Hard Rocking - Featuring Lonely Kamel, Kamchatka, Ape Machine and Suede Brothers

Time to catch up with some discs that have been sitting way too long in the Ripple office.  This happens sometimes, damn it.  Some discs are just so good they take forever to write up.  I don't want them out of my car.  I want to listen, listen, listen.  Then, next thing you know, a whole decade has passed and I still haven't written it up.  Time to set that right.

Lonely Kamel - Blues for the Dead

Hailing from Oslo Norway Lonely Kamel is a band that does the hard edged, classic rock and blues sound from the early 70's right.   Massively deep, solid grooves, catchy hooks and instantly catchy melodies. Released in 2010, (they have a new album out right now) Blues for the Dead mixes a spice cabinet full of Zeppelin, Hendrix, and Sabbath into some mighty fine retro-groove rock.


"A Tale of a Madman" is as heavy and frightening you'd hope.  "Green Eyed Woman" is a full on, Hendrix corker.  "Wasted Time" (one of my favorite cuts) rumbles and rolls upon the spine of some freaky bass work before exploding in an orgy of killer guitar and riffs.   "Stick with Your Plan" lays down some thunderous doom, while "Lady Mushroom" heads down the psychedelic Hendrix highway that you'd expect by the title.  And what a fucking chorus!

I only got this album last year, so it couldn't make my Top 10 list for 2011, but damn, if I'd heard this in 2010, it woulda been there.  Seriously killer stuff all the way through.

 

Kamchatka - Bury Your Roots

I'm not unbiased.  I'm not a dispassionate, removed critic.  I love music and love writing about the music I love.  And I love Kamchatka.

Their last album III jumped into my Top 10 list the year it was released, and Bury Your Roots followed like a laser shot, aiming right into my Top 10 for 2011.

Kamchatka play hyped up, retro-blues, fuzzed out 70's rock like so many bands these days, but everything they do is just one step beyond.  Riffs are just a tad bigger, melodies catchier, grooves . . .well . . groovier.  And Kamchatka aren't afraid to explore away from the standard blues riff and delve into the world of progressive rock.  And they bring those elements in seamlessly.

Once more, on their fourth album Bury Your Roots, we find Sweden's Kamchatka pounding out heavier melodic blues-laced rock.  But if anything, Bury Your Roots finds the boys plowing even more progressive highways than they did on III.   The guitar work throughout can only be described as ambitious, arrangements are more complex without being cluttered, vocals are textured and clean. Most importantly,  Bury Your Roots is rooted in authenticity and passion.  Highlights are too numerous to mention.  Suffice it to say, Bury Your Roots is an amazing album for retro-rock fans from start to finish.

Ape Machine - War to Head

Did I say I'm not dispassionate?  I meant it, and Ape Machine are another band I just can't be neutral about.  When I first heard that War to Head was coming (and I'd been privy to some very early mixes months ago) I just went ahead and set aside a spot in my Top 10 for 2011 for the boys.  They were gonna have to really screw up to get knocked out.

Suffice it to say, they didn't screw up.  War to Head is everything that I love about Ape Machine.  Hooks the size of wrecking balls smashing down upon my helpless skull in a furious retro-70's assault.  Great vocals, emotive and clean, and definitely "of the day" to be blowing out retro-blues, and an adventurous soul.

On War to Head, Ape Machine take a little more time than they did on their debut, This House Has Been Condemned.  They allow a little more air to breathe into the mix, explore a tad more progressive pathways while never taking their foot off the Zeppelin-blues gas pedal.  The guitar work is absolutely sizzling, and I love the growing progressive/psychedelic influences.  Just take one listen to the mid-tempo terror of "The Sun."  One listen.  Just one.  Then I dare you not to hit the play button again, and again.  Searing guitar hooks, monstrous riffs, changing arrangements, smoky psychedelia.  Amazing stuff.

Check War to Head without second thoughts!

Suede Brothers - The Night

Damn me!  Damn me!  Damn me!

This is an open letter to guitarist/vocalist Dylan Francis, bassist Kevin Naughton and drummer Mike Varga.  Hate me.  Kick me.  Say bad things about my body odor.  I deserve it.  All of it.  I'll plead insanity.  I'll plead a parasitic infection.  I'll plead abduction by aliens that violated me in ways that I've yet to find the words to describe.

How else can I explain letting this disc sit for so long on my Ripple desk?  I don't even know how long it's been there.  A year?  A century?  The Night came out in 2010, so hopefully it hasn't been a full two years.  But it might've been.  And for that, I'm truly sorry.  Let's make amends.

Akron trio, Suede Brothers, third release, The Night, is exactly the type of album that the Ripple Effect was created for.  A killer release by a hard-working, authentic, hard-driving rock n roll band, that for some reason the buzz hasn't been building fast enough.  I placed this review in this column with Lonely Kamel, Kamchatka, and Ape Machine for a reason.  If these bands appeal to your inner musical mojo, then you gotta check out Suede Brothers.  These guys kill!

On The Night, the riffs are a bit heavier, the music less progressive, the gun barrel aimed a bit more directly at your heart than the other bands, but it's still one killer big riff, retro-70's blast.  Dylan's voice runs towards the Geddy Lee end of the singing range which works perfectly for these songs.  His guitar playing is never flashy, but solid and Kevin and Mike must hate everything about you to pound you in the face so hard with their rhythm assault.  And it all works.  Perfectly.

The guys call themself, Rust Belt rock and roll.  And I won't argue.  They're hard like steel.  The punish like a foundry.  Their rust is poisonous and dangerous.  Straight ahead, no bullshit rock n roll.  And it's all done right.  Check it.

--Racer

Taddy Porter - S/T

“Hey man, we got the kegs.  Four of em.  You ready?”

Ready?  The words trickle through my brain.  I’m 18 years old, finishing high school.  Hanging with my friends Jeff, Paul, Ron, John, and Chris.  Dave is there.  So’s Bob.  Gary's somewhere.  The beer is cold.  An abandoned barn has been pre-scouted as the spot du jour.  My “man-machine” the 1974 Fiat is gassed and ready, intimidating the world with it's huge rubber bumpers.  The word has been spread around the school.  It’s time for a good old-fashioned beer blowout. 

And it’s up to me to bring the music.

Now, in reality, that scene may have taken place in the late ‘70’s or early ‘80’s, but the perfect music to complete this scene just dropped into my hands, fresh and dirty in 2011.

Taddy Porter bring on a southern-fried, greasy blitz of big riff, blues-infected rock that just begs to be cranked up and blown out of ’67 Camaro’s, ’73 Mach One’s, and just about any pick-up truck ever made.  These guys are simply a party in a bottle.  This is retro-rock, near-perfection and should blow the band huge.  Their blues riffs are meaty and beefy enough to get the guys gathered around the keg head-bobbing in rock-mania unison, while the backbeat grooves and undulates with enough sex to keep the girls swaying their hips on the dancefloor.  Or in this case, the dance barn.

I knew I was in good shape from the very first seconds of “Whatever Haunts You,” quite simply a monster of retro-fried Zeppelin blues frenzy.  From the very first moment, the boys show restraint, inherently knowing what it takes to bring dynamic to the song.  A simple, bluesy guitar stutter brings us on.  A drum beats somewhere in the background, steadily, like someone making love behind the barn door.  Slowly, languidly, the pace picks up until . . . all blues hell breaks loose.  Andy Brewer belts out the opening with a gruff-Plant energy as guitars, bass, and drums kick into full fury around him.  Dust bellows from the abandoned barn as air guitars break out from the guys and those young girls start swaying in ways far too seductive to write about in a family music site.  Oh fuck that.  They’re sexy as all get out.  Guys lining the walls watching those girls grind and shake, fantasies filling their heads.  And in each of those fantasies, “Whatever Haunts You,” is playing.  Dropping down to a mid-song respite, bellowing back up with a raging guitar solo courtesy of Joe Selby.  Kevin Jones on bass and Doug Jones on the kit keep those female hips taunting and teasing.  A great modern blues rock number through and through.

“Big Enough” keeps the sexual energy driving with a country-fried blues work-out.  This is what I always wanted the Black Crowes to sound like.  Big muscular guitars, stop-start riffing, snotty backing vocals, and Andy spewing out lyrics that seem to be about just what you might think with a title like “Big Enough.”  Not sure about that, but on my imaginary dancefloor that’s what they’d all be thinking anyways.  Toss in a truly bopping chorus and this song is another barn burner.

“Shake Me,” rocks in a Bad Company vein, maybe with a touch of BTO or many other 70’s rockers.  The opening riff reminds me of half of an ELO track before it takes off into dirty blues rock heaven.   For the life of me, I can’t imagine why this song wouldn’t be a hit.  In the 70’s it would’ve been and Taddy Porter would be filling stadiums with their southern Arena rock approach.  And the crowd would’ve eaten it up.   Whiskey soaks through each note like a home-bottled brew of 70’s moonshine.  Each riff is powered with enough grit and dust to make it truly authentic.  These aren’t guys going through the motions and they aren’t living in the past.  They’re living this rock, day to day, moment to moment.  Authenticity drips from each song like blood from an opened vein.  Toss some Stone Axe into the mix and we got a whole new breed of modern 70’s rock. 

As the party rages on and the keg starts to dry up, “Long Slow Drag” offers a brief respite from the frenzied rock.  A momentary slow dance before “I Gotta Love,” attacks in Blackfoot intensity.   The party rages back to full force.  With that charging guitar riff and killer vocal hook, hands fly into the air, the dance barn fills, beer flies and spills.  “Mean Bitch” sums up the wallflower guys’ thoughts at all the girls who rejected them that night with a guitar solo that can burn off enough of these guys’ pent up sexual frustrations.

The first fight of the night erupts to the rocking second half of “Fire in the Streets” which escalates from it’s subdued beginning in true Bad Company fashion to a full-on fist-throwing guitar epic mid-section.  A few lips get bloodied.  A few girls start crying in high school dramatics.  It’s all good.  It’s a Saturday night at a barn beer fest. 

Finally, as the keg runs dry, Taddy Porter cool the crowd down with the restrained, mid-tempo closers of “Railroad Queen” with it’s tasty slide licks and southern boogie, then the finale of “King Louie” a guitar screamer with a fierce backbeat a la The Rockets or 38 Special when they were good.  Andy’s voice really shines here revealing some tastefully roughed up soulful vocal chords, and the band ushers the crowd out with some stinging guitar leads.

The Camaros fire up.  The Mach One’s drive off.  Empty kegs get thrown into the back of the pick up trucks and I climb behind the wheel of my . . . Fiat.  Testosterone burned.  Sweat stained.  Sexual fantasy induced.  It’s been one helluva night.

And Taddy Porter is on tap for next weeks blast as well.


--Racer



Buy here: Taddy Porter
Buy here mp3: Taddy Porter (Amazon Exclusive Version)