- Format: MP3
This whiskey fueled two-man frenzy of blues-driven rock'n'roll noise straight from Fort Wayne, Indiana promise to hit you like a shock wave and show you a foot-stompin' good time.
Left Lane Cruiser is comprised of Joe Evans on slide guitar and vocals with Brenn Beck on one big-ass bass drum, harmonica and a toolbox full of percussive gear. The raw blues duo of LLC have practiced through thick and thin to hone a sound unlike any other and have been together long enough to have previously released a couple of self-produced EPs. "Let your soul drive what you do" is the premise of their music, "give it all you got, and everything is an instrument: trash cans, paint trays, hubcaps, ladders, you name it."
Honing their craft while playing to house parties, street corners of their home town, and rehearsing in a heatless garage, they have developed their personal high voltage take on the North Mississippi Hill Country sound. They have toured relentlessly, sharing the stage with artists such as Robert Belfour, Black Diamond Heavies, Hillstomp, and Buckwheat Zydeco, among others.
Alive Records has released Left Lane Cruiser’s label debut, Bring Yo’ Ass To The Table, and it is everything fans of their self-released album, Gettin’ Down On It, could have expected and so much more. I got an iPhone for Christmas and in preparation for the beginning of the year, I planned to load the new LLC, Drive-By Truckers and N. Mississippi Allstars albums on it for listening in my New Years travels. I never made it to the DBT or NMA discs.
Joe and Brenn headed into Painesville, Ohio’s Suma Studios, a studio full of reel to reels and vinyl cutting machines, and emerged with a blues-fueled, rock-driven cd on the verge of a whiskey rage. This is a must add to the Essential Listening list and currently my favorite cd of this young year. You like this site? You’ll love this disc…trust me.
You know they put word counts on these to maximize space for ad revenue. I get it. Folks gotta eat but sometimes I just wanna write a review with 150 of the longest words I can find and see what the reaction would be. Besides, I only need 2 words to review the new Left Lane Cruiser: fucking awesome. Too short? Fine here it is in long form: Fucking awesome punkass garage blues. Imagine if the Black Keys got pissed off. LLC is the reason your cd player has an 11 on the volume knob.
I got mine on 28 right now. Just ask the neighbors 2 blocks away. LLC is music to get drunk and pet your dog to so I'm gonna stop typing, refill this glass and help the neighbors 3 blocks know what's up.
LLC won’t seduce you with poetic lyrics, but they’ll start you off with a whiskey on the rocks to warm you up on the intro track, “Wash It,” and then run you over with brute force throughout the rest of the album. Lead singer/Slide guitarist, Joe Evans, sounds like he is foaming at mouth as he isn’t going down without a fight. Brenn Beck beats the drums like they owe him money and blows a damn good harmonica. Three songs into Bring Yo’ Ass to the Table, we’re greeted by “Pork N’ Beans,” a song about a plate of pork n’ beans.
Nothing more. In the same vein as Mofro’s “Ho Cake,” Left Lane Cruiser show that simple tunes about food can hit with as much punch as the most complicated piece of music if performed well. This is a booze-fueled, blues romp that Evans devours. Midway through the album you’ll find “Justify,” a song full of rage about racism. It’s the song Zach De La Rocha would have written if he’d have grown up in a swamp with lyrics: “Well the mama and the children, came out to watch you burn/ And the lawyer and the preacher, came out to take their turn.”