Press release –
Red-hot dance cuts, ice-cold noir songs, rabid rock, passionate soul…the Claudettes reach a whole new level of sound and style with GARAGE GLAMOUR. The album’s title points to the signature blend of glitz and grit that the Claudettes bring to the stage and studio. And the music? Fellini would nod and smile at this carnival ride of an album, which is bookended by two of the most nakedly sincere songs of the Claudettes’ career. GARAGE GLAMOUR is being released on venerable Chicago independent label Pravda Records late Spring on 12” LP vinyl, CD, streaming services and digital download.
Johnny Iguana, the Claudettes’ composer/pianist (who has played on albums featuring Derek Trucks, Johnny Winter, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Buddy Guy, Junior Wells, James Cotton and Johnny’s own Chicago punk-organ cult band Oh My God), has been reaching a worldwide audience as co-composer of the original score of Emmy-winning smash FX/Hulu series “The Bear.” His co-creator of that score, JQ, joined Johnny to co-produce two tracks on GARAGE GLAMOUR. In addition, Grammy-winning producer and musical Renaissance man Steve Berkowitz (who also happens to be Johnny Iguana’s uncle) flew from NY to Chicago to co-produce much of GARAGE GLAMOUR.
But the big coming-out party here belongs to lead singer Rachel Williams, who has been dropping jaws at Claudettes shows since early 2023 and now makes her album debut with the band. Riveting concert crowds with her six-foot height, powerfully soulful vocals and dazzling array of stunning outfits, Rachel simply amazes on GARAGE GLAMOUR. She joins Grammy-nominated guest singer/guitarist John Primer on the deeply moving album opener “(You Are My) Whole World.” Their duet is a thing of profound beauty, as John fell in love with this song in the studio, just as the tape was rolling. This is one of those precious occasions where the moment of musical and emotional discovery is documented just as it flowered. To listen to (now-80-year-old) Primer, distinguished alumnus of the Muddy Waters Band, pour his whole heart into this duet with Rachel is something supremely special.
“‘(You Are My) Whole World’ is a Chicago song, through and through,” says Iguana. “The Chi-Lites’ ‘Oh Girl’ was a musical inspiration, and John Primer is not only one of the last great Chicago blues legends alive, but he loves soul songs so much. He has sung soul classics on stage and in the studio for years, and so I knew that he would bring something extraordinary to this song. My wife and our drummer’s wife both cried when they first heard the track with John’s vocal on it. I knew we had something remarkable here.”
The band, with Michael Caskey on drums and Zach Verdoorn on bass and guitar, create rock-steady grooves on the galloping “Winter Came While You Were Gone” and the throwback reverb-soaked rock ‘n’ roll of “Whirlpool,” the band’s spin on a classic Wanda Jackson B-side. Lustful wishes go in two different directions on “No Matter How Much” and “Touch You Back.” In the former, an ominous buildup of stomps and lurches that gives way to a heroic prog-rock hoedown, Rachel blames all her problems on some maddeningly ineffective magic potion…100-proof Kentucky magic potion. In the latter, a tight dance-floor post-punker (featuring musical shoutouts to everyone from Kraftwerk and Gary Numan to CCR, the Doors and the Zombies), clear romantic signals are somehow missed, but Rachel won’t give up so easily. Funk perfection is brought to “Touch You Back” in the form of guest guitar by the one and only Ella Feingold (Erykah Badu, Queen Latifah, Silk Sonic…), and both “No Matter How Much” and “Touch You Back” were co-produced with Iguana’s “The Bear” partner JQ.
Musical menace and a wide array of keyboards (from Hammond organ and acoustic piano to Roland JX-3P analog synth and Mellotron flutes) emerge on the maniacal rock-opera treatment of the real-life war of wills between Jeff Bezos and David Pecker on “Mr. Pecker’s Apoplexy” and the heist-gone-wrong chiller “That Could Be Arranged.” Another cinematic gem is the David Lynch-worthy “The Aftermath,” in which the questioning narrator seems to ask from beyond the grave, “Are they still looking for me?” Finally, GARAGE GLAMOUR ends with the burning message of “Don’t Give It Up to the Thieves,” in which Rachel bursts out of the gate to urge us to stop feeling forever aggrieved, reverse the trend of finding enemies everywhere and reclaim the innocence and naivety of childhood. The second half of that album-closing suite, “There Is No Other Side,” doubles down on the mission to reject this age of enmity, with the final line, “Heaven, hell and war are built on lies. There is no other side.”
Radically ranging from powerhouse singer to protean character actor, Rachel Williams asserts herself majestically here (“majestic” being the way one audience member described Rachel’s entrance to the stage at an outdoor summer concert). And for all the sounds, styles, omens and homages heard on this astonishing new album, GARAGE GLAMOUR presents a band with a unified sound and an ultimately uplifting outlook.
“These are wild times, in the worst way,” says Iguana. “So let’s get wild, in the best way. Have fun. Make fun. Make music. Be your weird self, all the way. We’ll show you how.”
