Customer Reviews

Black Licorice

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I discovered this band by accident, but darn was it one of the best accidents of my life. This CD is an AMAZING blend of rock, pop, country, and couple of other flavors all woven together with some killer harmonies. I love these guys. Everyone should. They are good old fashioned rock and roll -- they've got the swagger of the Stones and the attitude to match. Black Licorice is a must have album for all lovers of rock and roll. Buy Black Licorice, listen to it about a thousand times, then when think you've got the band down go see a live show, the guys will take you to a whole new dimension and you'll be a fan for life!

Just when you thought rock and roll bands have become a bad parade of calculated, second-rate rap-metal hucksters and pale grungemeisters, along comes a band like Convoy to give hope to those of us who appreciate songcraft, musicianship and sincerity in their rock and roll. "Black Licorice" is an album that realizes rock music actually predates 1990-era grunge, and Convoy isn't afraid to mine mainstream rock's great heritage of the Beach Boys, Beatles, Stones, Gram Parsons. But don't call them revivalists (i.e. Black Crowes, Lenny Kravitz) - San Diego-based Convoy has the ability to reflect their influences, yet make music that is wholly their own. Echoing Jeff Tweedy and Wilco, the opening cut Gone So Quick Tomorrow opens with Beach Boys-like harmonies, then slashes into a country-twinged rocker featuring alternating lead vocals, with a George Harrison-influenced slide lead thrown in for good measure. Absolutely wonderful! Here's Lookin' At You, Caught Up In You, Anytime She Wants It continue the opening salvo - by this time, your ears are ringing "Hallelujiah! Rock is reborn!" Throw in a great Exile on Main Street-era rocker (Loosen It Up) that the Stones wish they could still write, and you realize Convoy is the real deal. And unlike the over-hyped and less talented The Strokes, these boys don't cop the cool affectations pulled from some rock critic's list of essential rock albums. In other words, "Black Licorice" is much more sincere than "Is This It." Convoy's got game, and they can sing and play pretty damn well, too! Let's hope radio and the critics wake up to discover these new torch-bearers of straight-ahead rock and roll.

This album is amazing, finally good music being brought back into the main stream. This album is a modern day version of early Rolling Stones mixed with Beach Boys harmony. I love it! The CD is stuck in my car and is never coming out. This band is here for the long haul. Buy two, because you'll wear the first one out.

And yes their album Black Licorice is as catchy as their cover of the Rolling Stones' song: "Let's Spend The Night Together," from the Mariott adverts on TV.

Convoy is sort of a logical post-alternative-rock band. It certainly has its roots firmly set in that genre, but also they have influences ranging from the Rolling Stones to country.

There is not a bad song on the cd (or I have not had to reach for the remote to skip a track factor). The best song on the cd is "Caught Up In You," but I think there is enough variety where if you asked a number of people you would get a variety of answers.

I would give Black Licorice 5 stars if there were just one smash hit song. But it is still a might good cd. If you have not picked it up you are missing something.

So, I'm in Borders with my four-year old, listening to the CDs that they put on the rack. In the last section I browsed, listed under "pop" was this CD by Convoy. I listened to it. The first tune was great. I figured one tune could be good, I'll check the next. It was better. And so on, until I had listened to most of the CD while my daughter pulled CDs and books of the shelves.

I bought the CD and listened to it TWICE that day in the car as we did Christams errands.

It's a great album. I can't really compare it to anything, but it is pretty much a straight ahead, melodic rock album with a bit of a country tinge. Very smart lyrics. I haven't been this excited about a CD since Pete Yorn came out. Buy it.

I haven't heard an album like Convoy's "Black Licoroce" in a long time....I think the last thing that blew me away like this was WEEZER's "Blue Album", or Pearl Jam's "Ten" album. The song writing is comparable to a mondern day Lennon/McCartney, while the instrumentation and vocal work is in a category that hasn't been touched by any modern day band. I predict this band to be the NEXT BIGGEST THING. In the 70's the fanatics were inspired and dressing like the "Stones"...the 80's were wearing fishnets and teased hair to look like Madonna...90's were baggy pants and flannels to look like Peal Jam...the millenium will bring us skinny, lack of sleep looking three guitar rock bands trying to emulate what will go down in greatness as CONVOY........

This San Diego band's reworking of their first Pineapple Sessions release that contains many of the same songs re-recorded with added punch is an excellent freshman set. The opener "Gone So Quick Tomorrow" is a wonderful waterfall of guitar crunch with great sass & swagger in Jason Hill's vocals, "Here today, but you're gone so quick tomorrow, you roll up the pain & you drink up all your sorrow, I don't know if I'm the only one to believe, the only one in this great big world to see." "Here's Looking at You" is another great track with Hill's vocal attitude and Convoy's offbeat harmonies, "Ain't it the truth how I always seem to catch you looking at me." The closer "California Girls" (not the Beach Boys' tune) is a delightful slower tune with a Lou Reed attitude. All of the songs on "Black Licorice" are strong including the lovely "Is He In Your Heart Tonight" with its wistful melody, "Is he in your head right now? Do you think of him out of spite? Are you in his arms tonight? Is he holding you right now? Was it love at first sight?" This is an excellent disc not to be missed. Wow!

I found the album of this short lived band because 3/4 of them make up my new favorite band, Louis XIV. (So amazing. They're the saviors of rock and roll.) This is a really amazing album. I love Caught Up In You and Eleventeen which are great songs and my two favorite tracks on the album. Convoy put out something really original, which is no surprise considering the ever-brilliant Jason Hill is behind the project. The only reason this gets 4 stars instead of 5 is because I'm not crazy about Wet Cement and So Much You Can Do, which I find a little bit on the saccharine side.

I may not have driven the Convoy truck but I got on board early.
I think I have played Black Licorice more than any album I have ever owned. This is Bad Finger with balls or the Beach Boys with
muscle. Supersonic harmonies and crunchy Rolling-Stones-like guitars are the trade marks of this hookfest salute to classic rock. If you don't buy this album you are missing out on one the best records to come out in the last two years.

The rumours of music's demise have been, proverbially, exaggerated, as Convoy's Black Licorice, a magnum opus of genius pop craftsmanship, will attest. I will not go any further into the merits of this album, other than say that it is a compendium of practically any great band that has ever come out of the U.S. and the U.K., specially SoCal bands like the Beach Boys and Byrds, and England's Beatles, 'Stones, and T.Rex... Please, take my word for it... this was the best album of 2001 that I didn't even know existed. Someday, about 25 years from now or so... when Papa Roach and their fellow mediocre generic white-boy rappers and disgruntled Generation Y-ers have gone the way of "Rico Suave"... me and my best friend, whom I recommended this album to, and who loved it as much, will be drinking to our good fortune of having bought a CD which (from the looks of things) few other people bought, but which will still resonate as a great album for decades to come.

It's your loss, people... don't buy this... buy another mediocre Hoobastank-Puddle of Mudd-Sum 41-P.O.D. album, instead. And bon apettit: you'll be EATING that album in a couple of years!!