Rating: 4/5
Verdict: Pass the Jack, old-time guitar rock jamming is where it's at
In his rock 'n' roll essays and fiction collection The Boy Who Cried Freebird, American writer Mitch Myers traces the notion of "boogie" from its name (having sex, basically) through the blues (John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillun' in 1948) and boogie-woogie piano a building block of early rock 'n' roll, then into those endless jams which guitarists get down 'n' boogie on. (Ten Years After at Woodstock.) His essay was entitled Endless Boogie after a Hooker album - and this same-name Brooklyn four-piece pick up the Ten Year After end and run with it. Or sometimes jog on the spot.
The band's singer/guitarist Paul "Top Dollar" Major told Mojo recently. "If we had a motto it'd be, 'When you get there, stay there'." And they do, for 22 minutes on A Life Worth Leaving, almost 10 on Empty Eye and over eight for Top Dollar Speaks His Mind and Pack Your Bags.
This is raw, guitar-framed rock 'n' blues garage band jamming which refers to the late 60s and early 70s (Blue Cheer, Canned Heat, Golden Earring), and because of the twin guitar possibilities with Jesper Eklow, hints of a more earthy Television ... although the appropriately entitled 10-minute Slow Creep is a quieter and more taut piece with gritty slide.
Prog rock without the prog, pomposity or pretension, this just is - and better at ear-bleed volume.
(elsewhere.co.nz)
- TimeOut
