Chybucca Sounds

Thanks to the rise of post-millennial blues rocker Jack White – not to mention the Black Keys – slide guitar workouts and Bonham-esque boogies are commonplace once again.

The Rusty Rodriguez Band, a talented duo from Richmond, has used this mainstream interest to their advantage. Like their legendary bearded neighbours, the band’s early collection of tracks is filled with attitude and quirks: fuzzy guitars, soulful howls, barrelhouse rhythms and Texan slang. Sound familiar?

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The Voodoo Pistols are the latest British band to adopt the bluesy, riff-heavy sound, of the Palm Desert: interchangeable melodic hooks with a penchant for the unknown.

With dreams of one day being invited to the sun-scorched sands of their spiritual homeland; the trio of: Athanasios James Koutinas (aka Naz), Voytek Bruzda (aka Al) and bassist Dave Renniks, have made sure that their early work is dark, gritty and memorable.

Like a protégé hoping to impress their mentor; Voodoo Pistols (like Queens of the Stone Age), fuse elements of: surf, swamp-rock and the psychobilly sleaze of the Cramps, into their arsenal – and with a vocalist who shares the same low-decibel dissonance as Mark Lanegan (think Screaming Trees-era), it won’t be long until the mysterious trio are living out their Californian fantasies.

This Houston trio have some serious pedigree. Their self-titled ‘demo’ – a ‘demo’ that would easily pass as a polished EP – is a definite example of ‘record collection rock’: you can hear everyone from Blue Cheer to the Stooges, early Pentagram, and smatterings of hardcore punk. Venus Blue describe themselves as a band with a “unique sound” that “boggles the mind”. They’re not wrong.

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Mothershine emerged last year shrouded in mystery with nothing but a Facebook image of one man plugging away intently on his six-string, to their name.

Since then, the man in question (and the band’s other hidden members) have been revealed as: Clauds (guitar), Tia (bass) and Lucz (drums); three young Italians with a knack of creating ambient, garage-psych gems. Now in their fifth year and a festival appearance to their name – see aforementioned Facebook image – Mothershine have decided to share their improvised jams online for the first time. Mystery solved.

It seems as if every blues guitar-orientated duo gets compared to modern greats such as the White Stripes and the Black Keys; and in the case of White Chocolate and the Cigarettes: the comparisons are justified.

Born and raised in Arizona, Michael Whitbylife and Chase Spross relocated to Portland: “a scene that needed help in the loud ass rock and roll department.” High on confidence, the bands self-titled demo is: loud, brash and incredibly raw; as Whitbylife’s chainsaw grooves piece through Spross’ cymbal-smashing seizures, with blistering intent.

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For a demo to be recommended is a little unusual. Sure, a band can show potential, but that’s usually as far as it goes: potential, nothing more.

Enshrouded in mystery – to everyone apart from their niche, North London followers – Throne are, to coin an overused phase: “everything that this genre should be about.” With Electric Wizard, Orange Amplifiers and Jack Daniels whiskey listed as interests; the talented trio are the latest band to prove that ‘slow and heavy’ is still Britain’s raison d’être.

Although Slingshot may be situated in Vienna – one of the coldest cities in Europe – their early work represents a time and place that is suited to warmer surroundings: Merging sun-kissed grooves with Detroit funk.

The ironically-named Italians are the latest stoner-worshipping ensemble, to embrace California’s vast open spaces: Large amps, low-slung guitars and plenty of chugging.

Gringo denotes like so: A four-piece from Raleigh, North Carolina, the band’s highly infectious thick, pedal-to-the-floor fuzz, is a pummeling combination of desert-doom; heavy as Gozu and as direct and fluid as Fu Manchu, it is only a matter of time before underground labels come knocking. Gringo is here to stay.

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If there was a cash prize for the amount of times that ‘Mountain’ has been used in rock and metal folklore, the global economy would be in a much healthily position. Like their distantly named cousins, ‘Black Mountain’ the Canadian duo of Josh MacSween and Will Waldron are hoping to breathe new life into the psychedelic-blues genre, by looking to the past for inspiration: vintage fuzz, heavy distortion and randomly assembled track titles.

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