G-Spot
"Come here Go Away"
Genre: aggressive raw pop/rock

G-Spot is a fun band from New York City, fronted by founder and singer Gail Silverman. She's managed to keep the band up for 7 years with a revolving door of musicians (like most bands) together with her bassist Donald Dixon. She sent her package to FemMuse and it was quite unique. I don't really need expert packaging to do a CD review but I have to comment on their cleverness here. Cool insert with smart writing in the form of a restaurant menu. Under "Beverages" you get "Radio Stations whose listeners have drunk to the sounds of G-Spot" and "Dessert" gets you a list of places where the band has played or "where fans have feasted their eyes on G-Spot in the following locations"..groovy I can go with that concept. Now to the music... Vocals: The vocals are really fun so is this CD. Bouncy, energetic... Gail sounds like she's having a blast and she means what she sings. Like on the opening number "I'm over you".. hey babe I hear ya!!! You are over whoever you're singing about. Same for "Happy Denial" I didn't think I'd like this toon at first but then I loved it. The arrangement is killer and Gail again.. brings home the vocal point. "I'm happy.. so fucking happy..." really? To sum up the vocals: girl power pop delivered very well. Kinda very retro in style but with an uptodate flair. Gail has a good voice and a great style. This is a good party CD.

Musicianship: Excellent musicianship thruout by all. Believe it. This is ONE cool CD. Phil Bloom on drums is right on. Same for the guitarist Dennis Winge and Donald Dixon on bass. These guys are good! They also had a host of guest players. Between all of them they came up with clever riffs, smart arrangements well played and yeah Gail belting and convincing the listener of her cause. The guitar sound at times is borderline "cruddy" but it fits... the fills and licks and solos these guys added are super! The whole things actually sounds very "live", sort of recorded during a show but with good quality. They were able to preserve the live feel and did well in the studio. Really good playing by all thruout the CD.

Songwriting: Okay...I always like to talk and write about songwriting and arrangements in the same manner. The arrangements to me are part of songwriting. All the songs on this CD are short. It's a 33 minute CD with 13 tracks, the last one being a 14 minute Mantra so yeah.. the songs are of the short nature.. between 1:58 to 4.5 minutes long. But within those minutes Gail and combo pack in an array of surprises. She and her co-writers penned some fantastic numbers both lyrically and instrumentally. You don't get bored listening to this stuff. At the same time they don't fly just by... it's an experience that Gail takes you on with each one of her gems. I'm sure the producer Lorraine Ferro had a big hand in it. The writing is great. Across the CD. Just the right bridges when you need one, the right grooves to keep it moving. Plus the vocals fit like a glove. Amen sis!

Recording Quality: Recorded at Threshold Music Studio in NYC, produced by Lorraine Ferro and recorded by Kato who's got an impressive resume like the Foo Fighters. As I said earlier, the CD has at first a sort of live feel for most of the tracks and that's a good thing. It still sounds great though and the raw guitar sounds at times are really good. Occasionally the drums were a bit undermixed and the guitars a tad to over the top like on track 10(Believe in us).. but we're talking wall of sound here and it's easy to get carried away in the mix. Still... the production is wonderful and that teeny weeny bit of criticism on my part is just for good measure. I would love to hear some recording stories from the band. Maybe Gail will send me some info and I'll post it here.

Overall: Well.. if you've been following me sofar you KNOW that this is a great CD. No Doubt meets Joan Jett meets The Donnas meets god knows what. It's so much fun to listen to, I can tell ya that. And it ends with a 14 minute indian Mantra... was that to fill the CD folks? This Mantra brings you down from the roller coaster you were on just now. I think it's a brilliant concept. And then you wanna hit start again to go on it once more. This was a good listen. This CD is a winner!

Song picks: Over You, Happy Denial, Beautiful Face, Call on You (sounds reminiscent of No Doubt, especially the drum sound w/ great back up effects)

For more information on G-Spot
log on to G-Spot
written by Shredmistress Rynata