Boom Box Archive

Boomer Box Archive

Reviews for baby boomers that still listen to music

By Mark Fogarty

Laura Fay Lewis, the very image of the rock singer, shows off her inner Bonnie Raitt.

What’s not to like about a hard-rocking NYC singer/songwriter/guitarslinger who is also a filmmaker, poet and a talented artist as well? It could be that the lead singer of the Blisstones does too many things too well, but it’s more likely that the rest of us just aren’t ambitious, talented or energetic enough to follow her model.

On a first listen to the Blisstones (you can hear several of their songs and link to their videos-- watch for scenes at the Chelsea Hotel!-- at www.myspace.com/theblisstones), I thought of Chrissie Hynde and The Pretenders. Good influence to have. But Laura Fay has developed her own original style. And The Blisstones are an excellent and durable rock and roll band. They are expert players and tunesmiths, they know it’s the best fun to be in a band and you get the feeling they’re going to keep at it until somebody cuts the lights off.

Although they are very smoothly recorded, the Blisstones have got a bit of brass-in-pocket edge to them, and Laura Fay is the very picture of the cool rockgirl singer. She’s smart, talented, lively, slender, sexy, carries off the rockgirl’s grabbag of styles to great effect, and knows when to change hair color or wear a wig. For a visual, go to www.theblisstones.com and click on the band’s pictures from their gig at the annual Coney Island Mermaid Parade. Laura Fay adopts the theme to stunning effect.

A warning here: do not listen to or download Blisstones’ songs if you can’t stand music repeating over and over in your head. It happened to me after listening to “What’s the Rush, Superstar” and it will happen to you. You will find yourself alternating the audio track with the video just to mix it up a little while you get your fix of a riff that will not leave you alone. If you’re at work while this happens, you may lose your job, unless like me you write a musical blog for the firm (I still don’t know how this happened) and are allowed to surf tunes on company time!

I went to a group art show called “Taking it Higher” Laura Fay was in and was impressed by her inventiveness, especially in a thoughtful piece called “History Lessons” in ink and acrylic on wood which takes on our American original sin of slavery. That’s where I told her I hated her, in jest, and this is my apology to her for being ironic. So here’s a tip of the BoomerBox hat to Laura Fay Lewis, cool rockgirl and true Renaissance woman.

Besides Laura Fay, the Blisstones are Michael Aguirre, lead guitar and vocals, April Daly, drums, and Sasha Alexander, bass, and their CDs are called Park and Slapback. They next play live Dec. 12 at Kenny’s Castaways in New York.

THIS JUST IN: The Blisstones have been named best live rock band for 2006 by the indie NYC New Century Heatseekers rankings.