(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Peter Searcy, after the dissolution of Squirrel Bait, formed Big Wheel in Louisville (Kentucky) with guitarist Glenn Taylor. The album East End (Giant, 1989), however, retained little of the effervescent sound of his previous band. Aside from Bang Bang Bang, the tracks limp along with mediocre chart-ready hard rock.
Holiday Manor (Mammoth, 1992) set aside any restraint and tried to establish the band with third-rate power-pop.
Slowtown (Mammoth, 1993), on the other hand, resurrected both the band and the singer from obscurity. Pearcy hits upon some whistlable melodies (Storm), Taylor steals the show with his formidable heavy-metal solos (Vicious Circle), and the rhythm section intoxicates the singer with its jazz embellishments (Bug Bites). But above all, the album is one of those melancholic portraits of the dis/illusions of the working class in which Bruce Springsteen specializes (Lazy Days, Pete Rose).
(Original English text by Piero Scaruffi)
Could You Please And Thank You (Time Bomb, 2000) is the first solo
album of singer Peter Searcy, and by far his finest post-Squirrel achievement.
Losing Light Fast, Furniture and Bored are forceful and
intense ballads.
His solo career continued with
Couch Songs (Initial, 2004).
