You may not consider La Crosse, Wisconsin to be a likely source for hard hitting and high quality rock and roll, but an important part of enjoying life is to never stop learning. And on this one we may have been a bit ahead of you, because we have been following Porcupine for a couple of years. Their charms include a bracing combination of '90s alt rock riffs and rhythms -- think Dinosaur Jr, The Queens of the Stone Age and those fighting Foos -- and enough crunchy power pop to satisfy the brain's need for hooks. The fact that the trio has a wry, Midwestern sense of humor just makes it all that much more appealing. The latest edition of Porcupine rock is The Sensation of Being Somebody, available now from Hang Up Records.
Casey Virock (vocals and guitar), Dave Reinders (bass and backing vocals) and Brian Kerr (drums and backing vocals) are Porcupine. The trio is a well oiled machine (well, in Wisconsin the lubricant may not be oil) and efficiently make a considerable amount of well focused and adeptly crafted noise. And they are veterans, so they can write and record music with a clear understanding that pleasing themselves is job number one, because chasing anything else is likely to end up in disappointment. Indeed, I suspect that the band's comfort with what they are doing and what to expect from it is one of the things that makes The Sensation of Being Somebody a delight.
The set of songs on the album is uniformly strong, but in my view, "Witness to a Chase Scene" is the showcase track in the collection --
You may also be interested to know that the album opener is available as a free download --
The band also made a little documentary about making the album --
You can stream and buy the album at the Bandcamp link below. If you prefer, you can use iTunes and Amazon as well.
Website
Bandcamp
Twitter ( @porcupineband )
No comments:
Post a Comment