The Stalking Horses - This Is Your Signal

The Stalking Horses
This Is Your Signal

I have two words for you: Bettie Serveert. Indeed, I’d only recently looked up that group which was one of my fave bands of the 90s and found that they were still making music. So when I put in The Stalking Horses CD I thought that maybe for some reason I’d accidentally gotten a Bettie Serveert album mixed up with it. Sarah Pinsker reminds me so much of Carol Van Dijk, of course minus the Dutch inflections.

However, when the second song “Push On” kicks in, its clear that there are other musical ideas afoot. I definitely do hear the damaged post-punk reference to Afghan Whigs in the music, though the everything isn’t as over the top as Greg Dulli and company can get. The underlying music is more rootsy than punk. I have to confess I’m not such a big fan of “roots-rock in the heartland” type music, however indie it is… in fact if it weren’t for the Bettie resemblance this might have been a CD I’d have passed on. However, listening to the CD a couple times the whole thing started to grow on me.

They have other songs like “Still Be Here” that are a bit more varied and mellow, almost alt-country like if that phrase still means anything nowadays. A bit of an Americana-rock feel to other tracks. For some reason I also hear the echoes of a 90s band called Madder Rose. This is another worthwhile release from The Beechfields label.

Listen:
This Is Your Signal
Everything Bounces

Visit:
The Stalking Horses website
The Stalking Horses Myspace

by Palebear