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LONESOME SHACK “More Primitive” in The DAILY EXPRESS (UK)
How an American trio are changing the sound of blues
NEW Mexico-based blues trio Lonesome Shack are captivating blues lovers and making converts with its evocative, emotive take on the genre. By Paul Stewart
FOR those who love the blues, this could well be the album of the year. Seattle’s Lonesome Shack have called this More Primitive and nothing could be closer to the truth.
The trio has produced a raw, stripped-down album that explores the depths of boogie and country blues while having a modern sound. There are lots of people who “play the blues” these days – its kind of “hip” and there are the old timers, who still do it brilliantly and there are those who slavishly try to recreate what they had.
But there are a few blues musicians who are taking the blues forward to the 21st century. Make no mistake, they are the real deal but they plough their own furrow and move the musical genre forward. A prime example of this is new blues guitarist, Stephen Dale Petit.
Lonesome Shack are part of this rarified group. The trio’s sound is raw, immediate and engaging and Ben Todd’s introspective lyrics are in the American blues tradition but to a new level and show a desire to get to the primitive core of life.
JESTER JAY review of LONESOME SHACK “More Primitive”
Evocative and restless, simplicity offers a rich palette
The guitar strings pop and tick like a cooling engine, hinting at long drives and endless roaming. The smell of hot blacktop seems to hang in the background of each of Lonesome Shack’s heavy blues cuts on More Primitive, along with an acrid hint of Southern pine. There’s no question that the Seattle trio is a blues revival group; you can hear their reverence for classic moans and foot stomping grooves. While they’ve clearly listened to their share of John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Slim Harpo, you can hear the influence of follow-on interpreters like Duane Allman, Billy Gibbons, and Jack White in the mix as well. But unlike the crowded room sound of the Allman Brothers or the electric burn of ZZ Top, Lonesome Shack emulates their bluesman heroes and locks into the simplicity of a shuffling guitar and wavery vocals. While they round out the sound with light bass and a bare-bones rhythm, each song falls into a hypnotic trance of restless guitar vamps.
The OBELISK review of RADIO MOSCOW “Magical Dirt”
Radio Moscow, Magical Dirt: Burning Fast
Since the release of their self-titled debut in 2007, Radio Moscow have specialized in tight-knit heavy psychedelic blues rock, topped off with the barnburner fretwork of guitarist/vocalist Parker Griggs. In drummer Paul Marrone (also Astra and Psicomagia) and bassist Anthony Meier (also Sacri Monti), Griggs has a rhythm section not only able to stand up to his own playing, but to meet it head on, and their fifth album for Alive Records, Magical Dirt, is all the stronger for it. Radio Moscow‘s last proper studio outing was 2011′s The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz, and it’s always tricky to figure which of the instruments Griggs is handling himself on a given release — he seemed to play everything on 2012′s previously-lost-tracks LP 3 &3 Quarters, originally recorded in 2003 — but the dynamic that Radio Moscow brings to their stage performance is present throughout Magical Dirt‘s 10 tracks and 42 minutes, and they not only live up to the form and intent of their past work in capturing a rush of heavy ’70s swagger and swing, but they push deeper into the command of the elements at work in their sound. Take the second-to-last track, “Before it Burns.” Right around two minutes in, the song shifts gears almost immediately from winding riffs and fleet shuffle into an airy psych jam that stands out maybe most of all for how much on an initial listen you might not even notice it until you’re already halfway through. The reason that’s the case is because Radio Moscow are completely in control of the material by that point in the album, and able to take and put the listener precisely where they want them to be. Eastern scales and percussion that come seemingly out of nowhere would be out of place on so many other records, but on Magical Dirt, pretty much whatever Radio Moscow decide to fit, they fit.
Chiefly, what they fit into these songs is a whole lot of volatility. At any moment, songs like opener “So Alone,” or “These Days,” “Got the Time” or “Rancho Tehama Airport” sound like they could completely come apart, like when you shake the bolts loose on a piece of machinery and the whole thing collapses into a pile of parts, but even at their fastest, Radio Moscow retain control, and while the whole of Magical Dirt retains an organic, live-feeling production, it’s also got clarity enough to showcase just how precise the band is in pulling it all off. Hooks are in steady supply, whether it’s the chorus of the mostly acoustic “Sweet L’il Thing” or the maddeningly catchy instrumental bounce of “Death of a Queen,” which ends playfully following channel-panning leads from Griggs without letting go of the reins. That’s to say nothing of the songwriting at play in side B’s “Gypsy Fast Woman,” which boasts a funkier groove and more blazing solos on top of subtle bass fills and enviable snare work en route to one of Magical Dirt‘s most infectious refrains. “Bridges” is the longest cut at 5:19 and starts the album’s second half with a pullback on tempo compared to the rush of “These Days” before it — a winding section of guitar, bass and drums also seems to recall “Death of a Queen” — but the wealth of wah provides continuity between sides A and B of Magical Dirt and by the time “Bridges” breaks to an acoustic-led blues jam topped with an electric lead in its own second half, you’re either on board for the ride or you’re not going to be. Fortunately, the earlier one-two blues of “So Alone” and boogie in “Rancho Tehama Airport,” which was also released as a pre-album single, also give a clear indication of some of Radio Moscow‘s lysergic tendencies, and by then, the flow is well established. They continue into the layered groove of “Gypsy Fast Woman” without so much as a hiccup for the sidestep in approach.
And again, “Gypsy Fast Woman” does emerge as a highlight of Magical Dirt after repeat listens. It has some stiff competition in that regard from cuts like “Death of a Queen,” “Rancho Tehama Airport” and the bluesy semi-unplugged closer “Stinging,” but if there’s one factor that ties the record to everything Radio Moscow have done to this point no matter who’s been in the lineup, it’s that the sound is dense, comprised of pieced-together layers not overdone, but throwing a lot at the listener and daring them to keep up. Part of what makes their approach so exciting the first several times through is exactly that — the far greater likelihood is that someone who just puts a Radio Moscow album on unsuspecting isn’t going to keep up at all — but Magical Dirt also reinforces the strength in songwriting and performance to back up that initial adrenaline. In some ways, they practice a lost art in tracing a lineage back to classic heavy rock and making that sound modern without losing the soul or vibe, but while the components they use may wind up familiar, any given track on Magical Dirt stands out with enough nuance to support a whole that belongs entirely to Radio Moscow. That is, the songs are more than just exciting. They’re also well composed and varied in mood and approach. And they’re not just layering in seven guitar tracks for no reason. They’re creating an atmosphere. That Radio Moscow can do all this while also nailing blinding rhythmic shifts like they’re nothing and tossing off Hendrixian solos seemingly by the dozen is all the more a testament to the quality of their work. Whatever level you might want to meet them on, they’re already there. As Griggs continues to refine his songwriting, the output only seems to become more accomplished, and Magical Dirt finds Radio Moscow completely at home in the chaos of their own making. Their dynamic at this point — as much as it’s guitar-based, the contributions of Meier and Marrone are not to be understated — is second to none, and when inclined, they can still be explosive, but they keep aware of the need for more than just bombast. Magical Dirt is worth the effort of listening carefully and listening often.
Courtesy of JJ Koczan : THE OBELISK
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LONESOME SHACK in The SEATTLE WEEKLY
The SEATTLE WEEKLY
Lonesome Shack Lives the Blues With ‘More Primitive’
By Dusty Henry
Bar bands around the world are pounding out bouncy riffs peppered with Southern drawl every day, and most will go unnoticed. Often the genre becomes a self-parody: overzealous guitarists playing the dirtiest and grimiest blues they’re capable of (cue Jon Spencer and Dan Auerbach). But a great blues record embraces the genre’s subtleties. The blues are fickle. They are not triumphant. They do not provide a “feel-good” sound. That’s what makes Lonesome Shack’s fourth full-length, More Primitive, so compelling. Vocalist/guitarist Ben Todd’s playing style is dexterous and his vocals hushed—especially on tracks like “Medicine,” where he sneers, “I went to hell against my will.” The hazy, humid atmosphere created throughout by drummer Kristian Garrard and bassist Luke Bergman contributes to the album’s overall exasperated, desperate tone, and embraces the sluggish, back-road quality that permeates the catalog of legend Robert Johnson. By the time we hear album closer “Evil,” the band sounds as if they’ve lost the will to keep going—as if they’re being forced to play somewhere in Louisiana in mid-July in the blazing noonday sun. Bergman’s bass plods along slowly and Todd’s guitar drifts in and out. Such a tone is not only appropriate but essential to their success: it’s that pain and wallowing that makes them truly live the blues.
Stream RADIO MOSCOW “Magical Dirt” on CLASSIC ROCK
EXCLUSIVE: stream the new album from Radio Moscow
Magical Dirt doesn’t drop until June 17, but the band have given Classic Rock an exclusive preview.
Most recently in the UK for April’s Desert Fest, Radio Moscow — made up of guitarist Parker Griggs, Anthony Meier (bass) and drummer Paul Marrone — have produced a record that’s a thunderous mix of driving blues-rock, wah-wah wonkiness, and skull-busting, headphone-shattering psychedelia.
Why Magical Dirt? “I came up with the title cause when I lived in the rancho up north in California”, says Griggs. “There was an old compost troft in the garden area. I poured old pre-used pot soils on top of it and a few weeks later hundreds of panaeolus subbalteatus magic mushrooms grew up out of it! I couldn’t believe it. They lasted me all summer and gave many crazy trips.”
Buy This Record TODAY: Lonesome Shack – AMERICAN STANDARD TIME
Breakdown blues.
Lonesome Shack have that rare power you need in a blues band—they start playing, and the whole room follows them. Yeah, people get up and dance. But there’s another kind of connection. This has been happening since I started following them in 2009, when they were a two-piece with Ben Todd playing guitar and singing and Kristian Garrard playing makeshift stripped down drum sets.
Their first three LPs, Bound to Die to Slidin Boa and City Man, their 2012 Knick Knack Records release recorded at their old home venue, Café Racer, have all attempted to capture the way they mesmerize a room—City Man is the closest to capturing it, including the credited bottle drop.
The new Lonesome Shack release, More Primitive, is an entirely different affair. Not just a step toward accessibility—but an enormous artistic step. Lonesome Shack were a great blues band, but now they are at the level of genre transforming. The reasons for this are threefold. First, the recording is textured and smooth—you get the live feel, but there aren’t hiccups. These are great takes. The mics are placed well. Reverb is used well. (This is a trademark of Alive Naturalsound Records, I’ve noticed, ever since I first started following them with their excellent T Model Ford releases The Ladies Man and Taledragger that completely resurrected T Model as a blues force—resurrected is an understatement, the recordings brought out qualities that had been completely overlooked in his more famous earlier recordings.)
Second, the musicians of Lonesome Shack have come into their own. Particularly, the rhythm section on More Primitive could give a Master’s class on the less-is-more technique. It used to be, Lonesome Shack would have a tiny kit on stage, but Kristian might do some fancy rolls for a song, etc, (not to belittle his playing, it was good—but there were typically moments where he drew attention to his prowess). Now, the instruments sound grown up, the musicians, like the butler in Remains of the Day, have disappeared. When you hear “Old Dream”, you’ll understand this complement. Perfection in drumming and bass-playing. A funky, understated blues number that establishes a new template for blues, I feel “Old Dream” is where this album launches into the back of the brain. From that moment, there aren’t two minutes where there isn’t another pleasant surprise.
SPIN premieres LONESOME SHACK new single “Medicine”
WRITTEN BY
David Menconi
This bluesy trio calls Seattle home, but you’d swear that Lonesome Shack hail from the deepest Mississippi Delta based on this teaser from their forthcoming album More Primitive. “Medicine” ambles along at the tempo of a stroll, or a heartbeat, with the rhythm battened down tight by Kristian Garrard’s steady rolling drums and Luke Bergman’s insistent baseline. But that’s the only easygoing thing about it; frontman Ben Todd howls at the monkey on his back and tries to stab it with jagged edges of guitar. Going cold turkey never sounded so good.
HOLLIS BROWN “Gets Loaded” on AMERICAN SONGWRITER
Hear Hollis Brown Cover The Velvet Underground’s “Loaded”
The Band: Hollis Brown
The Album: Hollis Brown Gets Loaded, a song-for-song recreation of The Velvet Underground’s 1970 classic, Loaded. The album (vinyl only, and limited to 500 copies) drops April 19, in support of Record Store Day.
Fun Fact: To support Gets Loaded, Hollis Brown are heading out on tour with ’60s garage rock legends The Zombies.
Songwriter Says: “Record Store Day is an opportunity for artists to do something different, to give real music fans another side, something fun, something they might not normally get to experience,” notes frontman Mike Montali. “We decided to shack up for two days in a house in the country, and play the songs off of one of our favorite albums. Being a native of Queens, New York City, we want to keep the lineage of great New York bands going. This record is our tribute to the best band to ever come out of New York, and certainly one of the best songwriters to ever live.”
SOURCE: AMERICAN SONGWRITER