Pick of the Week: Chop Suzy
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Made for Lovers
Chop Suzy is a rock power trio from the Southern California area. The band is made up of Beau Girardeau (vocals, guitars and keys), Tony Turbo (drums, percussion) and Manual Automatic (bass). You gotta love the names! A perfect fit for the positions in the band. One look at the cover of their first full-length album lets you know they don’t take themselves too seriously, but the music is another matter entirely.
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02. Hot Chick Yard Sale 03. El Camino Love Song 04. Goodbye 05. Take a Bow 06. Walk Away 07. Waiting to Inhale 08. Friends 09. Lost 10. Vespaccino 11. Crying Over Spilt Milk |
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Genre: Rock Label: Red Shirt Records Website Source Link |
"Made For Lovers" is full of high-energy rockers that come at you like a runaway locomotive.
Listening to the album, right from the start I heard influences of The Ramones and several other bands of that ilk. Mostly it reminded me of the 70s bands who played in New York City at Max’s Kansas City or CBGB’s: It's punk-meets-rock, with pounding rhythms, slashing guitar and better-than-average vocals that you can actually understand. (I really appreciate that last factor and always will.) The lyrics are not cerebral by any means; they are right for the type of music delievered on this album.
So far I've only described the first three tracks.
A surprise comes along with the hellfire rocker "Goodbye." It starts off like a ballad, but Chop Suzy does not disappoint. In a short period of time the band cuts loose, only to revert back to a slower pace, then into a full-blown jam session, showing off excellent musicianship. "Goodbye" shows versatility and talent beyond everything previously heard on the album. It turns into one of the most outstanding tracks on the album. I loved the progression of the track and the musicality is superb; just when I started to think the band's style and approach wasn't going to change, the band let me have it full-force.
Chop Suzy shifts to the blues with "Take A Bow," with its driving harp, and continues with "Walk Away." You get some fine acoustic guitar, honky tonk piano and nasty slide guitar on that number. It gets even better on "Waiting to Inhale." Girardeau lets his hair down with some outstanding electrified, rapid-fire slide guitar. It reminded me of some of the licks Jimmy Page was playing on Led Zeppelin’s masterpiece "Physical Graffiti." This guy is no Page, but he is damn good – and I could hear that influence there.
I love the way "Made for Lovers" ends with a grand finale tune complete with crazy guitar effects, rolling drums and feedback – the works, like it’s the end of the fireworks display at a Fourth of July celebration.
The band notes that this album was many years in the making. It looks like it was worth spending the time to get it all right. Chop Suzy defines the old saying "You can’t judge a book by its cover." There is a lot to this trio and they make a lot of good noise.
This is a band you want to check out if you like to rock and crave some variety within that realm. Once you get past the bizarre cover and give "Made For Lovers" a spin, you'll notice how each track gets better as the album plays through.
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