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Turbo Ocho at Barnes and Noble

Rock & roll meets The Real World on Turbo Ocho, the fifth studio effort by Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers. After touring in support of 2007’s No More Beautiful World, the band decamped to Mexico in early 2008 to write, arrange, and record eight songs in eight days. The experiment was filmed and broadcast on the internet in daily installments, allowing die-hard fans the chance to view rehearsals and hear each song immediately after its completion. Turbo Ocho is the result of that reality-recording process — a surprisingly solid compilation of eight inspired tunes, three bonus cuts, and a DVD documenting the process. Going further, it’s an interesting intersection between art and commerce, music and marketing, deliberation and instinct. The Peacemakers don’t exactly resurrect the gun slinging, outlaw-inspired roots rock of Americano — that era seemed to end with No More Beautiful World, the band’s first album to barely reference their southwestern home — but they spike Turbo Ocho with flashes of mariachi horns, heartland twang, and ample guitar muscle. Arizona is still the band’s muse, even if Clyne no longer evokes the state in his lyrics, and the Peacemakers aptly sound at home here. Turbo Ocho shines its brightest on those songs written during the motivated eight-day stretch, from the harmonica-helmed heartland rock of “Mercy” to the hauntingly sparse “Persephone,” where Clyne woos a Grecian goddess with a syncopated guitar riff. “State of the Art” flaunts an instantly memorable chorus — the sort of bouncing, melody-driven thing that inspires drivers to roll down their windows and head for the nearest open road — while the pedal steel twang and elegiac vocals of “Summer 39″ are perfect in their imperfection, having been recorded in one take (unbeknownst to the bandmates themselves) during a practice session. Perhaps the strongest track is “I Know You Know,” a straightforward piece of classic rock in the vein of Americano’s “I Don’t Need Another Thrill,” and ..

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