sky green leopards by richard clarke

A Week With The Skygreen Leopards' "Disciples of California": Day 1

14 December 2006
tell your friends... tell your friends...

Words by Tony Conte//Illustration by Richard Clarke
The Skygreen Leopards are what would have happened if Jerry Garcia had gotten pregnant with Hank Williams’ baby and that baby had spent the entire nine months in utero, stoned out of its gourd. The result is a kid that may very well have been a genius, were it not for the damage to his pot-addled brain.

Disciples of California, the Skygreen Leopards’ fifth album in as many years, has a propensity toward off-kilter, rough-hewn country swagger. But don’t let the walking bassline and standard “Lonesome Dove” honky-tonk fool you, this isn’t a classic country album covered by a half-assed indie band. The Skygreen Leopards’ delivery lacks the urgency of a band needing to be heard, which may work to their benefit.

First impressions? The songs are not falling over themselves to spill their witty aphorisms onto the listener, nor do they bum rush you with clever or unexpected melodies. Disciples is an album that might be taken seriously around a campfire, performed by your friends, who can most-likely sing these songs with more tonal accuracy, but couldn’t mimic the Skygreen Leopards’ fervent lack of fervency. Herein lies the appeal of yet one more reimagining of an early country album: most bands come off as if they care too much about their noble cause (see Beck’s Sea Change). One gets the sense that The Skygreen Leopards couldn’t give a shit what you think… which only makes you want to listen more in spite of yourself.

Not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but these guys must have smoked an awful lot of pot while making this album. I caught at least three references to “getting high”, which makes a case for “thematic relevance” in an already slim 35-minute album. But in a song-cycle stuffed with indecipherable biblical references and ghastly images of death, love-lost, and marching bands, you imagine that whatever inspires these guys is some pretty heavy stuff. Can you blame a guy for needing a toke just to stay sane in this Louis L’Amour novel on acid? I’ll give them this: these guys believe in what they’re doing, though they may not be entirely sure what exactly that is.

Tomorrow: Standout tracks and laugh-out-loud lyrics.

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