Bob Log III - Log Bomb
(Fat Possum Records)
3 1/2 stars (out of 5 stars)
Reviewed: Dec. 16, 2002
Review by Holiday Girod
Just when you thought rock couldn't get any more stripped down than the bass-less duo of The White Stripes, along comes a guy named Bob Log III, a strange one-man act who performs in a face-concealing motorcycle helmet, complete with microphone, while hammering out infectious Delta blues-soaked slide guitar, primitive rhythms and white trash prose, all with toothless smile-inducing results.
"Lemme introduce the band to you," rasps the Tucson, Arizona musician on "One Man Band Boom." "On cymbal left foot. Over here on bass drum we got right foot. My left hand does all the slide work. Right hand does the picking and my mouthhole does most of the talkin'." It ain't a big band, for sure, but Log unloads a heap of passionate blues rock that most quartets would have a hard time keeping up with.
With a penchant for women's breasts and hard liquor Log's lyrical content is quite a hoot. Sure its sophomoric ("Hey, you got your boob in my scotch") and pure trash ("I'm a professional. I live in a car") but with his band of four limbs and 'mouthhole' there are few that have rocked out this hard before with so little.
From his feverous slide, bump-and-grind beats and boozey yelps on "Wigglin' Room" to the locomotive rhythms on "Put That There" and furious guitar work on the psychedelic gutbucket instrumental blues of "Slide Guitar Ride Junior" Bob Log's 'less is a shithouse more' approach is guaranteed to raise the roof off any party.
With song titles such as "Bubble Strut," "Drunk Stripper," "Wag Your Tail Like A Dog In Back Of A Truck" and Log's signature number "Boob Scotch" here's a guy that makes no qualms about why he got into music - the 'hoes and hootch.'
I don't know how long the schtick of a horny guitar player in a motorcycle helmet playing with himself can last, but for today I raise my 'boob scotch' in this odd maverick's honor.