Pop Levi
The Return to Form Black Magick Party (Counter)
From the first pounding slap-backs and compressed vocals – tight as nut-hugging 514s on a glam fag – it’s easy to forgive critics exalting 21st century boy and ex-Ladytroner Levi as Marc Bolan reincarnate. His hindsight fishnet drags up as much Norman Greenbaum and David Essex as T. Rex. Similarly, the loose bass fwap on “Blue Honey” may scrape like balls on a basset hound, but it’s equal parts “Fly Like an Eagle” and “Hoochie Coochie Man.” These aren’t bad things. The off-kilter, old-fi production, mixed by Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart), pays generational homage like Prince or Beck. Levi’s Ringo-meets-Johnny Depp fawn-in-headlights cover shot follows suit; this boy knows rock iconography. Sans those fine, flowing facial follicles, he’d qualify for androgynous, yet lanky rocker dude enough to pull off lyrics like, “Sho nuff, she wanna take me down.” Yeah, honey, just like them too-tight denim peg-legs. (Thursday, March 15. Ale House, 1am)
This article appears in March 16 • 2007.