Left Lane Cruiser - Bring Yo' Ass To The Table

11:38am Tuesday 8th January 2008

Artist - Left Lane Cruiser
Album - Bring Yo' Ass To The Table
Label - Alive

Guitar and drum combos are becoming the arrangement-du-jour, with notables such as The White Stripes, The Black Keys and Two Gallants all finding a massive audience.

Left Lane Cruiser are at the whiskey'd up badass Seasick Steve end of the spectrum - this is dirty rock blues, like ZZ Top at their early best.

As you may expect, it is the intensity of the bottleneck guitar attack and ferocity of the drumming that sustain the interest here.

The fact that the 'band' is a duo isn't actually noticeable - bands like Black Eyed Snakes and North Mississippi Allstars make music that sounds similar - but perhaps the wild-eyed interplay between the two elevates the energy to 11.

Bring Yo' Ass To The Table is the kind of music that could care less about whether ties are straight or thin this year, and in doing so defines its own coolness.

That means, as many are now finding with shows by the Black Keys and Seasick Steve filling major venues, a seriously fine live show.

Album of the week.

Rating 9/10
Mike Rea