Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Endless Boogie: Tarmac City
In his rock'n'roll essays and fiction
collection The Boy Who Cried Freebird, the American writer
Mitch Myers traces the notion of “boogie” from its name (having
sex, basically) through the blues (John Lee Hooker's Boogie
Chillun in 48) and boogie-woogie piano a building block of early
rock'n'roll and then into those endless jams which longhaired
guitarists get down'n'boogie on (think Ten Years After at Woodstock).
His essay was entitled Endless
Boogie after a Hooker album – and this same-name Brooklyn
four-piece pick up the Ten Year After end of the story and run with
it. Or sometimes jog on the spot.
The band's singer/guitarist Paul “Top
Dollar” Major told Mojo recently. “If we had a motto it'd
be, 'When you get there, stay there'.”
And they do, for 22 minutes on A
Life Worth Leaving, almost 10 on Empty Eye and over eight
for Top Dollar Speaks His Mind and Pack Your Bags.
This is raw, guitar-framed rock'n'blues garageband jamming which refers to the late 60s and early 70s (Blue Cheer,
Canned Heat, Golden Earring, Grateful Dead), and because of the dual guitar
possibilities with Jesper Eklow, hints of a more earthy Television .
. . although the appropriately entitled 10 minute, Slow Creep
is a quieter and more taut piece with gritty slide.
In some respects this is prog-rock
without the prog, pomposity or pretense at deep meaning.
This just is – and if you like guitar
boogie which just stays there then these guys do exactly that – and it's
better at kiss-the-sky volume of course.
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