The Last Hard Men
"The Last Hard Men"
(Spitfire Records)

Only fitting that this should come out some four years after its conception, at a time when anyone and everyone would have completely forgot about them-so much for going the conventional route. And as you might expect when you throw together four different musicians from fairly different backgrounds, you get an out of control mix of Rock styles that comb the wreckage of Alt., Punk, Emo., SFX and Noize to come up with, quite naturally, The Last Hard Men. And let's forget for a moment that ex-Breeders singer Kelley Deal shares in the lead vocal department with one Sebastian Bach-and hers is assuredly an unmistakably female voice in spite of one's familiarity or not with her former band. The tunes are from the get go an emotional wreck that rise and fall from one extreme to another-"Sleep" seconds in is an irrational noise fest, Bach's vocals straining as if to be heard from a hundred miles away and trapped with no means for escape; conversely, "School's Out," the old Alice Cooper cover, led by Deal, has an unusually lounge act feel to it which is cool, before turning to an out of tune parlance into demo-tape obscurity-you've heard many a version before, just never quite like this. What else to expect from The Last Hard Men. well how about Kelley singing the title track? The tunes are simple yet powerful, and usually way out there on the musical scale as one might expect from the varied influences poured into this mix which also includes Smashing Pumpkins' drummer Jimmy Chamberlin and The Frogs' guitarist Jimmy Flemion-so spanning the corridor of these 23 total short tracks, a few made up of seconds long intros and various assorted method acting, we traipse across many Rock borders without setting into one particular place for too long. Bach, in fact sounding like a sideshow pitchman, nearly Alice-like from time to time, does the chameleon vocalist role justice by spanning different styles, some veering far off from his customary high-pitched screaming Skid Row exploits, most of which are completely vacant. So it's all in all Modern Rock warfare, Heavy yet subtle, gentle yet intangible, experimental yet eclectic, and something that rises beyond the border of expectations and should surprise a lot of listeners. Definitely one of the quirkier side projects ever in existence.

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