C'mon DJ

Mr. Airplane Man's third full-length, C'mon DJ, is the strongest record yet. The duo of Margaret Garrett on guitar and vocals and Tara McManus on drums have stripped off another layer of dirt from their low-down lo-fi garage punk sound. They have also taken another small step away from the blues and toward the girl group and classic rock & roll sounds they headed in on their previous album. The songwriting has tightened up some, too. C'mon DJ is a garage punk classic in the making, an extremely catchy blast of unbridled sexy desire with the kind of chord progression that'll make you want to learn how to play guitar just so you can play along. It starts the album off at such a peak that the rest of the disc suffers a bit, but there is still plenty of fine material to be found, like the downcast and lovely ballad "How Long," which sounds like Mazzy Star if they had come from Memphis instead of Beverly Hills, the rollicking "Red Light," and the heartbroken strut "Don't Know How to Love," which shows off Garrett's much improved vocals. Elsewhere you will be treated to excellent covers of the Dutch Outsiders' moody ballad "Sun's Going Down," the Wailers' pounding garage rocker "Hang Up," the traditional blues "Travelin'," and Howlin' Wolf's "Asked for Water," all delivered with a large dollop of grit, grease, and sweetness. A very nice combo indeed. If you thought you would make it all the way through the review without hearing any White Stripes comparisons, you were almost right. They are no doubt in the same ballpark as the Stripes, the whole guitar/drums duo playing the white blues and all, but they are not imitators. They are simply hoeing the same row and doing it in fine unpretentious and down-home style. When you tire of the Stripes and their rock star routine, c'mon over and check out the simple charms of Mr. Airplane Man's C'mon DJ.