Local Reviews: Red Bennies

Red Bennies
Glass Hands
Rest 30 Records
Street: 04.21
Red Bennies = Red Devils + Smith and Westerns + Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
SLC stalwarts Red Bennies have never sounded pretty. Their fuzzed-out blues-based chord progressions sound eternally mangled and mashed out of a shitty bar P.A. David Payne’s strangled yelp often writes checks his vocal chords can’t cash. It is the fast and loose burners, vocal chord shredding and frustrated rock machismo that make Glass Hands feel and sound more direct and honest than anything coming out of SLC today. As dissonant as the Red Bennies attempt to make their songs, there is a sense of easy grace that pervades their newest hour-long LP—grace that manifests itself in economically-played blues chords, steady bass lines and cello and woodwind flourishes that slip in effortlessly to their dirty neo-soul. Five years and one major line-up change since 2005’s Shake It Off, the return of the Red Bennies is a welcome shot in the arm to SLC’s musical landscape.