Dax Riggs

We Sing of Only Blood or Love | Fat Possum
By MIKAEL WOOD  |  November 13, 2007
3.0 3.0 Stars
inside_DAX-RIGGS---WE-SING-
Last year, Dax Riggs was one-half of Deadboy & the Elephantmen, whose goth-groovy Fat Possum disc you might’ve heard if your appetite for boy-girl blues-rock duos wasn’t satisfied by the White Stripes and the Fiery Furnaces. This year Riggs is flying solo, at least in name: We Sing of Only Blood or Love is his accurately titled debut as Dax Riggs. That doesn’t mean he recorded it all by himself in some candlelit Louisiana outhouse — he made it with Matt Sweeney, the indie-rock magpie who’s worked lately with Billy Corgan (in Zwan) and Will Oldham (on their Superwolf album). Sweeney was a wise choice: he provides a stylistic variety that ensures that Riggs’s material never gets bogged down in some misguided attempt at keeping it real. (One of the best tunes here could almost pass for an outtake from Marilyn Manson’s latest.) And since he plays much of the guitar on Blood or Love, he frees up Riggs to focus on his singing, which at its finest is sexy and scary in equal measure.

Dax Riggs + Beaten Awake + Pet Genius | Middle East upstairs, 472 Mass Ave, Cambridge | November 15 | 617.864.EAST
Related: After school special, Bands to watch out for, Devilution, More more >
  Topics: CD Reviews , Celebrity News, Entertainment, Music Stars,  More more >
| More

Most Popular
Blogs
 More: Phlog  |  Music  |  Film  |  Books  |  Politics  |  Media  |  Election '08  |  Free Speech  |  All Blogs
ARTICLES BY MIKAEL WOOD
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS | FURTHER  |  July 07, 2010
    Astralwerks (2010)
  •   DEVO | SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY  |  July 01, 2010
    Given the theory of de-evolution these Ohio brainiacs began expounding more than 30 years ago, it makes a sad kind of sense that Devo's first album since 1990's Smooth Noodle Maps offers such a charmless, base-level version of the band's synth-addled new wave.
  •   TAIO CRUZ | ROKSTARR  |  June 24, 2010
    When Taio Cruz sings, "I can't live without you," in "Take Me Back," pop-song conventions tell us he's referring to a lover.
  •   THE FUTUREHEADS | THE CHAOS  |  June 16, 2010
    "I wish that I could stop the noise," sings Barry Hyde not long into The Chaos . It sure doesn't seem that way.
  •   BETTYE LAVETTE | INTERPRETATIONS: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK  |  June 01, 2010
    Bettye LaVette’s previous two albums had titles that required a little digging to unpack.

 See all articles by: MIKAEL WOOD

LATEST SLIDESHOWS

All Slideshows