite local bartender. If you couldn't tell already, this is the part when I exclaim my favorite songs off of Household Items. It's pretty difficult with this one but I'll give it a shot, here goes something:

"Revival" has one of my favorite lyrics ever written, "I know you don't believe, kinda hard come after three, but I've seen the faith it takes to lie", an excellent example of how good of a lyricist McCurdy is. "Kid Heroine" is the closest thing to a legit punk song on the record, an anthem for the jilted generation. "Buffalo, NY" is one of the best acoustic songs I've ever heard, yea I said it. It's all about Keith's experiences in The City of No Illusions that has another kickass lyric, "The only thing that's real to me is the soothing sound of somebody breaking down." Don't just take my opinions as gospel, every track off of Household Items is guaranteed to blow your mind.

Vudu Sister celebrated the release of Household Items at a raucous show at The Columbus Theatre this past Saturday on May 4th and right now McCurdy is on tour with Dan Blakeslee as part of the Lucky Seven tour and they'll be concluding the expedition at AS220 in Providence on May 12th. Until then, get yourself a copy of Household Items. It could very well be the best album you'll hear in 2013.

- Rob Duguay