Following a twenty year hiatus, Vegas DeMilo is back and ready to pick up where they left off with their new perfect-for-summer rock album, Black Sheep Lodge, due out March 1st.
What began as a response to Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville has become a series of nostalgic and eclectic tracks both celebrating and lamenting youth, with a flow and sense of storytelling that makes the album a pleasure to listen to from start to finish.
Black Sheep Lodge opens with an ode to The Rolling Stones’ drummer in “Charlie Watts,” a catchy and lighthearted rock and roll tribute to the band’s origins, before shifting into the vexed yet triumphant “Tuesday Night Fever.”
This danceable track, which is also the band’s January single, fills in the gaps of life during the band’s hiatus. The lyric, “I learned nothing at college except how to be everything I never wanted to be / Someone wake me up cause I’m sick of living the dream,” encapsulates both the youthful rebellion and aged remorse that are present throughout the album.
The fifth track on the album and their final single, “California Let Me Down,” stands out as a ballad marked by the soulful use of electric guitar and a bridge that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Western musical, slowing down the pace of the album and allowing a moment to breathe and reflect.
“Imaginary Blondes” is another standout track, offering a picture of defeated acceptance and the jealousy that follows the end of a relationship. “It’s like drinking poison and hoping someone else dies” and “You were blonde from a bottle / And I was only King for a day,” are lyrics which perfectly capture the song’s celebration of pieces of our lives that perhaps should be over, but still hold a place in our hearts.
The tenth track, “Suicide Queens,” maintains this air of sentimentality, albeit with a pop-punk feel with its use of electric guitar and dark yet pointed lyrics. The chorus line, “I’m getting too old for the scene / Suicide Queens,” pays tribute to the longing that comes with nostalgia, while accompanied by a youthful sound that lets us know rock and grit know no age.
Black Sheep Lodge closes with “Get in the Van,” a track which, similar to “Charlie Watts,” celebrates the band’s origins. The track begins with a quiet, unassuming guitar melody which morphs into a song of tender and playful sounds and lyrics, evoking the sensation of a parent telling a story to their child, aside of course from the lyrics themselves: “Shut the fuck up and get in the van / Got a bottle of Jack in my waistband / If anyone asks if we got paid / Pass the bottle man it’ll be okay.”
“Get in the Van” encapsulates the spirit of Black Sheep Lodge, which is both a celebration of youth and the sensation of never feeling totally grown up, a celebration of the rocky road of pursuing one’s dreams and the wisdom that comes with getting older.
Vegas DeMilo reformed during the pandemic as music became a refuge and old friends began to reconnect. It was a time to reflect for everyone, which is why it is perhaps no surprise that the album which emerged from these creative sessions is one marked by reflection and nostalgia, autobiographical in its storytelling of the band members’ experiences growing up after spending time chasing their dreams and everything in between.
Black Sheep Lodge celebrates the youth in all of us, and plays with the pessimistic, rebellious optimism that comes with an experience Vegas DeMilo knows well: the freedom of being young, uninhibited, and musically inclined. Be on the lookout for the album March 1st.
