Black Carl’s “Silhouette of Evil”

Photo courtesy of Downtown Devil/Google/WorldWideWeb

Pew’s got a spell on you.

Black Carl releases preview to “Chariot” 

For most Black Carl fans it seems their song catalog always ends too soon. So with a sigh of mutual relief I’m happy to announce that Black Carl has released a new tune. And for free. And deservedly so. The scene has let Black Carl play the same 15 songs or so over and over for years. While it may go without saying: It was worth the wait.

One thing you can count on from Black Carl is the occasional immortalization of the desert and the tongue-in-cheek social wasteland of Arizona, which is what “Silhouette of Evil” is on the surface. “Silhouette” has a tiptoe groove that builds up and breaks down into the usual half-time incantations made for live-show wooing. Pew and Co. takes listeners into the wicked woods of a drugged-up Snow White and will have the crowd kind of swaying back and forth as if pendulums or wandering uRacs from Dark Crystal.

The song, no doubt recorded with Bob Hoag at Flying Blanket Studios, sounds like all one’s favorite parts of Black Carl’s “Borrowed” album rolled into a single song — except with more guitar powering rivalry to the enunciations of songstress Pew.

If this song is meant to set the tone for “Chariot,” then fans can expect a darker, slightly more complicated third album. However, the only hesitation I have is how closely Black Carl seems to be sticking to script. And while the return of guitarist Matt Noakes has given the band a bit more elbowroom, they’re still groovin’ more than noodlin’ and it’d be nice to see them let loose a little.

Yet, “Silhouette of Evil” will undoubtedly become a stage staple and used as an antithesis for the obligatory and catchy “Hussy.”  

Get it free for signing your soul to the fan list:

http://blackcarl.fanbridge.com/

[Disclaimer: I wrote this a few weeks ago intended for the College Times, but it has since disappeared into oblivion…]