Exorcisms - self released

Exorcisms, based in LA, play a ragged, busted up blues. I was watching Repoman the other day remembering how broken and crazy Los Angeles looked in that movie to a small town kid who didn't even know what seven inches were yet. It makes perfect sense to me that the West, the very end of the country, the final stop for all lost souls would lend itself to that genre of expression. Don't let the climate fool you, nothing is sunny and perfect.

A-Side's "Love Gone Bad" is dragged throught the back door like the echo beaten blues track it is... beaten with a garage feel to this they let the grit and fuel fly through these distortions. David Lopez even seems to have a slight bit of overdrive on his vocals and he isn't afraid to push things into the red on the mic or his vocal range in exorcising some kind of relationship. This could be a distant relative to the glittering prom rock 50's of Shannon and the Clams or Hunx. David's blue collar vocal isn't as theatrical, but the harmonizing ahh's from Hannah of White Murder or William Fowler are those tandem backup sunny harmonies in this sad bastard fest. Like Mark Lannegan with a full band, it's a bluesy back of the bar closer. The final track for the night, clearing out the drunks. A siren call to their alley's. Exorcising the drunks from their stools and the last few bucks from everyone's pockets. I don't want you no more. The rest of the band comes in, they saw it coming, it's no surprise. Then this protagonist goes beating himself up even more.

B-Side's "Two with Half" jumps back and forth between kick and snare with feedback and a stumbling stutter guitar with thick distortion fills in the spaces between those empty hits. It predictably rocks out, the blues can't ever stay quiet, and this turns into a Black Keys classic huge rock from down in the basement. You can hear the space that surrounds these guys, it's all been done in the same room together, that spirit of bendy blues and using that energy from each other to make things a little bit harder, it defintiely isn't the looking back and reminiscing of the A-Side. They're forward looking, barreling don the freeway this time, bass line driven. The lyric would have you think otherwise but it's the soundtrack to a tough party in a dark alley.

Get this from their band camp page.