Categories
ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: I Am The Polish Army’s “My Old Man”

For the last decade, singer/guitarist Emma DeCorsey has lived the rock ’n’ roll life, with all its giddy highs and depressing lows. She’s played to empty clubs, had affairs with famous musicians and struggled to find her artistic voice. After DeCorsey met bass player Turner Stough and drummer Eric Kuby, everything came together, and the raw, visceral sound of I Am The Polish Army was born. DeCorsey’s songs explore the darker side of relationships and celebrate the healing power of music. Kuby’s muscular backbeat opens “David Bowie,” a scathing putdown of musicians who model themselves on idols from Bowie to Robert Johnson. “Setup” uses a great, distorted guitar hook to accent the story of a woman’s slow descent into booze and hopelessness. The title track describes an affair with a creepy married man. DeCorsey’s vocals are full of howling regret and resignation while she channels her anger into brief bursts of snarling guitar noise.

—j. poet