2005 Best Local Rock CD Release
|
25.85% Left Lane Cruiser / Left Lane Cruiser*
Others with Votes (more than one):
Un-finished Business/The Fall & Rise of Rock & Roll, House of
H.E.M.P./American Weigh, Shilo/Shilo Country, Essentials Volume 9, Geo
Trio/Martini Moon, Jeff Gainey/That’s How I Like It, King/Equal Opportunity,
Rudisill/Carbon Paper Treaties, Simon Peter/Fishers of Men, Under the Wake/Abhorrence
Rock Non-Rock Releases
* On the ballot
|
"We were definitely surprised," Beck said. The CD has acquired the name Slingshot by virtue of the Sharpie-on-cardboard sign in a storefront window pictured on the cardboard disc sleeve. Evans and Beck idle on the sidewalk in front of the store, which, by my best guess, is B&B Loan on Calhoun. A kick drum with the words "Left Lane Cruiser" spelled across the head sits next to the Slingshot sign. The music of R.L Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, and other artists on the Fat Possum Records label provides the inspiration for Left Lane Cruiser. During last summer’s whatzup Battle of the Bands II, Left Lane Cruiser thrust themselves into the psyche of the Fort Wayne music scene with their brand of North Mississippi blues - raw in-your-face blues. Evans’ steel guitar slips and slides every which way. Beck’s heavy-footed groove provides a solid, if frenetic lifeline - for the listener; Evans certainly doesn’t need one. Left Lane Cruiser pulled out a second place finish and sold out their stash of CDs in the process. There is something about the lo-fi feel of the recording that lends depth and authenticity to the music blasting off the unlabeled aluminum disc. It sounds like something old and dusty, a gem uncovered in a stack of vinyl in someone’s garage, a long-lost recording of a musician long-since returned to the dust of the fields of Mississippi. Beck sort of curled up his nose when he talked about the eponymous disc after picking up the Whammy for it. "We want to record another CD, when we get the money," he said. They got the money and are set to release it in mid-April. Recording duties were split between TRS and Monastic Chambers. And some home work again, for the raw feel. "We’ve got a little of everything on it," he said of the 16 tracks. "Some is raw and gritty, some is radio clean." The new one is called Gettin’ Down on It. I bet they do. |
Copyright 2006 Ad Media Inc.
Left Lane Cruiser’s debut CD doesn’t look
like much on the outside. That’s not news to
Brenn Beck and Joe Evans, the drummer/guitar duo
and winners of the Best Local CD Whammy. The duo
recording the basic tracks in one take at Tempel
Recording Studio and mixed them at home. They
were going for an unvarnished, raw feel. They got
it.