If we must continue to hear Caucasians "play that old rock and roll" (as this former Royal Trux guitarist titled his second solo set), let it come from Neil Michael Hagerty. Postmodern and sincere, he refracts hoary rock cliches through prisms of irony until The Rock shines like diamonds. Although many of the 21 songs on Hagerty's third solo effort, The Howling Hex, evoke the Rolling Stones' sexy, surging early-'70s heyday, Hagerty's idiosyncratic playing also recalls Quicksilver Messenger Service's acid-rock maestro John Cipollina and avant-jazz wildman Sonny Sharrock. But on this sprawling messterpiece, there's room for all sorts of tangents: bare-bones junkyard blues, a Steve Reichian violin piece, odd jazz-dub dabbling and a "Brown Sugar" homage (and potential hit single) called "Car Commercial." But it's the three live epics included on Hex that prove Hagerty is his generation's Keith Richards, a superman among invalids.
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