Up All Night With the White Barons

Ever wonder what Janis Joplin would have sounded like singing with a hardcore punk band? That's not quite the formula behind the White Barons, but it's certainly somewhere in the ballpark. On the White Barons' debut album, guitarist Johnny One Eye, bassist Nate von Wahnsinn, and drummer Adam von Keys lay out a near seamless wall of high-energy, roots-friendly thrash, with a primer coat of blues and psychobilly visible through the rumble of the guitars and the throb of the bass. But then the band lets the vocals of queen-sized burlesque performer Eva von Slut burst out and things start going in a different direction than the usual bunch of Social Distortion wannabes. Slut's voice is a good bit lower than the late Ms. Joplin, but for sheer power they're in the same league, and the ferocious wail and bluesy passion she brings to "Champagne and Cocaine" and "Suicide Mission" are impressive indeed. However, some of the other numbers reveal her vocal precision isn't as consistent as one might wish, and she can get plenty histrionic when no one has the sense to reign her in. But in a band that's strong but traveling a stylistic path a lot of acts have already followed, Slut's vocal style is a genuine wild card, and Up All Night with the White Barons will have no trouble keeping anyone who listens bright-eyed and bushy-tailed until the sun comes up.