A lot of people think they\u2019re the world\u2019s biggest Jimmy Page fan. Sorry folks, but y\u2019all need to get in line behind Fran Capitanelli.<\/p>\n
Atlanta-based singer-songwriter-guitar-slinger Capitanelli never made any bones about the fact that he wanted to make music that sounded like classic Led Zeppelin. What is honestly still astonishing 20 years later is just how good he and his band The Tom Collins were at doing exactly that, long before anybody had ever heard of Greta Whatshername. Deep Cuts<\/i>, the second of three independently released discs from the power trio of Capitanelli (vocals and guitar), Craig McQuiston (bass and vocals) and Kyle Spence (drums), is basically Zep 2001.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a bit of a twist in the vocals, where Capitanelli\u2019s nasal twang comes off more Tom Petty than Robert Plant, but it\u2019s a detail you hardly notice when the group is busy delivering its specialty: greasy swagger in service of deliriously fat riffs. That\u2019s apparent from opening seconds of \u201cSeashow,\u201d the first proper song after a brief intro. The trio lays down a grinding groove with thundering guitar over a propulsive rhythm section. <\/p>\n
\u201cTKMJ\u201d is similarly explosive, featuring an especially angular, piercing hook, but also exposes the one real weakness of this album: it\u2019s more style than substance. Capitanelli and friends go after a familiar sound and nail it, but the lyrics don\u2019t feel like they matter, they\u2019re just a means to an end. Having said that, The Tom Collins are astonishingly good at what they do, going for a full-on jam in the fifth minute that feels like a lost segment of the mighty Zep\u2019s \u201cRock And Roll.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cLowbrain\u201d is where it gets almost eerie, with Capitanelli\u2019s every move on guitar like a parallel-universe Page, from tone to riffage to even his weird, crinkly soloing. If you haven\u2019t gotten the message yet, \u201cTribute\u201d opens with a bludgeoning sonic assault that feels like a marginally slower variation on \u201cImmigrant Song,\u201d and then \u201cYoung Girls\u201d delivers a passionate blues that builds as they go. Piling on, the lurching \u201cBookends\u201d and the riffy \u201cHit And Flipped\u201d both sound like outtakes from Houses Of The Holy<\/i>.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecond Chance\u201d dips into a different stew of influences with an especially knotty and nimble riff over a bass line that feels suspiciously close to original hard rock anthem \u201cYou Really Got Me.\u201d \u201cLife This Curse\u201d\u2014track 10\u2014is where the band finally busts out a bit, a midtempo, slightly spacy and loose-limbed number featuring Capitanelli on acoustic, electric and slide.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe Loves Sin\u201d provides a late highlight, opening up as a ringing number with a nice churn to it and some of Capitanelli\u2019s better singing, before three minutes in it segues into a second segment with even more drive, building into a heavy jam that jumps all the way to triple-time before it winds up. \u201cCamden\u201d closes the album, a deliberate blues with a steady rhythmic pulse and rather melancholy vocals.<\/p>\n
One thing that\u2019s clear from my backwards travels through The Tom Collins\u2019 catalog is that is that Capitanelli\u2019s singing and songwriting both evolved and improved over the course of three albums. On Daylight Tonight<\/i> it feels like there\u2019s more attention paid both to lyrics and to phrasing and enunciation. Part of the issue with this particular album may be that the vocals feel like they\u2019re mixed a little low, as if they\u2019re the least important part of the music. That may be on purpose, but it does make this album a great argument for lyric sheets…<\/p>\n