Further establishing themselves as one of the best bands in the Tampa music scene, Y Los Dos Pistoles marks a new milestone with their appealingly bipolar new recording, Six Stories High.
This heavier-sounding second release from the seven-year-strong four-piece reveals the band’s impressive evolution (recorded with the expert assistance of Mark Nikolich at Atomic Audio). YLDP’s blend of fuzzy punk rock, moody folk and Spaghetti Western-esque ephemera are on full display, bounding from hooky anthems like opener “Fourth Floor Weekend” (audio below) to the waltzy “Clay Furnace” to the punk-kicking barn burner “Kitchen Sink Revival.” Drummer Derek Forrester and bassist Russ Jovin bestow complementary, rollicking rhythms and co-guitarist Rodney Smith adds sweet flourish — as do guest vocals by Nickole Hanna and the Dude Choir (Adam Revak, Ben Thurmond, David Kibby, Jeff Brawer and Phil Stanwick).
Quivery, demure and tough all at once, lead singer Shae Krispinsky conveys her ingeniously disjointed narratives both urgently and distantly as she holds her own on guitar and occasional harmonica, and goes from bold to reluctantly confessional (“The sky hangs so low on the moon tonight and slices down like the smile / Of a blade, oh I can’t be blamed”). All told, Krispinsky and her fellow gunslingers bring us a uniquely descriptive, poetic juggernaut with nary a twinge of whiplash.
Critics’ Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars.