Theirs could well be a story lifted from a yet-to-be-released summer flick: Following the tragic death in 2012 of his friend and occasional bandmate Matt Brown, a drummer whose credits included backing Husker Du’s Grant Hart, North Carolina-based guitarist Jefferson Hart—no relation to Grant—begins teaching Brown’s youngest daughter, Ella, about the six-stringed instrument. In time, a relationship with her mom, Laura, blossomed, they married, and family time consisted of him jamming in the living room with Ella on bass and her older sister, Lila, on drums just like her dad. They sounded good. Better than good. A band was born.
Their odd-sounding name, for those curious, hails from a 1967 issue of Tiger Beat magazine that blared several stories about Davy, Mike, Mickey and Peter on its colorful cover, including “Secret Monkee Weekend!” Though a tad more garage rock than the Prefab Four, Hart and his stepdaughters have a knack for crafting catchy hooks and harmonies that would’ve caused Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart (again, no relation) to be jealous. “So Much Joy,” for example, is an infectious good time.
Hart and Lila, 22, trade lead vocals, while Ella, 17, sings backup. The songs come fast and not-so-furious, aka mostly up-tempo and fun, spiked by tasty guitar solos that never go on too long and occasional screams, such as on the title track, which was inspired by Laura taking a hammer to a bag of stuck-together lemon drops. As with other songs, “We Can Be Friends” conjures many of the gems collected by Lenny Kaye on the long-ago Nuggets compilation. It’s a feel-good song if ever there was one, sounding great when driving with the windows down. The Merseybeat-like guitar break is a delight.
The 10-track Lemon Drop Hammer was produced by the legendary Don Dixon, whose lengthy credits include R.E.M., Tommy Keene, the Smithereens and Marshall Crenshaw. The press release quotes him as saying, ““I wasn’t prepared for Jefferson’s tremendous talent as a writer, player and singer. These three individuals have combined to make something I love [and] grown, literally and figuratively, in front of my eyes.” (Hart, for his part, also jokes about their growth, telling Chapelboro.com—my go-to source for local news—as as saying, “Lila’s grown four inches and I’ve gained ten pounds.”)
(The album will be out everywhere on June 6th, including Bandcamp.)
The Old Grey Cat 