Submitted today for your approval, we have, from wehave some long-time practitioners of glorious
1970's style, straight hard blue rock, which rarely deviates for a moment from the genre.....they knew on which side their bread was buttered, and to thier credit, they worked it for all it was worth.
Formed in Los Angeles in 1994 by guitarist Jamie Purpora (guitar/vocals), Roger Brown (bass) and Jermey Crowther (drum).....do you like 70's style hard rocking American blues? Then this, my friend is for you! I think they have ten albums to thier credit, I THINK I have eight of them, missing mybe the oldest and the latest, but no matter....plenty of blue-eyed soul and heavy rocking blues on the ones I have....if anyone could share the missing albums that'd be cool, But I bet I can guess what they sound like!
Up next is "Velvet", with is fine title track and "I B Leaving".....if you liked the earlier stuff (I do) you'll dig this one as well, these guys were NOT big on changing up a proven winning fomula. From 2000 we get "Southern Lips", just as good as the others (with a gun to the head, MAYBE the best one)..."Elvis Has Left the Building" and"The Getaway"standout among another solid collection of hard rockin' blues numbers.
"White Lightning" hit in 2003 without missing a step, frankly, another 3.5 -4 star effort.......the title
number and "Brown Skinned Woman" ar my personal highlights......2005 gave us "El Diablo", yet another fine collection, "Too Far Gone" and"Succubus" standout among the better tracks.
"Redemption" was released in 2007, just as hard-rocking and soul-shouting as ever, another fine album that I quite enjoy......"Redux" dropped in 2009, highlighted by a version of Jimi Hendrx'"Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" (Yes, they pull it off).....
The Last effort that I happen to have is 2010's "Red Was the Sky", the lads certainly knew their formula and rarely deviated from it, but that is fine, this is good, old solid, USA- hard soul-based blues rock, and, after all, that is just what we need sometimes, often, we need a break from the Smashing Punpkins, or The Plasmatics, or the Talking Heads, or whatever, SOMETIMES we need some GOOD OLD guitar/drums/bass no-frills, no gimmicks blues based rock.....these dudes fulfill that need. God bless em they'll prbably put out ten MORE similar albums in the next 10 years
Enjoy these albums though, not gonna chnge the world or anything, but there is a cetain niche they fill, and they do it WELL.....if only EVERYONE of us could claim as much.
SELF TITLED-01 Spinning In My Mind/02 I Got My Eyes on You/03 Let Me Fall In Love/04 Keep On Runnin'/05 Rattle Ye Cage/06 Hang On/07 Big Cat/08 Going Down/09 Weak Brain, Narrow Mind/10 The Lost Dream, a Blues Story (I)The Lost Dream (II) A Love Is Gone (III) Razor's Fate (IV)One More DayVELVET-01 Velvet/02 Don't Know/03 Bossa Nova Blues/04 Feel This Way/05 Wounds/06 Stranded/07 Thinking ofYou/08 LongTime Comin'/09 I B Leavin'
SOUTHERN LIPS-01 The Getaway/02 Elvis Has Left the Building/03 Wishin Well/04 Nobody
Wanna Live/05 Southern Lips/06 Mystery/07High Life/08 Lazy/09 Straight Down/10 Lifestorm
WHITE LIGHTNING-01 White Lightning (SSCamaro)/02 Got a Fever/03 Do You Love Me/04 Set Me Free/5 In My Head/06 Leave The Rest Behind/07 Tail Dragger/8 Brown Skinned Woman
EL DIABLO-01 Too Far Gone/2 Deny/03 Soul Vampire/04 El Diablo/05 Succubus/06 Clown/07 I Can Hear the Words Now/08 Goodbye Old Friend
REDEMPTION-01 Twilight/02 Fear/03 hate/04 I Know/ 05 Nineteen Eight Nine/06 Underground/07 Who Are We/08 Redemption
REDUX-01 Got a Fever/02 Velvet/03 Southern Lips/04 Get Me Free/05 Movin'/06 Razor's Fate/07 Rattle Your Cage/08 Let It Go/09 Voodoo Chile (slight return)/10 Wound
Just discovered my copy of "Red Was the Sky" is dicked up as well, so if any of ya good folks has a copy of THAT one to share, bring it live!, nonethelessl I have like seven of their 10 albums, and it's not like I have some damn OBLIGATION to have them all.......hope you like what I DO have, and certainly someone elseone of the magnificent "friends of the blog" will fill in the gaps!
These boyos are not going to the RnR Hall of Fame(who cares?)....likely there is a 50 chance you have never heard of them......but they've constructed a respetable career cranking out some listenable if maybe a bit generic rockin' blues.......pretty fair stuff, as usual, gimme your valued opinions!
