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Jack Pedler: D.T. Delinquent
Jack Pedler: D.T. Delinquent
Race Records
If Jack is vying for a spot as Canada's "Squire of Satire", he's already got it sewn up, as he's certainly not the kind of person who sees the world through rose-coloured glasses. He's got a wide-angled radar for anything or anyone he deems a suitable target for ridicule and he's usually right on the money in his perceptions. Continuing the humorous tirade against low-lifes from his previous CD, Fairyland It Ain't, he now points the finger at pathetic street drunks, nerds, hookers, car-thieving bank robbers and hippies turned yuppies. He has actually succeeded in creating a production worthy of Broadway attention, but I doubt if they are ready for his particular brand of musical ingenuity.
The CD is strictly hard-rock mockery, with a carnivalistic/cannibalistic flair for theatricality that simply screams for a full-length performance video. Both Jack and Dave Pedler assault our senses with their highly imaginative, alliteration-heavy poetry with phrases like delirium delinquent, mucid mozzetta, sublunar sombrero, meritorious milquetoasts, Buckram buffoonery, Spasmodic swaddle, and Ricochet rigmarole, just to name a few examples.
Unlike the semi-lucid psychological case studies ('Hippy [sic] Fascist', 'D.T. Delinquent', 'Effigy Campfire', 'Hot Wire', 'Red Leather Blue Denim', and 'Miscreant'), where the subject matter and general gist of the compositions is at least vaguely surmised, the lyrics in 'It's Not So' and 'Floured and Tickled' sound like snippets of nonsensical conversation that might have been overhead at the Mad Hatter's Tea Party in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Similarly, 'Muzzlechop Whisker' has a Mother Goose on Bad Acid feel to it, especially with that particular hellish (and downright scary) horn arrangement (provided variously throughout the CD by Powerhousers John Willett, Dan Elliot, Glenn Higgins and Carlo DiBattista, as well as Sonny Del Rio and Nick Clayton, who guests on trombone on 'Floured and Tickled').
"So, what's the music like", you ask - a brilliantly orchestrated symphonic mess defying comparison, but which is nevertheless in perfect synchronicity with Jack's monotone grunting rants (or ranting grunts?), dressed up with his quirky female operatic backing vocalists Elaine Overholt (Liona Boyd), Rique Franks (Dan Hill) and Liz Tansey, the latter who has a soundtrack feature in the upcoming Nostradamus flick. The stellar male background vocal contingent is comprised of Dan Clancy (Lighthouse), and all-round music biz promoters/musicians Gary Pig Gold and Dave Rave. Bing Bell, a journalist and also of the Bing Bell Band, if I'm not mistaken, is absolutely dynamite on electric guitar, and a trio of well-known bassists (Neil Nikafor, Jay Colavecchia and Peter Sisk) keeps things fresh and pumping. Jim "Doc" Proctor contributes on piano and keyboards on four of the tracks, including two of my favourites, 'Effigy Campfire' and 'Baby-H[itler]'.
Jack, of course, being the consummate session drummer for too many bands to mention, performs all the drumming here, and it's kept to a frantic pace for the better part of the CD. He also plays on acoustic guitar and keyboards.
The tune least likely to get air play? 'Miscreant' (only because of the "And they made me poop my pants" line). The tune I'd love to hear get air play: 'Muzzlechop Whisker' or 'Outta the Hole'.
"Eau de nil"? Pas de tout!
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