The Surreal McCoys are a Johnny Clash roots rock outfit of hardcore troubadours with one foot in the garage and the other on a wobbly roadhouse barstool. Their Americana punk songs recall an era of lesser hygiene but greater guitar riffs, and come wafting through the car radio static of some far-off station as the band careens down the lost musical highway that connects the odd-numbered Hank Williamses to The Replacements.
The five-piece has played sweat-soaked shows to ecstatic and inebriated audiences all over America, and recorded two full-length albums of original songs: their debut LP, The Bottle & The Gun, and their latest, The Howl & The Growl (released at AmericanaFest in Nashville in September 2015).
For their new album, they teamed up with veteran producer and alt-country/rock legend Eric Ambel (Del Lords, Bottle Rockets, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts) at his Cowboy Technical Studios ...
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The Surreal McCoys are a Johnny Clash roots rock outfit of hardcore troubadours with one foot in the garage and the other on a wobbly roadhouse barstool. Their Americana punk songs recall an era of lesser hygiene but greater guitar riffs, and come wafting through the car radio static of some far-off station as the band careens down the lost musical highway that connects the odd-numbered Hank Williamses to The Replacements.
The five-piece has played sweat-soaked shows to ecstatic and inebriated audiences all over America, and recorded two full-length albums of original songs: their debut LP, The Bottle & The Gun, and their latest, The Howl & The Growl (released at AmericanaFest in Nashville in September 2015).
For their new album, they teamed up with veteran producer and alt-country/rock legend Eric Ambel (Del Lords, Bottle Rockets, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, Joan Jett & The Blackhearts) at his Cowboy Technical Studios in Brooklyn and unearthed a more muscular vintage sound straight out of Muscle Shoals in 1974.
The band’s sound on The Howl & The Growl is swampy and streetwise, evocative of both the red clay of the Mississippi Delta and the alleyways of the Lower East Side. Except more litter-strewn.
The rhythm section is full and bombastic, possibly even arrogant. The guitars are heavy and anthemic and were mostly played sober. Soaring harmonies, lap steel, harmonicas and Hammond organ add texture, while the songwriting tackles traditional “love and hope and sex and dreams” rock ‘n roll terrain with wit and masculine swagger (but the kind of swagger that clearly isn’t overcompensating for anything).
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