Regular Columnists

Artist: Yvonne Doll & The Locals
Website: http://www.localsmusic.com/
Genre: Alternative
CD Review:
Poetry, music and beauty fit in a 3-handed glove with this Doll and her Locals. One of the most poignant and trusting acoustic ballads on the 13 track cd is 'Blind Man's Version of the Elephant'. Well, the title alone is worthy of a good indie songwriting award, but the violin and the folk-induced girlie spirit that comes out across not only this one, but through most of the cd, sends out enough light to charge batteries for the coming darkness. Oh, this is alternative, and energized like the shock of seeing an old girl/boyfriend, like the sparks that click your hand when you reach for the cold, metal doorknob. 'All Over Me' is just such a busily, constructive method of exorcising, exercising the madness that sets itself within the fatty parts of the brain. How to get it out when it's All Over? Strum that guitar fast, hold your notes, pay that drummer by the beat, and hold onto something heavy. The Locals are Chicago-based, and have been guitar hoping taverns for a few years now, making themselves seen, heard, felt, like the back of the hand, caressing or hitting. It would be a pleasure to get plastered to these folks.