Search - The Hangmen :: Loteria

Hangmen Also Die

Kevin Killian | San Francisco, CA United States | 06/29/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The way people feel about Iggy I feel about Bryan Small, a rock icon I have loved forever. He is notorious for the number of major labels who have dropped his contract after the records failed to hart due to lousy promotion. But a small cadre of worshippers adore his every move and hail his songwriting as the best to come down the pike since the hey day of Lou Reed back in the late 1960s. LOTERIA isn't his best LP but it ushers in a new configuration of Hangmen, and this one sounds like it could do Small's material justice in the long run (or live shows, Hangmens' forte.) None of the tracks have the sway of "Bent" their tremendous anthemic single which ushered in the new millennium, and yet "Wild Beast" is pretty memorable and will have you hollering in the car as you skim along the 405 at 4:05 a.m. Angelique Congelton is a mighty fine bassist and her voice is like honey on fire.



The sentiments of living too long and for too little ring true to me, and anyone who's heard his songs knows that Small's been to see the hooting owl and lived to kiss the snake. The band here is a different mix up of players than those that appeared on "We've Got Blood On The Toes Of Our Boots," but they seem capable and you know they have to be good with people if they can make it through a whole LP with King Spooky, Bryan Small. The way he sings it's like all of your heart got mushed up into a little ball then strained through a handkerchief.



At a recent show someone in the crowd told me that Robert Johnson made a pact with the devil that he would sell his soul to him in exchange for coming back as Bryan Small."