Been a little while since I looked at a current album --- in fact, if I look back, seems to have been the beginning of this month. So much for keeping up to date! Still, I'll blame all the building work that's going on at the moment here: can't listen to an album when some guy is hammering out a beat with a pneumatic drill or knocking down your walls! That much said, it's time to get back to the, er, present, and have a look at an album that has been released this year.
I personally have never heard of this band, though it appears from what I can gather (sometimes Wiki is just absolutely
no help!) that they've been together since the early nineties, and have released close to twenty albums over that time. I listened to some samples from their latest album and was so taken that I immediately added it to my basket, and now I want to listen to it properly and give it the review it surely seems to deserve. Possibly some/most of you may laugh or sneer at me for not knowing who these guys are, but there's no point in pretending I do. If they're really that famous, then shame on me for letting them pass me by. Let's begin to sort out that lapse now.
Generator --- The Blindside Blues Band --- 2012 (Shrapnel)
With a name like that, you can be reasonably sure of what you're getting. This will be no deep, intricate composition with swirling keyboards, electronic doo-dads or indeed soft violins or orchestral backing. The likes of dragons, quests, political themes and references to worshipping the devil are likely to be conspicuous by their absence, and drum machines are also not expected. This is the Blues, this is rock, and this is goddamn down-home fun.
So who are these guys? It would appear that the band is the brainchild of one Mike Onesko, a native of the fair state of Ohio, who left his home at seventeen to seek fame as a guitar player and formed several bands in San Francisco before getting the Blindside Blues Band together in around 1993, and ended up playing with such greats as Neal Schon, Glenn Hughes and Pat Travers, also putting out two tribute records to the late Jimi Hendrix. In addition to the Blindsides, Onesko also puts in time with other projects, such as the Mike Onesko Blues Band , the Onesko-Bogert-CEO Project and Mike Onesko's Guitar Army, but here we're concentrating on the current one, the Blindside Blues Band.
The album sleeve hammers home the message, with its picture of a big, heavy, tough old generator; certainly not state-of-the-art, looks like it could power a small city for a month by itself. It's dirty and it's mean, it's powerful and it's rough, but it'll get the job done and it won't let you down. And indeed this album does not. It kicks off with the nasty, heavy, grinding sound of a gee-tar, in the best tradition of ZZ and George Thorogood, then Mike's voice is a deep, drawling cross between Billy Gibbons and Steve Earle, as “Gravy train” gets underway. Powerful, tough guitar playing meshing with thumping drums and thudding bass, with a great solo from Jay Jesse Johnson (there's a name that was born out on some ranch somewhere, far from the city!) and a powerful, hammerpunch ending that pulls us without pause into the title track, a Chicago-blues-infused boogie rocker that just demands your feet tap. This is the sort of band Gary Moore would have wanted to jam with, had he lived longer. Straight ahead, no-nonsense, no frills rock and roll and blues. Lovely. Guitar, guitar, bass and drums, and a guy to sing about the things that have happened in his life. No synths, no keys, no strings, no nothin' but the most basic and joyful of the blues.
There's nothing too deep here: these are guys who enjoy making music, who enjoy rockin' and do it to the very best of their ability, as they show on “Power of the blues”, with squealing, yowling guitar from Johnson taking centre stage while Mike Onesko keeps an almost Sabbath-like riff going as a counterpoint, and though this title has been used before this is not a cover: every track here is a Mike Onesko original. “Bluesin'” is another vehicle for JJJ's fretwork frenzy, with a definite late sixties feel to the backing vocals, and a touch of Hendrix's “Crosstown traffic”, then speaking of that, there's a real workout on “Goin' crosstown”, with another deep and dirty arrangement that leaves you in no doubt that you should under no circumstances cross this man, as he heads 'cross town to see his lady.
There's a great swinging blues number then in “Loving you”, Mike channeling BB King, with some superb guitar histrionics from Jesse Jay, then it's almost the opening riff from Sabbath's classic “Paranoid” that kicks off a slowburning, grinding blues rocker that just about shades into metal territory. “Genevieve” is the Blindside Blues Band at their hardest, crunchiest and dirtiest, and indeed almost their longest, with the track clocking in at just over eight minutes. Halfway through it changes, with a big bluesy guitar solo taking the song and speeding it up in true southern rock fashion, then it all slows back down again, grinding to the end as it began. Superb.
Some absolutely mesmeric slide guitar from JJJ opens “Gonna leave this town”, recalling the best of the Delta blues, and a fine tough rocker it is too, with the slide continuing right through, backed by Mike Onesko's own fine guitar licks, as he grates out the lyric like a man possessed. “Wandering man” continues the theme of the drifter with his six-string slung over his back, moving from town to town, riffs firing off like salvoes from an offshore battleship, a cool little bass solo from Kier Staeheli, and we close on the mighty, and well-named, “Bonus jam”.
Nine and a half minutes of pure guitar blues heaven, a powerful instrumental that just brings down the curtain on a fine, fine album in exactly the way you hoped it would: lettin' the music do the talking! Onesko and Johnson spark off each other perfectly here, trading licks and riffs like two master fencers dancing around each other, while the rock-solid rhythm section keeps everything firmly under control. There's even time for an impromptu drum solo just before the end! For anyone who's an aficionado of great guitar playing, this is a treat indeed. Not shredding by any means, but guitars played the way they ought to be, the way they were down Mississippi and Chicago and N'Orleans, with fire and power and pride and passion, and an abiding love for the blues.
You can tell that, even at the end of this tremendous album, the generator that is Blindside Blues Band is far from out of power, but the album has drained me, and I definitely need to recharge before I can tackle any more reviews. Superb, sublime, powerful and very, very special indeed. If you've ever wondered what people see in the blues, this is your chance to find out. Grab this now: it's essential listening.
TRACKLISTING
1. Gravy train
2. Generator
3. Power of the blues
4. Bluesin'
5. Goin' crosstown
6. Lovin' you
7. Genevieve
8. Slow down
9. Gonna leave this town
10. Wandering man
11. Bonus jam