Rockin' Rollin' Blues Band - 'Wild and Untamed'

Here's another one of those random private press LP's that seems to have disappeared from the web. From what I can tell, I got it off the Cosmic Hearse blog a while back, which unfortunately looks like it's dead. Shame, cuz that guy posted some insane stuff.

This record isn't 'insane' per se, but it's pretty strange. Probably, it's a snapshot of a local band recorded in some friend's studio, but it still puts the listener into an interesting moment in time. For one thing, this band seems very 'out of touch' with what was going on (it was apparently released in '73.) In an era dominated by hard rock, these guys/gals were cranking out 50's rockabilly-influenced bar jams. But, a few of the members (specifically the guitarist) are clearly influenced by the hard rock/heavy metal of, say, Deep Purple. So, it's an unusual mix. I might go so far as to call a couple of these cuts 'proto-punk.'

Then there are the vocals. To say that they 'aren't very good' doesn't really do them justice. Sure, they aren't 'technically' good, but they are interesting at the very least. There is a guy and girl, who sometimes sing together, but often take different sections of songs. The girl's voice almost has an operatic quality sometimes, and the guy is a little gruff but mostly smooth. Neither sounds like they give too much of a shit. Judging by the cut-up pictures that serve as the album cover, I'd say these are probably some drugged-out bikers.

I'm also factoring the lyrics into this judgement, because they have this kinda backwoods vibe to them...not like they intentionally wanted to conjure this up but that they couldn't help but pull it into their music.

So, maybe that makes this album a little more 'authentic' blues than a lot of other 70's stuff? I dunno. But, if you like sloppy, trashy blues rock like Janis when she was with Big Brother, then you will probably dig this. The guitarist is really good at least, and a couple of their songs are pretty catchy.

No track names, sorry, apparently they were lost in time.

Rockin' Rollin' Blues Band - 'Wild and Untamed'

DL