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The Molting Vultures
2007 LP Get a Grip
Reviewed by Steve Davenport
4 October 2007
Molting Vulture’s “Get a Grip” is a CD for those who wish that “New Wave” had never died. Nostalgia was originally a term for a serious medical condition. With the contemporary trend for everything retro it seems that nostalgia is contagious. For years bands have tried to co-opt the sounds of classic albums and most have failed. But Molting Vulture has succeeded in capturing the spirit, energy, darkness and personality of the Stranglers’ “Rattus Norvegius” and the New York Dolls’ “Personality crisis.” Where others have failed, this little band has managed to create an album of late 70’s inspired tunes in a modern setting.
Despite the American spelling, Molting Vultures is actually an Adelaide band featuring Nick S Vulture on guitar, Mick W and Nick H vulture on drums, Mick B and Mick C Vulture on bass and Jamie Vulture on keys. Don’t imagine for one moment that this is a culture vulture band; it isn’t. Rather it’s a not-bad retro-punk-revivalist band that packs a punch. Too many contemporary independent bands are weighed down in dry, technical precision to truly bare their souls. Molting Vulture is playfully aggressive and its 11-track album is a gritty, bare-bones recording that invites the listener to get down and dirty in the sound.
There’s a strong sense of humour running through the entire album and although it’s unpolished there’s enough sensibility and lo-fi drive from a band that knows how to pull it off without sounding like a cliché. Molting Vulture, with its an instantly likable, jaunty rock/pop songs, with bouncing keyboards and a laid-back rhythms, is either way ahead of the rest or far behind. Get and buy the album because when this band moults, unfurls it feathers and spreads its wings, it soars.
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