Customer Reviews

Idle Hands

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Five Stars is a Rare commodity, but This is a Rare CD. Kevin impressed me from the Beginning when Joie/DBG handed me a CD with a musical rendition of a Paul Laurence Dunbar poem -- a newer version is also included here (Kevin's the the only other person we know who is famliar with this brilliant poet). The live performances are an Entertaining show as Well. Kevin has an Actor's Heart and Soul and a Maledictions show always draws you into the Music and Performance Heart And Soul. It's more than most audiences ever Expect. Idle Hands is a Maledictions show come to life in your very own Hands. And that's what keeps us coming Back.

Kevin Orton does it again with this sophomore release Idle Hands which he so graciously credited to the entire band The Maledictions. This is some of the most innovative music of our time. Think if you will Leonard Cohen being backed by The Mysterians or any other majorly great Garage Psych band. Sparse yet powerful. A record the Cramps might've made had they dared to venture beyond their comfortable formula.. I suppose it can all be summed up with one word, BRILLIANT. Looking forward to the next release.

GB

Howling devils, dead girls & funeral ballads? Musical saws, dulcimers & fiddles? Weepy slide & lap steel. Tubas? Voice like a cross btw Nick Cave, Jeff Buckley & Eddie Vedder? No hand Like Desire: where Spaghetti Westerns meet Surf Rock. Red House: John Lee Hooker meets The Doors. Lymon Jones: Silence of The Lambs backed by some epic Neil Young "Like A Hurricane" shredding. No cell phones, no cars, none of the comforts of home. I guess this is what they mean by "cult artist".

Heard a few cuts on WFOV. Sold. Dark theatrics of Nick Cave. Waits gutter woe. Townes Van Zandt mournful balladry. My kind of stuff. Too arch & over the top for Will Oldham followers but tread same ground. Like more than 3 tracks which is the norm for most albums far as I'm concerned. So 5 "stars". Fave trks: Red House, Rain & Bright Eyes

Unique blend of dark poetry and Americana. Complete artistic experience. Kevin Orton's lyrics are dark, poetic and quietly elegant, perfectly complemented by his rich baritone and the superb Maledictions. The sound is sometimes lush, sometimes spare, always original and striking. The effect is hypnotic.

Great road trip album. No Hand could come off a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack. Lymon, Devil will keep you up late at night. W/Prayer for when the sun breaks the clouds in the Badlands. Bright Eyes for driving throught he cornbelt. A big step forward from the last.

On Kevin Orton's follow-up to "Femme Noir", the name change says it all: his sound's expanded from the mostly bare-bones, man-with-a-guitar feel of "FN" to the full band treatment with the addition of the Maledictions, lending Orton's American Gothic tunes a rich and surprisingly hard sound. While Orton still knows how to etch a simple, haunting tune ("Stark Weather"), the Maledictions' driving electrics and outstanding rhythm section fill out Orton's folk noir nicely, culminating in the almost tone-poem sin-fever of "Found the Devil". Suzanne Kaiser again works quiet magic with the dulcimer. In all, a successful new sound for Orton, blackwashing all fences in sight darker than ever.