Third Record (Small Stone)
by Craig Regala
So I read an email from this guy Ben from The Brought Low and he grumped out no matter how much he lived and loved the blues, he was still a punk; and ya know he has what the Dutch would call “a pretty good grasp on his tail.” The Dutch, they can be trusted. Like a big goddamn steak you loved last time, The Brought Low reappear as a big goddamn steak you’ll love again. Progress can only be measured by how far your heart pounds out of its little sensible sack. The place where you’re cryin’ about old girlfriends or spinning Saints and Dr. Feelgood recs. and squashin’ perfectly innocent beer cans and throwin’m to the dog to finish off. Luckily, The Brought Low ramp up like Mick Taylor-era Stones never ended and provide such a thing re: cut # 7 “Blow Out Your Candles.” Congratulations, you still get to sleep in the big bed. Hey, if she wants to waltz, there’s something here to waltz to, cuz these fuckers got soul cutting way deeper than some fuck screamin’ how his tattoo washed off .
Ah, the big bed, the big sleep, the big breakout; this is what The Brought Low are about. Because there is nothing else, so you better take it seriously for life and love or you’re dead and kicked outta that big bed. Previous to this scree, I wrote a magazine in England about the band’s awesomeness. Jesus, somebody had to tell’m. What else is there to say? perhaps that The Brought Low have found their inner Who in a classicist power trio way informed more by Duane Allman than anything dumb people like. Or that they’re out there kickin’ and stickin’, playin’ tunes with chords, words, and grooves so archetypically perfect you’d swear they were gummed by many a drunk with Muddy Waters, Radio Birdman, Link Wray, Chuck Berry, Otis Redding, Dan Penn, and The Celibate Rifles on their breath. Or that the thing I wrote to the Brits was “Get these guys between Social Distortion and The Black Crowes on some muddy pitch and we’ll get drunk off the merch sales.” That’s not crass, that’s the recognition that if we can get something this right on, people will dig it, and it doesn’t take but five seconds to figure it out, ‘kay? So get a shovel and start workin’. Get’m on your next mix tape with The Who, Mott The Hoople, Social Distortion, Guns ‘N Roses, Aerosmith, Stone Axe, Mighty High, The Shame Club, ye olde Stones, Rhino Bucket, and Cross Canadian Ragweed.
(www.smallstone.com)