It’s rare that a concept record rocks so hard. Rory Danger and the Danger Dangers’ debut recording is propulsive and energetic with the songs and humorous and droll with the commentary that brackets several songs.
This is not a surprise, as the band consists of members of Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes, Misfit Power, and Debauche, all bands that have a sense of humor, and the leader, Rory Danger, a.k.a. Aurora Nealand, is an expert in adding different media and the unexpected to her work.
Such commentary sounds like a turn-of-the-century explorer and a relation of the band’s leader relating his exploits and diary entries about eating dogs and freezing weather. It stands in contrast with the barely controlled, mostly rockabilly songs that this nine-piece band throws down. There is rocking and rollicking piano, hard-strummed guitar, and over-the-top yakety sax of Rory Danger.
Rory Danger sings most of the songs, and her young-sounding voice adds a slightly unhinged dimension to the songs, whether she’s working the coquettish angle on “Tongue Tied” or crazy screams on “Cat Man,” which is matched by a manaical guitar solo from C. Wayne Danger.
Whether on the new-wavish “Call of the Wild” or oompah shanty sing-along “Guts Glory Gallantry” and the razor-sharp “Red on The Head,” the band seems joyful and invested in the music.
They play with a reckless abandon and sense of fun. And there is a certain wit and whimsy in the lyrics with the description of Rory Danger with a “fully loaded tenor sax” in the opening and the details about the “World’s Most Dangerous Museum.”
By the end of the record, listeners who have accompanied this Age of Exploration should feel that the trip and the music encompassing it was a wild, fun and edifying journey upon which it is worthwhile to re-embark.