The Texas trio's third album filled with raucous, good-natured American cowpunk, as of early 2003, oddly is only available on an Australian indie label. While there's little innovative about their Green Day-meets-Jason & the Scorchers attack, the threesome chugs away with snotty abandon, replacing subtlety with a whip-smart sass and enough energy to send big-hat Nashville crooners packing. Tough pedal steel adds a tender edge to "Swashbuckler, TX," but in general, faster/harder rules, such as on the hopped-up honky tonk of "Jessica." "Sometimes I want to get so drunk that I can't see the light," singer/guitarist John Pedigo talk-sings on "So Slow," deconstructing Hank Williams' sorrowful twang into a punked-up no-future vision. A touch of Beach Boys/Turtles harmonies work themselves through "Heading to My Ex-Girlfriend's Wedding," and the closing "Stormy Night" slows down the tempo with a sad, organ-drenched nearly six-minute boozy ballad that's as close to an epic as these guys get. It also sounds like singer Pedigo has a few Shane MacGowan albums in his collection. Irreverent, but with a big heart, they take themselves seriously even as they tear country music apart, recreating it in their own image. Fun, frisky, and surprisingly literate, Slick 57 makes honest, whiskey-headed American music that should at least be available on a domestic label.
© Hal Horowitz /TiVo