Don Dixon and the Jump Rabbits

On August 2, 2008 Don Dixon and his band the Jump Rabbits (Jamie Hoover and Jim Brock) plugged their new album of covers called "Nu Look" with a performance at the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro. The album is a gathering of songs from southern 80's pop history reincarnated by this no-nonsense rock trio. Featuring songs from Parthenon Huxley (rick rock), the dBs, Matt Barrett and others this 10 song CD bristles with muscular grooves and nostalgia. The opener was Jeffrey Dean Foster and it started so early I unfortunately missed it. The Jump Rabbits set began with selections from more recent Dixon albums and then they preceeded on to play the whole "Nu Look" album. Hightlights include a very agressively rhythmed "Amplifier" by the dBs, a suitibly peppy "Sputnik" (HEY!), Told You So (a Dixon chestnut) and capped the set with a euphoric "Six Pack" (Matt Barrett). Ironic that such a depressing lyric could rock so hard. Regardless it was masters of R&B and Rock hard at work. The encore included a terrific funky version of "Calling out for Love" which Don co-wrote with Marshall Crenshaw.