Green Rock River Band - Rhinoceros (Hand Clap Records)
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| Green Rock River Band - Rhinoceros |
Release Date: 26th May 2014
The Green Rock River Band are one
of those bands that you might hear performing in the corner of a festival one
day on your way to see the Kaiser Chiefs
and their sound would make you stop in your tracks. Then maybe you'd hang
around to check out the next track. Before you know it, you've been dancing
along for half an hour and you've purchased their CD....and maybe a T-shirt.
And it would have been entirely the right decision. The London collective fuse
all kinds of 'old' styles of music from Jazz to Bluegrass to Folk to Blues and they
appear to be lead by some descendant of Fagin. The album starts with the woozy
gypsy lilt of 'Charlie Stork's Blues', full of trombone, banjo and woe, before
the marvellously monikered 'Angry Ferret' comes do-se-doing up to you for the
best hoe-down of your short life. And then we head to the pub with the whole
band to drink a cocktail of depravity and sing along to 'Drink Here Til I Die'.
It's a heady start to any album but a beautifully intoxicating one, that's for
sure.
The gently soothing fiddle of
'This Old Heart' comes straight from the American Midwest via Nick Cave's vocal
chords while 'Seasons' is a surprisingly seductive little number that would
suit a burlesque routine as long as the discarded costume had been a wild-west
showgirl with a feather in her hair and a perfectly placed vanity spot. 'Rosie Ann'
revisits the Grinderman tones and the vocal duet is sublime as Rebecca
Freeman's soft tones are a welcome breeze on a song full of broken hearts
(check out the free download of this track below, interesting beats featured as
well as the band bring the old up to date). The light and countrified air of
'Old Summer Nights' is ripe for a good old barn dance before the brief
interlude of 'Leaky Pipe Trio' which is a delightful piece of instrumental fun
lead by pots'n'pans percussion. The album finishes up with 'Last Fair Deal' -
Fagin banging out a country tune with Chas'n'Dave - and 'Mole In The Ground'
which has an Indigo Girls meets Mad Dog MacRae feel to it and for that I am oh
so grateful. Here is a band so bursting with ideas from across the musical mists
of time that you can't help but suspect they may arrive at gigs in a Delorean.
Or maybe that giant time travelling train thing the Doc built. That would be
awesome.
More information: www.greenrockriverband.com
Free Download of Rosie Ann: https://soundcloud.com/greenrockriverband/rosie-ann
Live Dates:
31st May - Album Launch @ Union Records, Lewes
8th June - Grey Horse Pub, Kingston Upon Thames
28th June - Union Chapel, London
22nd-26th August - Small World Festival, Kent
26th October - Grey Horse Pub, Kingston Upon Thames