Rue

(Shifty)
by Craig Regala

This is great. Working the grinding, gritty grrr! of Southern/New Orleans ’90s grind/doom/barf sound into compacted mid-tempo rock and roll is a great goddamn idea! Guys from Hate Theory, Fistula, Sofa King Killer, and The Mighty Pillow Humpers have coagulated into this distillation of hard grunt.

Smarter men than I (Josh, raise your hand, we like you Philly boys) have compared Rue to Mugwart; re: cohesive kickass groovers of regulation “rock song” length dipping into the same pot of swill as peers Weedeater, Charger, and Cream Abdul Babar. A potent, non-silly growl (as much old school crust/Laughing Hyenas as any recent big pants doofus gurgle) issues forth, a chopped riffage and thunderous bass pins it down, and the drums bang on and on. Relentlessly forceful and musically potent, it’s not the volume, it’s the notes…

In my world, this is what “hardcore” is all about, not the dry-cleaned “we’re-playin’-fast-ain’t-we-ma!” thing. Bet they’d cover Black Flag’s “Loose Nut” or the English Dogs before any 7 Seconds youth crew anthem on the next “old school respect” comp.
(www.shiftyrecords.com)