Rock Them Back to Hell!

Left Lane Cruiser may be from Fort Wayne, Indiana but they sound like a couple of unhinged punk hillbillies raised on the North Mississippi hill country blues of R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough. A two-piece band comprised of Frederick "Joe" Evans IV on slide guitar and vocals and Bren Beck on drums and anything else he can bang on, they may cruise the same sort of modal North Mississippi blues territory but, with screamed and distorted vocals pushed through what sounds like a shorted-out karaoke mike, they also sound like a lo-fi swampy version of the Stooges, full of rampaging insistence and impatience. Rock Them Back to Hell! is hardly a change of form for a band that calls what it does "voodoo hillbilly punk blues" and approaches things with a frenzied roar that makes paint curl and shake its ass. From the first track, "Zombie Blocked," clear through to the last, "Righteous," Evans sings like he's gargling cigarette butts and ashes on the midnight train to nowhere, while Beck pounds out rhythms that could make cement crack. This is what Left Lane Cruiser do, stomping across the sonic landscape like they want to shear off every blade of grass. It's refreshing, really, and uncomplicated -- stomp and scream like life depended on it. There's clarity in that. ~ Steve Leggett