JAMES MATHUS KNOCKDOWN SOCIETY
''''STOP AND LET THE DEVIL RIDE''''
2003
45:09
1/Mean Old Line/3:57
2/How Long?/2:53
3/Love I Miss Loving/3:22
4/Dope Sniffing Dog/3:03
5/Never Seen Daddy/3:46
6/Blues Jumped a Rabbit/3:14
7/Get Back to You/4:00
8/Calvin's Boogie/3:38
9/Cheep Champagne/3:46
10/Let the Devil Ride/2:54
11/Stop Your Ways/4:09
12/Call the Warden/5:31
13/The Knock-Outs!/0:56
Stud Cole /Bass
Luther Dickinson /Guitar
James Mathus /Guitar, Producer, Vocals
Patrick Smith /Keyboards
David Spencer /Guitar
Nate Stalfa /Drums
REVIEW
by Hal Horowitz
Signing to a new label didn't alter Jimbo Mathus' approach. He and his two-piece still churned out a grungy, sweaty, over-driven blues with few overdubs and no studio sweetening. There are nods to Cream's similar psychedelisized blues-rock power-trio attack, but Mathus' Junior Kimbrough version is far less commercialized and harder hitting. Patrick "Playboy" Smith adds spooky, slimy keyboards on a creepy instrumental version of Otis Rush's "Love I Miss Loving." Echoes of a less frenzied Cramps or a more blues-based Southern Culture on the Skids propel riff-based, two-chord songs like "Dope Sniffing Dog." So primitive and tribal that even a John Lee Hooker rip like "Never Seen Daddy" seems earthier than much of what Hooker produced. The hopped-up, near-gospel rush of "Let the Devil Ride" is prodded by vicious slide guitar that sounds like it is played with a butter knife on the frets, something the Fat Possum artists are known for. This is music played from the heart by way of the groin, so a little sloppiness adds to the vibe. Even female backing singers on a few tracks don't smooth out the rough edges. Rather, they inject their own cracked ambience with voodoo-styled intensity. Uncut, haunting, and raw, this is hardcore and unrelenting music made by a band that plays each nothing-left-to-lose track like it's their last.
''''STOP AND LET THE DEVIL RIDE''''
2003
45:09
1/Mean Old Line/3:57
2/How Long?/2:53
3/Love I Miss Loving/3:22
4/Dope Sniffing Dog/3:03
5/Never Seen Daddy/3:46
6/Blues Jumped a Rabbit/3:14
7/Get Back to You/4:00
8/Calvin's Boogie/3:38
9/Cheep Champagne/3:46
10/Let the Devil Ride/2:54
11/Stop Your Ways/4:09
12/Call the Warden/5:31
13/The Knock-Outs!/0:56
Stud Cole /Bass
Luther Dickinson /Guitar
James Mathus /Guitar, Producer, Vocals
Patrick Smith /Keyboards
David Spencer /Guitar
Nate Stalfa /Drums
REVIEW
by Hal Horowitz
Signing to a new label didn't alter Jimbo Mathus' approach. He and his two-piece still churned out a grungy, sweaty, over-driven blues with few overdubs and no studio sweetening. There are nods to Cream's similar psychedelisized blues-rock power-trio attack, but Mathus' Junior Kimbrough version is far less commercialized and harder hitting. Patrick "Playboy" Smith adds spooky, slimy keyboards on a creepy instrumental version of Otis Rush's "Love I Miss Loving." Echoes of a less frenzied Cramps or a more blues-based Southern Culture on the Skids propel riff-based, two-chord songs like "Dope Sniffing Dog." So primitive and tribal that even a John Lee Hooker rip like "Never Seen Daddy" seems earthier than much of what Hooker produced. The hopped-up, near-gospel rush of "Let the Devil Ride" is prodded by vicious slide guitar that sounds like it is played with a butter knife on the frets, something the Fat Possum artists are known for. This is music played from the heart by way of the groin, so a little sloppiness adds to the vibe. Even female backing singers on a few tracks don't smooth out the rough edges. Rather, they inject their own cracked ambience with voodoo-styled intensity. Uncut, haunting, and raw, this is hardcore and unrelenting music made by a band that plays each nothing-left-to-lose track like it's their last.
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