Can a rock critic actually rock? Hell yeah. Ask the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde, Yo La Tengo's Ira Kaplan and Lester Bangs (ok, so youll have to use a Ouija board to contact Bangs) -- they all wrote about music and made records.
Damn Lovelys' singer/guitarist Meredith Ochs does, too. Though she contributes to Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, Guitar World and National Public Radio's All Things Considered, Ochs initially set out to be a musician, not a writer -- she's played guitar since childhood.
"I fell backwards into rock journalism," Ochs says. "I'd written some short stories just for fun and showed one to a friend of mine who worked at a music magazine. He loved it and hired me to write for him." An avid record collector with more than 20,000 albums, CDs and 45s, Ochs was a natural for the job.
Trouble Creek is the Damn Lovelys' debut. Its sweet amalgam of rock, pop and twang has already earned the Hoboken, New Jersey quartet -- which features Pat Walsh (bass, keyboards, vocals), Jason Beard (drums, percussion) and Lawrence Ochs (guitar, lap steel, mandolin) -- critical praise from publications such as Harp, Guitar World and New York's Village Voice, as well as a performance on the venerable radio program Mountain Stage.
Trouble Creek was recorded at the legendary Loft Studio in Bronxville, New York, an early stomping ground of pop stars like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. "It seemed incongruous for an indie band like us to be working in this pop haven, but it was a great hang," Ochs says.
The Damn Lovelys have appeared on three compilation CDs (tributes to Uncle Tupelo, Mike Nesmith and John Fogerty, the latter of which earned them a rave in No Depression magazine) and play frequently in New York City.
Behold the allmusic.com review.
Check out Meredith 's programs on Sirius Satellite Radio: Freewheelin' with Meredith Ochs and Chris T. on Road Dog 147 (11am-2pm ET) and weeknights on Outlaw Country 63 (8pm-midnight ET).
