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MP3 Wash
It | LLC booking | current tour dates | currently # 158 on CMJ
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Left Lane Cruiser plays North Mississippi style blues like a lot of blues bands do these days, they just play it louder and harsher than anyone else, and that includes the North Mississippi AllStars. There's nothing subtle or sophisticated about LLC. Their music lunges straight for your soul, and puts a stranglehold on it until you're involuntarily rocking along. When I first heard them, I thought they were a three or four piece Southern band presenting a rawer version of the Black Crowes. Turns out, it's just two guys from Fort Wayne, Indiana. But this ain't no Black Keys. Joe Evans plays a righteous and riotous slide guitar with snarling lead vocals, while Brenn Beck plays a bass drum, cymbal, washboard, harmonica, and a homemade kit of various thingies to bang on. The dude is just a human multi-percussion machine. Their debut album Bring Yo' Ass To The Table came out at the beginning of this year and the dozen originals sound like they were composed on a front porch in Tupelo with a Marshall amp set next to the rocking chair. Even when performing at some record store, their sound comes across big enough to fill a stadium. - Pico / Blogcritics One of them there lo-fi slide guitar street corner broken string wooden box for a drum two piece greased up whisky drenched hobo blues bands outfits. R.L Burnside, Seasick Steve, trash cans, hub caps, meth smoking two dollar pawn shop mics and all sounding as cool as that all sounds – sound, pass me that square bottle with the number seven on it while I go put this sucker on line. - Organ In another life, Freddie J IV could have been a good ol' fingerpickin', porch-playin' blues guitarist. Basking away in the sun, he could have whiled away his time exploring the many shades of blues, from country hit whittling to Delta swamp wading. But there was fire in his belly and a flame in his soul, and in his hands the blues were transformed into an assault weapon. Bren "Sausage Paw" Beck was perhaps every mother's nightmare, a boy who seemingly just couldn't sit still. In a world pulsing with rhythm -- from the blood pounding through our veins to the cacophony of traffic in our towns -- Beck had to drum back in response at every turn, on anything and everything available. He is a continuous tattoo, battering out the beats of his own internal drums. Fatefully, one day the two met, and so was born Left Lane Cruiser, an astounding two-man blues band. Lo-fi is a totally inadequate term to describe their sound, a sizzling mix of Beck's pusillanimous drums, claps, percussion, and hoots and hollers and Freddie J's blistering guitar and husky vocals. This is the blues in their purest form, rough and ragged, rubbed raw by too much hard living and too many tough breaks. The blues' African-American progenitors could bare the pain in their souls, but dared not express the anger that underlay it. Cruiser, however, are under no such constraints, and on the trio of songs that close the set the music bristles with barely repressed rage that immediately brings the Stooges to mind. In contrast, the exuberant crash and bash of "Wash It," the dizzy stomp of "KFD," and the gleeful hook of "G Bob" all roil with a grand joie de vivre, with the exhilarating "Set Me Down" the perfect band anthem. Then again, every track on Bring Yo' Ass to the Table ripples with energy and an electric charge of creative frisson. Whether celebrating a plate of "Pork n' Beans," "Big Momma"'s delights, or "G Bob"'s steel guitar playing, the Cruisers rumble through the back streets of life, focusing on the small details, although the scathing "Amerika" does look at the bigger picture. A thoroughly unique journey down a well-traveled road; best now to sit yo' ass down a spell and listen to this stunning album. - Jo-Ann Greene / All Music Guide Place Muddy Waters, AC/DC, The Black Keys and ZZTop in a blender and hit frappe, the resulting sound might come close to the music Left Lane Cruiser grinds out on stage. – Unfamiliar with Left Lane Cruiser? Check out their newly released album Bring Yo’ Ass to the Table. Immediately, the head bobbing begins as the sweet twang slowly builds to a blasting garage-band sound. This driving hard rock, blues is the simple combo of Joe Evans on lead vocals and guitar and Brenn Beck on percussion. I say percussion only because Beck makes his sound on any instrument he can get his hands on, ranging from the harmonica to trash cans found in the back alley. - Review Magazine Another in the growing number of young, raw blues acts carrying the torch for the late R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, this Indiana guitar/drums duo certainly sound ready to compete with peers like the Black Keys on this full-length debut. And while it suddenly seems fashionable to crank out a few Robert Johnson slide guitar riffs alongside a meth-fuelled drummer, Left Lane Cruiser actually possess enough chops to write some memorable songs. What’s at the root of them is the unshakeable rhythm that singer/guitarist Freddy J IV and drummer Brenn “Sausage Paw” Beck create together, leaving plenty of space for Freddy to strut and holler over top. The line between hip-hop even blurs slightly on heavy stomps like “Big Momma” and “Pork ‘N Beans.” But it just goes to prove that when reduced to its basic elements, the music is all rock’n’roll. And when played with such conviction as Left Lane Cruiser displays, it doesn’t get much better. - Jason Schneider / Exclaim Left Lane Cruiser have four years under their belts now and its about time they put out another doozy of an album. The energy of these guys is really intense, almost death metal-ish, and oh-so-perfect. When listening to the record, you can close your eyes and almost picture them onstage in front of you. All of the riffs and solos are fuckin' amazing, and the fact that they use anything else they can to make more noise (i.e., ladders, hub-caps, trash cans, etc.), only sweetens the sounds coming from the musical device. This is high-quality music from a group who practiced in a heatless garage in Indiana, and whose philosophy in music is "Let your soul drive what you do". Pretty good philosophy, if I say so myself. - Adam Dorobiala / Slug Ever dreamed about driving an old, beat down monster truck along the banks of the Mississippi river, tearing nature apart bit by bit? I have, but never thought anybody would do it for real. At least not the way Left Lane Cruiser is sliding that ragged old mixture of steel, rust and rubber through the mud. 'Cause muddy it is -and dirty- - and gritty- the way Joe Evans aka Freddy J IV (guitar/vocals) and Brenn 'Sausage Paw' Beck (drums/percussion/harmonica/(backing) vocals) are spitting out their own brand of stripped down, whiskey-soaked, adrenaline-fuelled, bottom heavy blues. You don't believe me? Well, then you just have to buy this album, experience the truth and get blown away by the first pounding slide riff of 'Wash It', one hell of a booty shakin' swamp blues hymn that will definitely bring a huge smile to R.L. Burnside's face, knowing two white blokes are carrying his heritage, making the world burn and blister with heartfelt black music that's got Jon Spencer's rock&roll veins throbbing at the core. Raw, pure and intense. And that's probably the key that makes this album so special. LLC takes it all one step further, creating a wall of sound with just two humble musicians, while in the meantime they're literally tearing down everything in sight - and internally. At the end of the seventh track you even have to scrape Joe's vocal chords off the ground and shove 'em back up his throat to make sure he will keep growling for the remainder of the album. And he needs 'em badly towards the end when destruction reaches its gritty height with the dirty, low tuned groover 'Amy's in the Kitchen' and the bonecrushing 'Mr. Johnson'. On the other hand, it feels quite arbitrary naming any standout track on a record that brings ass to the table big time with twelve tracks that make it impossible to stay in your seat, and even more difficult not to smash your furniture to smithereens. And the best part is: you don't even care putting up with the mess. - Ronny Dijksterhuis / Up (Netherlands) -------------------- --------------------
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