Bone Soldiers

If there were such a position to be held, Steven Lambke would be the rock and roll poet laureate. Putting in ten years as a guitarist and vocalist in The Constantines, steadily realeasing solo material, co-founding scrappy independent label You've Changed Records (Daniel Romano, Shotgun Jimmie, The Weather Station), Lambke's output has been ceaseless. No wonder that Bone Soldiers, his fourth record as Baby Eagle, abounds with military metaphor. It is the work of a veteran. Loud, brief, and incendiary, it's both a return to his punk roots (think Voidoids, think Mekons, think Iggy and Lou) and a continuation of his increasingly sophisticated work with lyrics (think Leonard Cohen, Bill Callahan, or Nick Cave). As with the critically acclaimed Dog Weather, the record is a perfectly interconnected narrative. Lines that casually mix thorny questions of purpose and meaning with rich imagery and seemingly minor incident. Gorgeously bent guitar solos (from Lambke's Constantines bandmate Will Kidman) face up to the grinning narrator, wheezing, shouting, and whispering his way through a rich stew of rhythmic precision and pop decadence. Bone Soldiers was recorded completely live off the floor in Toronto's vaunted 6 Nassau with Constantines producer Jeff McMurrich at the helm.