Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones But Names Will Never Hurt Me.

No-Neck Blues Band were Revenant-founder, the late John Fahey's, favorite band, and it's too bad he didn't live to see the release of this next edition in No-Neck Blues Band's catalog. For the uninitiated, the band hails from Manhattan, upper and lower, and is comprised of mostly hirsute men and women who have nothing whatsoever to do with any blues you might be thinking of. They are mysterious (no one knows exactly how many recordings they've issued, though this is their third CD), they don't draw attention to themselves, and they are awesome. Their music can be loosely described, and was in their press release, as "often stumbling into a groove as irresistible as the swamp-choogle of vintage Creedence. Blues for fans of Beefheart, early Royal Trux, Dock Boggs, and Heliocentric Worlds-era Sun Ra." But just as often, it drifts into ghostly trancelike moments where rhythms and riffs turn around on each other in a spare, spacious hoodoo mix that is as sparse as dust and sounds like the players have been indulging in its use. Improv and groove slither and snake around one another, whispering their bliss with guitars, various drums, flutes, whistles, horns, and wanton bass. Produced by Jerry Yester at his Ozarks studio (Yester has worked with Tom Waits and Tim Buckley and was a member of the Lovin' Spoonful), the sound separations and quality real time-space maneuvers represent accurately what the band is like live. There are four tracks listed on the sleeve of this handsome package, each being handmade of wood and plastic by the band. But just as the four tracks are listed, there are seven on the CD itself. And number one is not a title so much as a series of lyrics. Weird? You bet. But it's all the more compelling for being so. I can picture reading Thomas Ligotti's creepy short stories to this music. Or doing shamanic tantric sex rituals as well. The boundaries are in your mind, not NNCK's; they wouldn't dream of imposing anything at all on your fragile psyche. Consider this a small snapshot, 75-minutes-worth, of the band doing what they do best: engaging and mystifying.