MICHAEL J. SHEEHY
Ill Gotten Gains
Beggars Banquet
· Ex-Dream City Film Club member reborn as missing link between Elvis and Nine Inch Nails.
You can't say the same thing twice (though God knows that doesn't stop some people from trying). It is the nature of communication that repetition alters meaning: say "I love you" once and, with a little luck, your words will be taken at face value – say it three times, and it's hard not to sound desperate or stupid. Every musician therefore, and every musical form, must either evolve or decline into self-parody.
Rockabilly, the high school dropout of counterculture, has been quite content with the second option, a surly presence in the back alleys of popular music, sniggering at passers-by and making a racket after midnight. On Ill Gotten Gains, Michael J. Sheehy grabs it by the sideburns and frog-marches it into art school and the 21st century.
Starting where Ed Collins and Paul Quinn left off, Ill Gotten Gains opens with an ode to Gene Vincent and, having paid its respects to tradition, gets down to business with a mutated goth-techno version of "Mystery Train," then heads growling into an inner night of masochism and despair. From "Some People Love to Get Hurt" to "Black Hole Is Waiting, Baby Let's Go," Sheehy's light, angelic voice is the perfect vehicle for these tales of self-loathing and despair, offset by a dark, shining accompaniment that mixes the classic with the avant-garde.
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