Mark your calendars for the 2007 Taste of Downtown American Music Show, 7/7/07, featuring...
The Romantics 1979 single “What I Like About You” might just be one of the most recognizable songs of the last twenty-five years. Not bad for a song that didn’t last on the singles chart. The Detroit based Romantics released five albums of guitar driven power pop in the early to mid 1980’s. Their fame peaked in 1984 with the release of “In Heat”, an album that spawned MTV hits “One In A Million”, “Rock You Up” and “Talking In Your Sleep”. The pressures of fame and an extended law suit with the band’s management led to a quiet stretch for the band throughout the 1990’s. In 2003 benefiting from the resurgence of garage rock (White Stripes, The Strokes, The Hives, Jet) and with the support of Little Steven’s Underground Garage Radio show, The Romantics returned to the stage in support of “61/49”. The new album,“61/49”, is a collection of new songs along with covers of the Kinks and the Pretty Things. A follow up cd is currently in the works. Unlike many bands that hit big and fade away, only to return to the oldies circuit, The Romantics have returned to their roots. The 21st century stage performance has as much raw rock and roll energy as anything being produced by their followers.
The Romantics sound has been shaped by the 60’s British Invasion and the sounds of their home, Motown. The Motor City may be best known for Berry Gordy’s Motown pop/r&b label, but it is also the home of the pre-punk, garage stylings of the MC5, Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes and the Stooges. It is this blend of melodic sixties rock and roll and the primal, late sixties rock energy of the Stooges that make the Romantics the quintessential American rock and roll band.
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The Bottle Rockets remain one of the most steel-solid bands amongst the greatest of rural-rock trailblazers. The St. Louis, Missouri outfit long regarded and adored as THE workingman's rock band have hit a creative high water mark with a new homecoming record that is at once their most spirited and finely honed.
Zoysia is the latest sample of the Bottle Rockets' tenaciousness, their eighth album and second release on Bloodshot Records. Produced by Jeff Powell at the legendary Ardent Studios in Memphis and captured largely in two or three takes in a city with its own kind of groove. Coming out on the heels of a litany of knee-jerking changes measuring 4-years deep, this album finds the band (Brian Henneman --guitar/ vocals, Mark Ortmann --drums, John Horton --guitar, and newest and final member, Springfield, IL's own Keith Voegele on bass/vocals) the proudest they've ever been of any other recorded works.
The Bottle Rockets channel some serious cascading Crazy Horse squall, they nail the scruffy romantic, dirty fingernail rock of the Midwest and soak up the soulful vibes that ooze from the cement blocks in Memphis studios. Lyrically, the band's underdog outlook finds the optimism and the resignation behind worlds faraway, or just on the other side of the screen door. Add it all up and what you get is something that's all its own, something that is pure Bottle Rockets.
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Whether you call them garage rock or power pop makes no difference to Shazam frontman Hans Rontenberry. “It’s pretty pop songs played loud”, says Hans. What more could a fan of rock and roll ask for? This Nashville quartet wears its Cheap Trick, The Who and the Kinks influences on its sleeve. Little Steven of Little Steven’s Underground Garage Radio Show and the owner of Wicked Cool Records (and the guy that works for “the boss” on the Sopranos and plays guitar for the boss in the E Street Band) says this about The Shazam, “one of the best things I’ve heard in twenty years.” Who wants to argue with a guy that works for “the boss”?
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In a time when hard country singer-songwriters were hailed as working class prophets and poets, Rex Hobart would sell millions of records. Alas, fans of Hobart and his mates from Kansas City will have to settle for the four critically acclaimed Bloodshot Records releases. Hobart’s songs of love and loss among the ordinary bring to mind the best of mid-sixties country music, Haggard, Jones, Paycheck and Jennings.
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From Enon, Ohio comes the next rock and roll guitar prodigy and the self proclaimed King of Nerdabilly!. Not too many guitar players will catch the eye of a seasoned vet like Deke Dickerson but Crazy Joe Tritschler has done just that. Dickerson hired Crazy Joe to tour with Ecco-fonics on their last national tour and also invited Joe to play the 2007 Guitar Geek Festival. The festival brings in legendary guitar greats. This year’s lineup included Herb Remington, steel guitar with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, Nokie Edwads of the Ventures, Kid Ramos of the Fabulous Thunderbirds and Brian Lonbeck, the “fastest guitar in the West”. Crazy Joe keeps good company!
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