Under the guise of
Buick MacKane (the name drawn from a
T. Rex song),
Alejandro Escovedo and co-conspirators Joe Eddy Hines, Glenn Benavides, and David Fairchild kick out the jams on a set of primal rock that finds Austin roots music infected with spores of Motor City Madness via the
New York Dolls and
Mott the Hoople. In this setting,
Escovedo's limited but wizened vocal range only adds to the music's primitive, hypnotic, pummeling effect. It imparts a knowing vibe that the group is pounding out big, noisy rock because it passionately chooses to, not because it can do nothing else. A part-time project recorded over three years by musicians who passionately care about the fact that they're having a great time in the process,
The Pawn Shop Years comes, conquers, and destroys with far more devastating effect than many a self-important hard rock band purporting to do this for a living. ~ Roch Parisien