Endless Boogie, Full House Head
Jon The Fisherman/Jonny Rotten/Blackreignbow told me to go check out Endless Boogie at The Hemlock Tavern on Polk St. I immediately consulted their latest LP ‘Full House Head’ and was sold within the first minute. I assumed that this band I had never heard of, branded all over the internet as “heavy-psych,” were going to be 4, 20-something-year-olds with beards, western-style plaid shirts and skinny jeans. So I enter this upscale bohemian venue that has poured every dollar and inch of energy it has, trying to maintain that hole-in-the-wall dive bar vibe, and they do a pretty fucking good job at it, woulda’ fooled me until my the bill came and I took a moment to look around at the clientele, which consisted of legal interns and barista’s struggling to pay for acting school even though they just graduated from Yale, all done up in the finest ‘Darkside,’ costume versions of themselves. Needless to say I am floored when a band from Brooklyn whose combined age is 169, walks on stage and fucking shreds my face off with an industrial vegetable grader for the next 50 minutes.
Endless Boogie is not a high-and-mighty concept; their music is easily deconstructed. There’s pop music song writing… then there’s these guys, and they aren't especially concerned with songs… though their second album has some good ones, such as “Mighty Fine Pie” and “Empty Eye.” The band believes in guitar interplay for its own sake. There’s very little delicacy or patients for getting right to the thick of there tracks. You’re there, with all the positive aspects of a riot. There’s no attempts at minimalism or pop jockin’ or rebranding of the form. It’s just riffin’ and soloin’, in the best possible sense of the terms, and you better love those riffs, because it’s gonna take ‘em a while to resolve it all. Their music comes from confinement... in a garage probably, filled with exhaust fumes, the effects of asphyxiation would actually account for the vocals... Class and personality is not on display here. The front man of Endless Boogie, Paul Major, sways in his beer stained t-shirt and delivers raspy, croaking, sand-papery vocals, in random increments that reflect a car hitting gas pockets on it’s empty tank, from behind his salt and peppery-bangs-n’-all-main of hair that sets its conclusion around his ass.
It's about comfort folks, the comfort to rock it both endlessly and intricately. This zone is short of pretense and long in talent. Given the breadth of the excellence that's passed through before, you might spin this and hear everything from Canned Heat moaners and Groundhogs riffage, to Primus-like chatter-mumbling or even goddamn 'Exile' era Stones aesthetic. But it's none of that, cause it can't be. They invest in the past with a stark originality and rock your fucking face off. Keep in mind while your listening, that the only pieces of distortion equipment on stage are a wha-wha pedal apiece, for each guitarists.
This is a band that has two-full thength albums to its name, and two more awaiting arrival this summer. Humans take a break from everyday life to do something they love, and in the case of these gents, they attempt to give back. I’ve always loved the likes of classic rock. It was easy to get there but has taken me years to get back, connect it all, map it’s evolution and try to figure out how any of that was important for anything standing today. That struggle is represented in these 9 minute asphalt melters and the fumes they generate. You’re either impressed with their single mindedness, or you’ve stopped reading this review.
Endless Boogie uses the infinity symbol as its logo, their only problem is their solution.
I've posted 3 things here. The first is a track off their latest album, Full House Head. The second is the their latest album, Full House Head. The other is a random live performance I found online. Personally, I like the live show best, but it is more long winded, and for those who's ears aren't particularly tuned to the likes of epic guitar solos, I recommend the album, but grab both regardless, great for driving, drinking, homework, headbangin'..... enjoy.
Anchor Steam, Baby Back Ribs, Spring Break, Great Dane, Sunshine, Hemmingway, Cigarettes, Fuck You
Yours Truly,
Deacon of Crunk,
Don Magic Juan,
Boogiloo Fedor
holla holla holla holla holla holla holla holla holla holla holla holla holla holla holla holla...
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