Megan's Top 18 of 2008 - #5 - Mississippi Witch

Black Gamble is the dirtiest record I've heard all year.

Dirty in the way that it sounds like the morning after the night before. Dirty as in tarred, feathered, sweaty, painfully hungover. Dirty as in sleaze. Dirty, friends, in an excruciatingly glorious way.

Mississippi Witch (i.e. Oli and Dan) first caught my ear a couple years back, via Myspace. I've written about them a few times since then, and was delighted that their debut was the first album I heard in 2008.

11 months after listening to it for the first time, I love it even more. It's all so simple, really, this band. One drummer. One guitarist who also happens to sing. Put these two pieces together, and let 'er rip. And lemme tell you, the racket these two make together is nothing sort of sensational.

Definitely akin to the Black Keys, these US ex-pats (they now live in the UK) have my eternal love and devotion. It's impossible not to be entranced by their sexy as all get out noise. It's cocky, explosive, and intense. Pay extra close attention to "Black Gamble", "Van Nuys", and "Rot Foot", though the entire album is not to be missed (after all, it wouldn't be so high on my list otherwise).

Below is a not-really video clip, but an audio track taken from a Mississippi Witch gig. It'll give you an idea of just how fucking incredible they are.



mp3: Van Nuys (link expired)

The Untitled Interview #14: Starring Oli Walker (Mississippi Witch)

I hope by now, dear friends, that you trust my judgment somewhat. So when I tell you (again) how much I love that rapscallion pair of ex-Pat Yanks who now call the UK home known as Mississippi Witch, I would hope you would spare a moment (or several) to check them out. The boys of the Witch are a roustabout duo, up to no good in the best possible way. The music they make is utterly divine, saturated with the rhythms of the Deep South and the space oddities of the deserts of the Wild West. How they make such a sweet, terrifying, sensational racket with only two of them is a marvel indeed.

I had the good pleasure of twisting the arm of Oli Walker, the vocal/guitar half of Mississippi Witch, into answering these here questions of mine. He’s a nice boy, and smart, too (see: Beatles vs. Stones). Oh, and he’s got a decent set of pipes, as well. I do hope that the Witch brings their aural hurricane over to these shores sooner rather than later.

Les Enfants Terribles: How the hell are you?
Oli Walker: Good thanks.

LET: What was the last song you listened to?
OW: “Under my Thumb” - Rolling Stones.

LET: Playing music is ___
OW: Better played between 12 and 3.

LET: What album most made you realize that you wanted to make music?
OW: Hot Rocks - Rolling Stones.

LET: Beatles or Stones?
OW: The Stones! I'll take this opportunity to quote Keith - "I'm Sagittarius, half man, half horse with a license to shit in the street.”

LET: What're your top 5 albums (of ever, of this week, of this minute)?
OW: Eeeeer, in no particular order -
Sticky Fingers - Rolling Stones
The Doors - The Doors
Led Zeppelin lll
Electric Lady Land - Jimi Hendrix
Harvest - Neil Young

LET: Favorite music-related movie?
OW: The Kids are Alright.

LET: What city or venue would you like to play, but haven't yet been to?
OW: Ohio and New Zealand, anywhere really. I think America is where we need to be…

LET: Half-full or half-empty?
OW: There's always more where that came from.

LET: What do you miss most about life in the US of A?
OW: The desert, steak and shrimp, Van Nuys…

LET: Apart from your band, which of your peers do you think is making the best music these days?
OW: I don’t hear much of what’s going on nowadays, but Queens of the Stone Age, Raising Sand (Robert Plant/Alison Krauss), Tom Waits…

LET: What's your favorite track on Black Gamble?
OW: “Just For Roosevelt”, it was the first song we did and sums up the state of mind of the band at the time…

LET: What's the first thing you think when you wake up?
OW: Mississippi Witch, and must get bigger amps.

LET: How do you settle band arguments?
OW: We only see each other when we play or record so we just do what we do, I don’t have any control over it, and neither does Dan, we just play.

LET: The greatest record store in the world is:
OW: I wish I knew, I’m all for record stores, I can’t find any good ones…

LET: How will you be celebrating Halloween this year?
OW: With a big fire and some chalk.

LET: What's the longest flight you've ever been on, and where were you going?
OW: 12 hours or so, California - London.

LET: Shaken or stirred?
OW: Both…

LET: If you weren't in a band, you'd be:
OW: I have no idea, I don’t think there was ever anything else I could do, so I'd be in trouble. Probably wondering round with a dog and a strange look on me face…

LET: Best song ever written?
OW: That’s a tricky one, I'll just say “House of the Rising Sun” – as done by The Animals.

Album Review: Mississippi Witch - Black Gamble

2008: Year of the Witch? Quite possibly.

Continuing on with our love of bands with American transplants, I’d like you to meet Oli Walker and Dan Danby, otherwise known as Mississippi Witch. I’ve already fallen head over heels for them, and now it’s your turn. The duo’s long and winding road brought them from Mississippi (Walker) and New Mexico (Danby) many thousands of miles to London, and thence to Bristol. Mississippi Witch has proven a reasonably apt moniker, as there is something spellbinding in the music. Formed in 2005, there’s a distinct 1970s vintage to their sound; heavy, heady swoons of unadulterated bluesy Southern rock with a dash of desert mysticism filtered through the misty rain and refined antiquity of London Town. Walker’s vocals and guitar bombast wouldn’t sound out of place on the mid-70s albums of many a great Southern rock band, and Danby bangs the drums with such abandon that it could be considered a minor miracle he doesn’t destroy his kit each time he plays.

Black Gamble is a monster of a debut album, and will most certainly get the blood pumping. It begins with the towering inferno otherwise known as “Just for Roosevelt,” all grit and grime resplendent with some of the dirtiest guitar riffage you’re likely to hear all year. “Alligator Mechanics” showcase some nasty banjo playing, with Walker’s voice taking an exaggerated, molasses-like tone. The title track, “Black Gamble,” shows where some English punk has seeped in to the Witch sound, with ferociously fraught guitars and a break-neck pace to oblivion. The dozen tracks are all so glutted and teeming with noise that at times it’s hard to imagine that there are only two people making such a racket.

The bottom line? This album is staggeringly good, and 2008 could be annus mirabilis for these wandering, transplanted souls of Mississippi Witch. After a few listens to Black Gamble, you’ll join me in expecting big things from Misters Walker and Danby. Head over to their website to listen to some album tracks (and then purchase it, naturally).