TK Webb
Phantom Parade (Social Registry)
By Emily Becker
Published: December 12th, 2006 | 9:09pm
TK Webb may receive his mail in New York City, but his soul, at least the gargantuan musical chunk, resides somewhere west of the Mississippi. If you can forgive Webb’s occasional lapses into outright Dylan vocal mimicry, Phantom Parade, his latest release on Brooklyn’s hipster-laden Social Registry label, offers a creative and entertaining spin on blues-rock that is thoroughly modernized.
Phantom Parade kicks off with “The Desert,” whose first notes are a bluesy guitar riff that gives way to rhythmic piano chords, interlaced with Webb’s gravelly vocals. On “Which Witch,” Webb fills in all the musical niches to perfection, resulting in the record’s most memorable track. Webb invites you to stomp your feet along to his guitar line, which ambles along like a cross between the Velvet Underground’s Sterling Morrison and One Foot in the Grave-era Beck. “The Spade” breaks out of the blues mold by speeding up the tom-heavy percussion, while “Oh Baby No” would not be out of place on Let It Bleed.
Much like an Ian Rankin novel is never going to be short-listed for the Booker prize regardless of quality, Phantom Parade constructs its own limitations because it too is a genre piece. But it easily meets or exceeds the standards set by others who share the Americana blues-rock arena with Webb, like Simon Joyner and William Elliott Whitmore. However, be forewarned that as well-executed as this record is, it’s most likely to satisfy those listeners who already have a hankering for scratchy-voiced, guitar-twangin’ white-boy blues. 8
Issue #30
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