This is an interesting release from San Francisco’s Down & Outlaws and whilst the cover just strikes me as plain odd and the title of the album conjures up…nah still nothing… what you can’t get past is that it sounds like a band you want to get to know.
‘Roll That Stone’ opens with a Bluesy twang, chain gang vocals and smoke in the fields, a simple earthy lyric and a wailing guitar. ‘I Don’t Care’ falls on you like The Stooges and there’s no respite until you’re well over half way.
Over the years of course there have been a million bands that have tried to sound like The Stooges or relished a Punk Rock take on the Blues, a few even sound like they mean it, less manage more than moments of it; but the best thing about ‘Down & Outlaws’ is that they have captured a sound that makes you think they don’t give a shit about what you think, and that listeners is a rare thing indeed.
This is cocky, brash, loud and beyond confident and tracks like ‘Fever’ and ‘Obsession’ lash you like good Rock N Roll should and it’s only the tribal drums and painted noise of ‘Way She rolls’ that give you a moments respite.
I love the harmonica on and country swing of ‘Every Time I Use You’ that closes, pealing away a layer that contained everything you thought you knew about the band in the process. This is a hot one.
By the way ‘Above Snakes’ is an old cowboy phrase meaning “still alive” – I think this album would we more fittingly be subtitled “and still kicking like a mule”…
