THE BONNEViLLES - Arrow Pierce My Heart

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The Bonnevilles new hit record, Arrow Pierce My Heart, starts with a haunting, lo-fi, acapella prayer called The Bells of Hell Go Ting-A-Ling-A-Ling, a WWI British airmen's song, and it segues into a mono fade to stereo bomb drop guitar tone that rocks like the sound of Howlin' Wolf's 1969 amplifier rolling off the top of his station wagon. No Law In Lurgan, is a monster garage super rock boogie that sets the tone for the album. The Bonnevilles have sent notice: They ain't fuckin' around.

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My Dark Heart is track two. A blues shouter you'll be blasting on a late afternoon flat-black motorcycle ride straight into the sun.

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Track three, The Whiskey Lingers tells it like it is, if you like your liquor amber. A deeply grooving blues, it shows they've absorbed some Tupelo rock, a little North Mississippi trance action, and throttled it all thru a Nirvana/Stooges filter...wholly unavoidable, like The Beatles filter, it's in the air and in the water. Hold on! Singer/songwriter/guitarist Andrew McGibbon shines incredibly bright on this slab of blues rock implosion. Plucking, swinging, rolling. tumbling, sliding, grinding, McGibbon sails here...the performance...like the rainbow in a great glass of Rye whiskey, is stellar.

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I don't know if The Electric Company is a metaphor for something or not. Maybe the dude in the song worked for The Electric Company ...and while on the job liked to "Get drunk! Get high! Get Some!" and more. Whatever. I don't know about all you, but I say hail! Flip the switch, and rock it, y'all. #ItsTooLateToDieYoung

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Title song Arrow Pierce My Heart (#5) has Andy McGibbon playing an insistent, garagey tribal country spaghetti western surf guitar creep that transmogrifies into a feedback-breathing UFO-driven beast, hackles up. You'll be looking in the rearview mirror to see if McGibbon's guitar solo is catching up to you. Skinsman Chris McMullan gets a solid high-five for his hard slapping, one-driving-shoe-on-the-gas, one-boot-on-the-brake-drumming. #Wicked #OnPoint #Work

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Song six is Eggs And Bread, a short, beautifully picked gallows song that speaks to the eternalness of love and the blues. That is all.

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Lucky seven is I Dreamt of The Dead. It rocks. Hard. I'm thinking McGibbon (who produced the album) has some serious power-pop off-shoots from his blues roots. You'll hear some Dan Auerbachness in McGibbon's vocals, or maybe it's just his Northern Irish soul shining, either way, if you had the opportunity you'd buy this song as a 45, and keep flipping it over to play:

#8 - We've all felt it. You've weathered all manner of storms for a taste of love, and you fail it. Sing along: I've Come Too Far For Love To Die.

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Erotica Laguna Lurgana is an instrumental intermission that takes you through the steamy, sultry sub-tropical rainforests, and wild west deserts of Lurgan, Northern Ireland. It will set you to whistling, again.

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The Man With An X Shaped Scar On His Cheek tells the tale of just that. Not all the details, just the essentials. A roots-rock banjo-slugged chugger with a terrific, dark melody and driving rhythm...it runs just shy of a three-minute short story and teaches in its essence:
#Bewareofdarkhairedgirls
#Ringsofgoldcanlosetheirrubystone
#Beware

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Song #11 is Those Little Lies :

lie
lī/
noun
noun: lie; plural noun: lies
1. an intentionally false statement.
"Mungo felt a pang of shame at telling Alice a lie"

intransitive verb
1a : to be or to stay at rest in a horizontal position : be prostrate : b : to assume a horizontal position —often used with down C : archaic : to reside temporarily : stay for the night : lodge d : to have sexual intercourse —used with with e : to remain inactive (as in concealment)
2: to be in a helpless or defenseless state
3: Rotten fruits on harvest day

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Number twelve!
Learning To Cope is a wailer, a wall of gnarly Stooges soul garage punk blast... imagine The Undertones squad up with The Clash to produce The Cramps, and The Afghan Whigs cover it. Drummer Chris McMullan is a monster robot, destroying everything in his path...and doing it locked in. Another Bonnevilles song that'd make a great 45.
#compactknottedhardkicker
#Peoplesaddenedbythedeathofthejimjonesrevue
#Fuckyeahhandclaps

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Song Thirteen, baby.

The closer.
Who Do I Have To Kill To Get Out of Here?
The Bonnevilles start the album with a prayer, and close it with a post-grunge howl, a thumping anthem for something we can't imagine, that we all fear is coming because of what we've done...and all that's missing is a bottle of George Dickel, a horn section...and a longer fade out.

If you're one of those who, for some reason, felt
disenfranchised after the first two Black Keys albums, or maybe the first one even, and that's not meant to slag on The Bk's...some folks feel that way. Whatever. But you'll never deny the influence, bad and world-wide...or maybe you're still bemoaning the loss of The White Stripes, then you must rock out The Bonnevilles' new album, Arrow Pierce My Heart.

The Bonnevilles, like The BK's, are flavourful muthrs. They know their rock and blues deeply, but they've absorbed it, made it their own, and mutated it, rather than wearing it like a dress-up badge or a special hat.

The Bonnevilles are their own thing. Post-grunge blues-infected rock and post-Fat Possum-infected-punkass blues dressed up in new suits and fightin' boots, like city folks, but dusty with Irish country soul. They're stadium rockers at the corner pub, they're the band you wish someone would play for you when you think no one knows how to rock anymore. They're probably what you've been waiting for.

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LEFT LANE CRUiSER: GiT SOME! (Retro repost from 02/15/07)

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Left Lane Cruiser hail from the source of most all good things: Indiana. 

Fort Wayne to be exact. No where near Turkey Run State Park but named after Gen. "Mad" Anthony Wayne. As cool as Indiana is (except for the summer when it's hot like a freakin' cast iron skillet with a beautiful cloudless thick blue glass lid on top) it's not the place one might think of when one thinks of the good ol' Punkass BluesBut then hell neither is Indianapolis which boasts of being the home of the early late punk blues band Chickenleg. And other than some river bluffs it ain't exactly much like Mississippi's legendary hill country. That does not stop Joe and Bren, the two-headed-four-armed-six-legged thing that is Left Lane Cruiser from draggin that ol' Fat Possum'esque sht thru the Black Swamp mud like a Brown County tornado til' it shakes and rolls and hunches full up of Deep fried chicken Blues, 1970's f150s with a Larry Brown cooler on the floor, broom stick n' wire slide and a couple of tubs and old skins maybe stole from Othar's back shed. It's greasy hot, shaved dry, and crazier than yr smokin' methd-up ex-girlfriend who keeps singin' Down By The River I Shot My Baby thru a two-dollar pawn shop mic she jerry-rigged thru that ol' gunshot b/w tv in the backyard and dedicating it to you with love mthrfckr. 

For fans of Black Diamond Heavies, T-Model Ford, Chris Johnson, Rev. Peyton, Scott Hiram Biram, Deltahead, Hillstomp, Honkeyfinger, Me, and all that mess.






Just buy the whole damn catalogue, Cracky.

Have Y'all Heard The New LEFT LANE CRUiSER album Rock Them Back To Hell Yet? In a word, HOTDAMN!

@ fb // alive records // itunes

This is Left Lane Cruiser's new bruiser.  Another step forward from that little ol' punk infected blues band from Ft. Wayne, Indiana. Heavier than the Mid-west, this is what you jam when you get some beers and go muddin' in the mountains on Saturday afternoon. This is what you jam from your Chevelle by the campfire at night. This is what you jam alone in an airport strip motel. This is the 8-Track tape in your Kustom van.

Distorto blues howlers and boogies get beat down and

spanked in to shape by the great Brenn Beck on tubs n' skins, and his buddy and yours, the righteous Freddy J IV throwing down some simply savage slide guitar and vocals. Recorded (analog) in Ft. Wayne by Jason Davis, and produced by Jim Diamond, this is the sound of what Iggy and R.L. hath begot. 

If you miss pre-Rocks Aerosmith, early Seger filtered thru ninety-thousand miles of highway, you miss the rough blues they used to play at that nasty little bar in Downtown, Anywhere. You wish somebody was playing something like that shit? Then you need this. Rock Them Back To Hell? Mission accomplished.

"Truth is truth. Roll with it." The LEFT LANE CRUiSER VS JAMES LEG Super Sessions: An Interview About Painkillers.

LLC @ Facebook // James Leg @ Facebook // Alive Records // iTunes- LLC & James Leg // Amazon - LLC & James Leg

Left Lane Cruiser and James Leg have released a snarling little cur dog (balls intact) of a party album called Painkillers. Ten wicked cover songs. Mama told Papa...This is the summers rock n' blues wigout, man...got to boogie! 

Painkillers is the soundtrack of a beer and Scotch-sodden county-line joint. It vibrates with dirty, 'stonesy, grinder blues. My classic rock. Hell fire, not only do they cover Seger's Come To Papa, but they have the brass to do  Zep's When The Levee Breaks. Trying to breath new life into half these war horses, let alone a song like Red Rooster would be an undertaking for any band but Team Leg-LLC fatten it up, wring it's neck and kill that chicken like Scott H Biram would kill that chicken. 

These guys start out by throwing down a heavy super-rockin' cover of Junior Kimbrough's Sad Days And Lonely Nights that gets hotter'n a she-wolf in a pepper-patch on fire.  From there it's on to Hound Dog Taylor, Hooker, 'Stones, Taj Mahal, and that Robert Johnson guy.  You know it takes some skills to cover Hendrix and them and not sound like a shitty wanna-be cover band. An imitator. A pretender. But this road-seasoned trio, backed by Painkillers engineer Jim Diamond on bass (Yes! The return of bass!) and Harmonica Shah (on guesswhat) makes a fat and burly yet lean and tough racket that testifies to the almighty raw power of rock and blues. 

In a perfect world, y'all would be rollin' downtown blasting Painkillers from your Camaro's and Kustom vans, bumpin' it at every beach picnic and kegger in the woods around the world.  Rockin' Painkillers as you sit on the bonfire-lit tailgate of your girlfriends stank ol' F150, down by the river surrounded by all your friends, James Leg's organ like a soulful siren, his voice a south Texas hail storm. Joe's slide guitar a backwoods whip saw, Brenn's buttcentric drum grooves hunchin' on Jim Diamond's fat bass throbber as the sound howls through the humid hot night. I could carry on but look, this stuff right here is what your kids'll be diggin' in some Nuggets box set of the future. 

I got ahold of Brenn and Joe aka Dr. Freddy J IV and Dr. Sausage Paw from Left Lane Cruiser and Rightous Reverend Doctor of the organ Mr. James Leg to see how those  Painkillers went down:

How'd this album come about? Did y'all jam on the road and think Hmm...we should do something with this?

James Leg: We've toured together many times over the last several years....and have played together on stage as well as in the studio for Left Lane Cruiser's last release, "Junkyard Speedball"...so it was just a matter of time till we wound up in the studio for a collaboration.


Brenn: Yeah, every time we've jammed with John (aka James Leg - His Government name is John -rs.)  its been great. We fit together great, so it only made sense to do it on tape. Now we just gotta do an original album together.

Joe: We have definitely had some epic jam sessions with John on the road, both in the states and overseas. I have always dug the way John plays the keys, never heard anybody play 'em like that, nasty but soulful.

What was the process of weeding out? How many songs did you start with and how hard was it to cull it down to ten? Did you record other songs that didn't make the cut?

James: We prolly started out with around ten additional possible songs. Before we went to Detroit to lay it all down, we got together in Fort Wayne for a couple days and ran through several tracks to see what felt best. There were a couple that we recorded that didn't make the record. Also, a couple of the tracks on the record were last minute choices in the studio. 

Brenn: Some of them we had planned just didn't seem as fitting after a few whiskeys`.

Joe: We wanted a good mix of blues and classic rock. We also wanted to stay away from tunes we cover live so people could hear something new. There were some songs that didnt make the record but might be released down the road.


Who's idea was it to cover Bob Seger's Come To Poppa? You got taste, dude. Even if people don't care for Seger (my brotherinlaw swears he lives a Seger-free existence) you cannot deny that Come To Poppa is Thee Seger Jam. 

James: I'm a member of The Church of Bob Seger. Especially and specifically the first several records...when he sounded more like Detroit than L.A, though I can get into that shit as well. We toyed with the idea of doing "Ramblin Gamblin Man"...but its been done a few times and done well...in fact recently by Jim Diamond's band, Seger Liberation Army..."Come To Poppa" seemed like a lil bit of a deeper cut...and apropo...pritty sure i've said those words in conversation.

Joe: Seger rules! John picked that one so he deserves the credit. That slowed down version is sick, good call Rick. 
( I like to take forty-fives and slow 'em down to thirty-three rpm -rs)

What's the story behind the Painkillers album title?

James: Hehe...again, apropo of those four days we were tracking....I think we were goin through a litre of Jameson a day as well.. (not sure if that ought to be common knowledge...Brenn?Joe?)

Brenn: Truth is truth. Roll with it.

Joe: Its a party record and we were partying when we recorded it. 

What was the recording process for this like? Where/when and how long did it take to record?

James: Easy...and loads of fun. Like I say, we've all the four of us worked together several times so it was easy to lock-in and groove...made it a lot of fun to just be playin' these songs together in the same room with good sounds. I believe we cut the most of it in four days last December, then Brenn and Joe went back in January for a couple days and polished it off. We tried not to overthink it or make the process so long or meticulous that all the spontinaity and soul was lost. Most of the record was all live and got in one or two takes..

 Brenn: Like John said, little to no preperation to keep it spontaneous, and not mimicking the original versions note for note. You put the four of of us in a room together with plenty of whiskey, and a bottle of pills, grooves are gonna flow easily. I think we were all on the same wavelength with where it was going, so that made it easy.


Joe: Recording was a blast. We did it at Jim's studio (Ghetto Recorders) in Detroit, a block away from Tiger Stadium. We just went in there everyday, got tore up and let it rip. 

One last question: 
What's next? Whats on your schedule for the next 3 months?

Brenn: Well, right now Joe and I are fine tuning the songs for the new album. Figure on recording it in the next couple of months. Tonight we are opening for Helmet and The Toadies at big fest up in Michigan. We got Muddy Roots comin up at the end of the month, back to Europe in Sept/Oct, and then we are headed down south for a quick run in Nov. Keepin' busy on the road, but really focusing on getting LLC's new album finished up.

James: Just got off a four month straight tour in June...gonna sit (relatively) still for a few minutes. I'm in the early stages of writing/recording a couple of records right now...not sure at the moment what name will be on 'em, James Leg or Black Diamond Heavies,.... that will depend on the material and schedule. Other than the Muddy Roots Festival at the end of August, I plan to do no shows till around January or so. Even the devil got to put it in park and kick back sometimes.

Now doubt Left Lane Cruiser and/or James Leg will be coming to a town near you at some point. If y'all wanna see a serious live show played by dudes that play like it might be their last show you got to get out the house and go out of your way to see these guys. Give them your money. You know you need the orange vinyl! 
Dig:

BLACK DiAMOND HEAViES - ALiVE AS FUCK!

There are few things more enthralling in the natural world than seeing the Black Diamond Heavies live. Everything you have heard about the band's live vibe are true and you will be knocked out by the power of the robot-hive-mind interplay of Reverend Doctor James Leg (Government name: John Wesley Meyers) on keyboards and Mr. Van Campbell on the tubs and skins. They are tight as fuck.
I'm a drummer. I don't give a damn about drummers. I almost never hear a drummer that doesn't disappoint in some way. I have neverever been disappointed by Mr. Campbell. His taste and style is always fresh, smart, muscular, nimble, Swazyesque and HARD driving while supplying backup and brakes to keyist Leg. The right Rev.James Leg is a traveling man from Port Arthur Tejas where his daddy was a preacher or something. His voice,Waitsian and salacious. His countenance part-Dionysian barker, part-1987 Metarie Louisiana afternoon Swaggert. His hands work the black and whites like a punk rock Barry White. He's got a hot wet spirit in him and it's got to come out. It's a sonic revival. Black Diamond Heavies conjure healing power. Step in to it. Ain't it good to ya! Like the godforsaken overdue redemption of the long haunted spirit of rock, soul, and blues.

BDH @ ALiVE RECORDS
BDH @ MySpace

BUY iT NOW!
BLACK DiAMOND HEAViES - ALiVE AS FUCK - AMAZON / iTUNES / 
BUT iT NOW! 
On LTD EDiTiON BEAUTiFUL BLUE ViNYL FROM ALiVE RECORDS!

Rather than aiding and abetting you in stealing a couple tracks from a band as hard working as the Black Diamond Heavies I thought i'd hook you up with a couple live tracks from a recent show that do not appear on their new live disc. Rock 'em loud and Thank Chris "Wisconsin" Johnson for the bonus tracks!

Black Diamond Heavies - Oh Sinnerman MP3
Black Diamond Heavies - Guess You Gone And Fucked It All Up MP3

WATCH!

Interview with one of our favorite humans: Patrick Boissel of Alive Records

Patrick Boissel, Alive Records
Interview by Will Bray

Blues is a continuous growing genre. It always has been and always will be. What the exact reason for this universal obsession which started as nothing more than cotton field folk music, no one can really tell you. Maybe because of it's natural sound, maybe because blues is so personal, maybe because it welcomes influence and maybe because blues tells great stories. More than likely it's because of all of those.

Blues has been passed from father to son for generations and each time gathering momentum. Now taken on by niche record labels which push the boundaries of this folk music make it more exciting than ever.

A man leading the charge is Patrick Boissel, owner of Alive Records. He has been solely responsible for bringing the likes of The Black Keys, Two Gallants, Black Diamond Heavies, Left Lane Cruiser and so many more to our shores. Alive Records has a unique sound and a belief in pure, natural music which maintains its identity by bringing through bands with a defined raw power. This can only make for great records.

WB. What's your background in music? How did you start out?

PB. I've been involved with music since the early eighties, from manager to sales rep, to radio host, to promoter, etc. It all came together in the early nineties when I met Suzy Shaw of Bomp, moved to LA and married into the clan.

WB. You have both Bomp and Alive, what's the difference and why?

PB. A label reflects the taste of the person who runs it and Bomp was Greg Shaw's vision. Alive on the other hand is my baby, it really came into its own after Greg passed away and I was able to dedicate all my time to the signing of new bands. Greg had been sick for a long time and I was taking care of a lot of the daily duties for him, so I couldn't focus on my own label as much as I would have liked to. In terms of difference I'd say the Alive sound is certainly more roots oriented than Bomp ever was, although I do like psychedelia, garage, punk, and pop too.

WB. What do you most love about Alive and what do you most hate?

PB. I love the freedom of not answering to anyone and releasing the records I like. I hate when a good record is ignored or put down for the wrong reasons.

WB. Alive has been behind the major successes of both The Black keys and Two Gallants, what do you think are the key parts in this?

PB. I think heavy touring was very important to their success, although both bands got a little help from the mainstream press. In the end it's about talent combined with hard work, plus a little luck and good timing. There's no recipe for success. Every record, every artist takes its own path, whatever it may be.

WB. Alive is a highly regarded label in the UK by music fans (such as myself). What do you think makes Alive stand out and attract its own fans?

PB. Thank you. I'm really grateful to the fans who follow the label, and I try to keep a standard of quality, for my sake and for theirs. I basically release records that I like with the hope that someone else will share my enthusiasm. The bands on Alive tend to tour a lot, and in terms of recording they can go into the studio and knock out a new record in just a few days so that you're able to capture real emotions on the tape. It's easy to fake it with the current technology but I think the bands on the label are the real thing and it does come through.

WB. Here in the UK we are witnessing a 'blues second coming' reminiscent of the late 50's. Why do you think there is such a strong bond between folk America and London's Thames Delta regions?

PB. I'm not sure, maybe it's something in the water? The British blues started a worldwide music revolution back in the day. I can't wait to see what a second wave of nu-blues is going to bring us.

WB. What are your thoughts on the current state of the music industry? Would you say there are similarities between the US and UK? What would you change?

PB. This has always been a tough and unreliable business but it seems to be getting worse. This said we're not really part of the so-called industry although we have a toe (rather than a foot) in it. I would say that we're part of the rock 'n' roll business more than anything else, we cater to a select audience who cares about music. I'm not sure about the UK but in the US the industry has been manufacturing music in the same way the food industry produces fast food. Now with file sharing the audience has finally come to associate corporate music with a low end, disposable product. You download it for free and trash it when you're done. Developing long term artists is probably one of the solutions to the current problems the music industry is facing. That's how they used to do it in the fifties and sixties and although the profits were lower, the quality of the music was much better.

WB. Blues is such a long standing and powerful genre which seems to re-create itself and gets re-discovered. Why do you think this is? What makes blues tick?

PB. It's one of the uniquely American art forms like jazz or the western movie. The beauty of it is that there's always someone that manages to get a new spin on it. A whole new generation of fans has been emerging in the past ten years; we'll see how far they can reinvent the form.

WB. What are you listening too right now? What are your all time favourites?

PB. I recently bought reissues of Dennis Coffey's recordings for Westbound, and a reissue of Isaac Hayes "Hot Buttered Soul," I really like Dan Auerbach's solo album. I'm mostly into the classics Johnny Burnette, John Lee Hooker, Mississippi Fred McDowell. I love the Rolling Stones, the Troggs, Stooges, the Velvet, Canned Heat, early JJ Cale, the Meters. In the Jungle Groove by James Brown is a favorite. The early Funkadelic records are amazing. Dr. John, Betty Davis, Dr. Feelgood period Wilko Johnson, John Cale, early Jam, the Feelies, early Roxy, Ramones, Suicide that kind of stuff. It's a mixed bag really.

WB. What has been your favourite find/new signing and why?

PB. It's hard to say, I think I've had a good run lately. I'm certainly proud to have helped launch the Black Keys and Two Gallants' careers and I love the first SSM album, unfortunately that one passed unnoticed. In terms of new signings I love Brian Olive's debut. It's one of the best albums I have ever released also I think Thomas Function and Hacienda are two great bands I hope will have a long run. I'd say I stand behind everything I've released in the past two and half years.

WB. What does the future hold for Alive Records and Patrick Boissel?

PB. Just keep doing what we do.

WB. What has Alive just released and what's to come?

PB. A couple of reissues just came out, the Nerves live in Cleveland in 1977 and the Breakaways which was the band Peter Case and Paul Collins formed just after the Nerves and before the Plimsouls and the Beat. I also just put out Nathaniel Mayer's posthumous album. It's mostly the rest of his 2007 session with members of Outrageous Cherry, Black Keys, etc. We also released our first UK band, Henry's Funeral Shoe. They're formed by two Welsh brothers and play a form of hard primitive blues. Coming this winter is the new Black Diamond Heavies "Alive As Fuck," a live album as its title indicates. Also coming soon is the new Brimstone Howl "Big Deal. What's He Done Lately?," and a new T-Model Ford album titled "The Ladies Man". It's all acoustic, raw blues and his voice sounds amazing. I also signed a hard psychedelia band called Mondo Drag. They're from the same scene as Radio Moscow. Their album should be out next February. I'm keeping myself busy.

Thanks to Mr.Johnson for this!
http://www.bluesinlondon.com/interviews/200910_patrick_boissel.html