Dead Confederate: Sugar

Dead Confederate
Sugar
TAO/Old Flame Records [2010]









Fire Note Says: Dead Confederate treat you with their Southern rock take on the early 90's.

Album Review:
I always feel that Athens, Georgia-based quintet Dead Confederate is a band destined to break out with their retro 90's sound, feedback guitar pulse and Southern howl. On the groups sophomore record Sugar, Dead Confederate stay the course and give you exactly what you expect. One play through the album and Dinosaur Jr., Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana will all flash through your mind at some point, as Dead Confederate highlight that era with a Southern grunge vibe. Ironically, some of the tracks that feel more "modern", I believe work the best, as "Run From The Gun" contains the albums best hook and also lets the focus shine on singer Hardy Morris's vocals with less instrumentation. "Giving It All Away" has a smooth flow with the swaying chorus and the injected support from J Mascis adds real spark. Sugar easily is not a misstep for Dead Confederate because it possesses these moments of memorable catchiness but some songs try too hard to live in the past and fade quickly from your memory. The other noticeable difference here is that the songs are much shorter and have an average around 3 minutes compared to Wrecking Ball [2008], which was over 5 including a 12 minute opus. This change may have long time followers screaming "sell out" and does change the complexity of Dead Confederate. The group definitely has a knack for rock and this album still has success with individual singles. I still will tell anyone that Dead Confederate is a band to keep an eye on because if they can get this balance correct on album number three -watch out because it's going to be killer!

Key Tracks: "Run From The Gun", "Giving It All Away (w/ J Mascis)", "In The Dark"

Bands With Similar Fire:
Smashing Pumpkins
Kings Of Leon
Dinosaur Jr.

Dead Confederate: Wrecking Ball [Fire Note Review 9/17/08]
Dead Confederate: Dead Confederate EP [Fire Note Review 12/14/07]

Official Dead Confederate Website
Dead Confederate MySpace
Dead Confederate Facebook
Old Flame Records

-Reviewed by Christopher Anthony