The term “supergroup” has been used many times in the music business. All you really have to do is be recognizable name-wise, then collaborate on a project with three or four other musicians who have also had past success, and you too can achieve this press-worthy status. Some work, some don’t. Sadly, egos and issues of the sort usually get in the way of progress and creativity, and the band members go their separate ways or pair off. It has happened countless times in rock and roll.
For the members of The Immediate Family, who have released a second album entitled Skin In The Game, the aforementioned status applies, but it is secondary thought. They let the music speak for itself. The players — veteran guitarists Danny Kortchmar and Waddy Wachtel, bassist Leland Sklar, and drummer Russ Kunkel joined by singer and guitarist Steve Postell — have collaborated together to create some great material for today’s rock lovers.
The record starts out with the aptly titled “Whole Lotta Rock and Roll,” a crashing, bashing bar-room rocker that spotlights Wachtel’s blistering guitar runs and scratchy vocals. Sklar and his solid bass lines and Kortchmar’s lead vocals bring the funky blues of “24/7/365” to a head-shaking groove. Postell takes the lead vocal for a reworking of Russell and Ron Mael’s “The Toughest Girl In Town,” the album’s first single, which is a huge left turn from the 1988 original version by Sparks. Imagine if an artist like Nils Lofgren took on a Devo song. If so, you get the picture. It’s odd but it works, and I applaud the band for making it their own.
Skin In The Game alternates between satirical romps like “Party At The Graveyard” to lovely melodies such as “Catch You On The Other Side.” The latter brings to mind Jackson Brown’s 1982 hit, “Somebody’s Baby,” which was co-written by Kortchmar and features him and Kunkel on the recording. It’s a very diverse set of songs, and the fact that it is split up vocally among the trio of Kortchmar, Wachtel, and Postell is a testament to how much trust the players have in each other as a unit. Everyone brings something to the table.
“Lost In The Shuffle” is just that — a rocking shuffle led by the fantastic rhythm section of Sklar and Kunkel that makes it a play on words with the beat of the song. The fact that these gentlemen play on so many recordings I own makes just about everything on Skin In The Game sounds homey and familiar.
My two favorite songs on the record — Kortchmar’s “Too Many Irons In The Fire” and Wachtel’s hilarious “High Maintenance Girlfriend,” which closes the album — take popular terms and ingeniously craft them into the music. This is what great songwriters do. Naturally, the instrumentation is first rate, and it brings out a big smile to those of us who are fans of all five members’ work, both past and present.
~ Junkman
