Hyperbolium

Heavy, sweaty growling two-man punk-blues

As on their first two albums, Black Diamond Heavies crank out a lot more sound, and a lot more musical mass than one could imagine from a two-man blues band. It’s all the more impressive on this set for having been recorded live. John Wesley Myers plays the Fender Rhodes and provides bass via pedals (ala Ray Manzarek), and Van Campbell provides the drums. Their jamming actually does evoke the instrumental jams of the Doors, but heavier and grittier. The tone of Myers’ Fender may also remind you of Ray Charles, but it’s a guttural keyboard sound that Charles never laid down on tape. Myers plays both melody and rhythm on his keyboard, freeing Campbell’s drums to add a lyrical voice on top of their primary mission as the group’s timekeeper. Myers’ vocal growl still sounds like Tom Waits, but with distortion added to his piano, there’s a heavier punk-rock quotient, and the warble in the ‘50s-styled ballad “Bidin’ My Time” suggests a down-and-out Louie Armstrong. The roadwork that followed their studio releases solidified the interplay between Myers and Campbell, leaving little room for another instrumentalist and no sense that there’s a guitar missing. Recorded on a July night in a Covington, Kentucky Masonic lodge, the humidity clings to their performance, thickening it from the primal density of their studio work. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Hambone
Black Diamond Heavies’ Home Page
Black Diamond Heavies’ MySpace Page

Greasy and gritty guitar-and-drums two-man blues

Two-man blues bands have become their own genre, blossoming from the font of the White Stripes and a dozen others. Left Lane Cruiser is a Fort Wayne, Indiana duo that offers roaring storms of electric slide playing by Freddy J IV (Fredrick Joe Evans IV) and powerful, driving drumming by Brenn Beck. Though the songs often settle into standard blues progressions, the raw, shouted vocals and in-your-face electric guitar force is quite unsettling. Beck is constantly in motion on his snare and kick drums, adding cymbal crashes for texture, while Evans alternates between greasy power chords, low-string riffs and slide licks that alchemize electricity into music. The torrent of distortion clears momentarily as the duo turns the volume down for finger-picking and washboard percussion on “Ol’ Fashioned.” But mostly the duo rages, with Evans’ growl sufficiently distorted to obscure many of his lyrics. But with titles that include “Black Lung,” “Hard Luck,” and “Broke Ass Blues,” the pain isn’t subtle. This is very much what you’d expect from a band that thanks Jim Beam and Pabst Blue Ribbon for “keeping us feelin’ good.” [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

MP3 | Crackalacka
Left Lane Cruiser’s MySpace Page