Who Asked Ya?, the new album from The Mojo Gurus (their fourth), a quartet from Tampa, Florida, is an infectious mix of rock n roll, blues, psychobilly and a little bit of country, wrapped up in cool riffs, cheeky lyrics and a lot of attitude.
The opening track is a funky rocker that recalls the Stones’s Bitch with its funky horns and swagger. The band then runs through different influences on each subsequent track:The dirty blues harmonica of Hoodoo Man, the slow rocker Devil to Pay, or the country tinted ballad No Damn Good. The instrumental Bandito even brings in Mariachi horns in a surf rock track that sounds like it belongs in a spaghetti western. Set on a beach in California.
The album’s thirteen tracks weave in and out of a number of styles, and in theory, this album should be an uneven mess. Yet the band plays with the conviction that there’s still life in rock ’n roll, and singer/songwriter Kevin Steele sings these songs with the sincerity necessary to pull it off. If you like good, old fashioned rock ’n roll, you’ll enjoy this album. It’s a lot of fun, and honest enough that we can forgive the feeling of deja vu (deja entendu?) that pops up here and there. I know it’s only rock ’n roll, but I like it.
The album is out now.
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He's also a regular contributor at the excellent news site Montreal Rampage
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