The Shaky Hands Let It Die (Kill Rock Stars)

[September 30th, 2009]

[ROCK REBIRTH] When the Shaky Hands won WW’s Best New Band poll in 2007, a packed house came out to see them play the celebratory show. The Shakies had just released their summery, hook-filled debut. It seemed like all of Portland was in their corner, singing along.

But behind the scenes, the Shaky Hands were already sick of the album. It took too long to see release, and in the interim the band had outgrown its bright-’n’-shiny roots. So the Shaky Hands took the stage that night and rocked the fuck out. Frontman Nick Delffs hollered like a madman, then-drummer Colin Anderson was intense and unflinching. The band played mostly raw new material, and by the end they had collapsed onstage in a swirl of feedback. Some people cheered wildly at the end, some had already walked out. It was a lot to take in.

Two and a half years and two albums later, Let it Die is the first disc to capture the Shaky Hands as they are in the moment: raucous, tight and chasing an urgency of spirit that has largely disappeared from rock ’n’ roll.

But, again, it’s a lot to take in. The opening title track is a squealing, intense and minimal rock jam à la the MC5. Delffs’ opening lines seem to make up his paranoid manifesto: “Don’t wanna waste my life and work for nothing/ Don’t wanna hold the key or be your servant,” he babbles in fast-forward. “Never Mind,” the second track, is just as challenging. “You’ll never be fine,” Delffs assures us time and time again over blues-rock guitar structures and sharp feedback. It’s heavy shit.

But there are still hooks here, even when they take a metal detector to locate beneath the rattling riffage from Delffs and Jeff Lehman and the laser-focused rhythm section of Mayhaw Hoons and Jake Morris. But for those who listen for the ghostly harmonies on “Never Fine,” the funky “Hey Mickey” backbeat of “Love Curse” and the dueling guitar licks of “Caught in the Storm,” it’s extremely rewarding.

The Shaky Hands’ musical transformation is only part of the equation. On Let it Die, Nick Delffs spends the better part of the disc’s 42-minute run coming to grips with the idea of impermanence. Delffs had always been a thoughtful lyricist, but here—after a trip to India—he’s more focused than ever. And the beauty of this album is that Delffs’ spiritual search (he even sings “Hare Krishna” on the disc’s last song) fits hand in hand with the Shakies’ musical one.

We’re bombarded daily with a consumer culture that places value on shiny new things. And neither the Shakies’ classic rock-informed sound nor Delffs’ spiritual quest are likely to fit that bill. But the Shaky Hands excel at excavating rock clichés and breathing the joy of creation into them once again. That joyful rediscovery is at the very heart of the Shaky Hands’ appeal, and those who stick with Let it Die—especially the gorgeous four-song arc at the end of the record, which includes the first honest-to-God Shaky Hands ballad “Gonna Hold You Tonight”—will eventually come around. It may not sound entirely new, but Let it Die has something even better going for it: It sounds real.