The Doll Test

Listening to Little Steven's Underground Garage channel on Sirius today, I heard the "Love" version of Drive My Car and learned it was the "coolest song in the world this week." Great choice!

Today's post will be shorter in honor of the 5-song CD called Gasoline and Banks by a group called The Doll Test, a 3-piece band featuring Scott Sutherland, a former member of the Seattle group, The Model Rockets.

If you love the sounds of guitar-driven rock with enough hooks to make you think it was 1966, this is a CD worth seeking out. While the core of the band is guitar, bass, and drums (masterfully played by Sutherland, Boyd Remillard, and Graham Black, respectively), the group gets an assist from Johnny Sangster on the Hammond and Farfisa organ. Sangster also produced this CD.

The title song opens the CD, and to these ears of mine it should be a boss hitbound single. Like the other tunes on this set, it's a perfect blend of rock and pop music.

"Sings Without Sounds" comes up next and the guitar work here is excellent. Again, the Hammond is in the background, adding depth to the sound and blending in to the proceedings. Sutherland's guitar solos are short and to the point with no wasted notes.

More great guitar work is featured on "Scared Out of Your Mind." The haunting melody makes this one another radio-ready tune.

The pace picks back up with "Rains All the Time" and the closing tune, "Whole Lotta Nothin'." With the exception of the title song, the songs here all clock in under four minutes. There's no wasted motion here; just great songs.

Gasoline And Banks was released in August and is available from the good folks at Not Lame, www.notlame.com.

Enjoy!