What can I say about this band? What's the word I'm looking for? Wait I know. ROCK!...yeah, that's it my brothers and sistas ROCK!
If you're planning on blowin down the highway this summer in the fast lane with the windows down...well then...your gonna need Pros & Cons by The Company Band knockin down your audio speakers. The Company Band is Dave Bone, Neil Fallon (Clutch), Brad Davis (Fu Manchu), Jess Margera (CKY) and James A. Rota (Fireball Ministry)
Neil Fallon's vocals is the audio juice for any internal combustion engine rippin down a two lane blacktop. The track that just blows my mind, is "El Dorado". Okay maybe I'm biased because my ride for many years was a 1971 Caddy Eldo. Just like the Caddy at the end of Rob Zombie's - The Devils Rejects. This cut "El Dorado" just kicks ass on all levels. So crank that sucker, and fuck the air conditioner. Roll down those windows man. Hit the highway with your baby. Make shure she's smellin like coconut suntan lotion. Wearing cut off jean shorts and barefoot, is just a bonus dude. Pros & Cons by The Company Band is one of those records that are made for summer. Slip on your mirror aviators, cram in this CD and get your ass on a long road trip. Straight up ROCK for any summer time Bonnie&Clyde roadtrip to the beach. I'm bet'in your woman's legs will get sexy hot, and stick to the leather seat after hearing this. Bring on the dog days of summer.
Skeeters are snackin'. They're as big as half-dollars and they'll bleed you dry if you let 'em. The gators are patiently waiting. Some are stalkin' their prey. Shine a light and you can see the battalion of reptile eyes, like fallen stars strewn across the water's surface. Yes, we're in the icky Florida swamp, where it's scary-dark and it's nasty. I lived there once, and it's also where Confused Little Girl and Southern Gentlemen rose from the filthy muck.
I told Racer that I've been listening to the independent release of this album for almost a year but I clearly wasn't the only one. Rotten Records took notice and signed the Orlando-based group, turning out Southern Gentlemen internationally on Oct. 11. They brought an exceptional and original rock band on board, in my opinion. Here's some information from their bio for those who haven't heard about Confused Little Girl yet.
"Confused Little Girl are a four-piece, deep-fried, southern swamp-rock band from Orlando, Florida. Their songs are filled with themes of drinking whiskey, murdering people and burying them in the bellies of alligators, pigs and the bottom of the water in the Everglades, and of course, selling your soul to Satan. The music that accompanies this subject matter is filled with loud guitars; heavy, groove-based big drums and enough fat-bottom for even Freddie Mercury to be disgusted. Since 2005, these beloved bastards of rock have been working tirelessly to shove their brand of heavy rock and roll down the throats of as many people as humanly possible."
Influences include: AC/DC, ZZ Top, Black Sabbath, Down, C.O.C., Clutch, and Queens of the Stone Age. What more do you need to know? Want details? Too bad. I don't know much else about Confused Little Girl, aside from the fact that Billy Van Muddlestein, David Washburn, Red Reilly and Josh Henry like booze, bitches and barbecue. Hell, who doesn't?
"We come from the Swamp," Confused Little Girl says. "We play rock-and-roll music. Loud, angry, drunken rock-and-roll. Being from Florida, where tons of southern rock bands came from, we have southern music in our hearts. The details about how we met and who we've played with and all of that bullshit isn't important. It's music, you listen to it. So listen to it. "
I have listened to Southern Gentlemen - many times. Too many to count. I'm listening again right now and I'll tell you something: it never gets old. Like I said before, I've been playing this release since the beginning of the year and I'm not stopping now. I won't bother with trying to describe every song because it's all good. The guitars are southern-scuzzy; the vocals are hefty and raunchy, but they're definitely still clear enough for me. The bass and drums are just monstrous. It's everything I love about swamp rock. No wonder I can't get enough.
Oh. And the song titles. Don't get me started on that. "I'd Rather Booby Screw A Walrus" is a favorite, along with "Honestly, Who Gives Their Genitals Pet Names". "Hookers on Horseback", "(Hey Dad) Stop Looking at Porn on My Computer", "Jordan Catalano Needs to Break Up His Shitty Band" and "How Satan Stole My Heart". C'mon. Aren't those some of the most interesting song names you've ever heard? Just reading those names makes you want to listen, doesn't it? Go ahead. You'll be happy you did.
The sick, 12-song Southern Gentlemen was sort of an obscure title earlier this year. Well not any more. I'm glad to see Confused Little Girl get signed by Rotten Records. Now the world has a better chance to hear the swamp-rock I've been trudging through for months. Head to the Rotten Records site for this record and get your copy NOW.
Truthfully, this album could never be more aptly titled. Southern Darkness. That’s what it says and that’s what you get. Perhaps in a moment of inspiration, they could have called it Southern Heavy Darkness or The Night of the Heavy Southern Darkness or such, because that’s the only word missing. Heavy. Damn Heavy. Massive Gibson Clutch-esque riffs, rolling monstrous bottom end, thick, sludgy southern groove. And dark. All dark. “Solace” is the kind of opening track that most bands could only dream of writing. “Lady Whiskey” adds a dollop of sensitive guitar to the fray before the heaviness comes in like a storm drifting in off the Gulf. “Mississippi River” floats in a morass of acoustic, countrified blues without ever losing it’s power, while “Machine Gun Mantra” is everything it’s title promises. A deadly assault of neck-breaking riffs and chugging intensity. For fans of Clutch. Not to be missed.
King Lizard – Viva La Decadence
Viva La Decadence indeed. If any of you out there felt that sleaze-mongers like Buckcherry played things just a little too G-rated and safe, have I got a band for you. London’s King Lizard pick up where the Crue left off, stuff their briefs with a ton of man-meat and attitude, bathe the whole shebang in a “Fuck You” and a “I’m Gonna Fuck You,” attitude and roar out of the gate like a poisonous snake on the loose. As you can tell by the album cover, subtlety ain’t in these cats’ vocabulary. The title track is a flaming rage to post-Crue hedonism. Better than Vince Neil vocals screaming over wailing guitars, big post-80’s riffs and a vat of bathtub meth velocity. “Video Lover,” has got to be more perverse than a busload of groupies could handle. Sex runs through the grooves of this song like blood runs through their veins. Others like “Rain on You,” “Hell Yeah,” and “Taste the Hate,” load up with more than enough obscenity-spitting attitude to make up for any lack of subtlety. Hair sleaze ain’t dead. It just has a new name. Hyper-adrenalized, big hair rape. Rubbers not included.
Foobar – Grand Theft Audio
I fell in love with this the first instant I heard it. Brutally, full of snot, gun-metal rock and roll. Five songs that approach like thunder and leave like a hurricane . . . devastation in their wake. Coming from Sweden, this ain’t stoner, it ain’t blues. It’s rock and roll with a purpose. A deliberate intention to unsettle the foundations of your house, your mind, and your ears. Huge riffs with a bottom end that could bounce your goldfish clear outta their tank. Or make them want to jump out and rock (if you could visualize a goldfish headbanging that is). Hard driving, gunpowder metal with a stoner glaze on top. Give me a full-length album and do it quickly. This is some seriously great stuff.
The Stone Foxes – Bears & Bulls
Not since the Swamp sludge blues of Black Bone Child first graced the Ripple office have I heard a band who so effectively got it. I mean really got it. Slacked strung acoustic guitar blues force fed some modern rock flair and dropped kicking and screaming right into the Mississippi Delta. This is ass-kickin’, foot-stompin’ backyard party blues that never forgets to rock the fuck out. Just listen as opening acoustic-jam “Stomp” transforms into the blistering rock assault of “Patience.” Crap! Break out some Blackened Voodoo beer, toss the crawdads into the pot and fry up some hush puppies because I’m deep in the south and lovin’ every minute there. Musical skill to turn from blues to rock to metal to indy on a dime. A soulful singer who can belt it out like a house on fire. Groove, baby groove.
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King Giant – Southern Darkness
The Stone Foxes – Bears & Bulls