(Credit: Manfred Baumann)
Unlike so many other actor/actress types that make that dubious move towards music, Juliette Lewis moonlighting as a badass rocker chick was never really an issue. She obviously had it in her, as far back as the notorious thumb-sucking scene in “Cape Fear.” Then she went ahead and played an elegantly wasted rock star in “Strange Days” (performing PJ Harvey originals at that), and the persona just sort of stuck. Of course you can’t forget her funky breaking-it-on-down dance-off with the Daft Punk robots to “Digital Love” in the coolest GAP commercial ever.
There’s nothing disco about her role fronting the Licks, Lewis's straight-ahead proto-rock glam gang. On the band’s second full-length, “Four on the Floor” (due July 24th on the Militia Group label), Juliette and the Licks bash away at tuneful garage rock burners, sonically referencing Patti Smith and the Velvets (“Death of a Whore”), The Who (“Get Up”), Cheap Trick and the Foo Fighters (“Purgatory Blues”) – oh look, Dave Grohl plays drums on the album. “Bullshit King” is the record’s sole nod to post-punk angularity, and gives Hot Hot Heat a run for their skinny jeans. Rock on, sister.
Scott T. Sterling is Music editor for Metromix Los Angeles.
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