Hub band Dave Austin & The Sound is one of those bands that could become a big name act in greater-Boston, if they’re noticed and accepted by the right people. The right people are those who would like this fusion of classic rock and neo-hippie funk rock. So, you fans of classic rock and neo-hippie funk rock, and you know who you are, read up, then listen up. This band’s Revival album is actually good for you. Good for your health, good for your soul. Dig it.
Dave Austin & The Sound open up with their unusually titled “Sun Never Sets On A Badass.” With a groove influenced by Sublime and Counting Crows, this number bumps its way forward with chunks of energy. Austin’s groovy, smooth vocal flows like honey amidst a landscape of pretty harmonica, funky keyboards, and riffy guitar work. It is easy to imagine this song being played on WAAF, WZLX, or any of the classic rock stations that play local bands’ CDs at night.
“Where I Went Wrong” comes on strong with a pushy beat and thumping low end groove. Jittery keyboards and guitars skip around that bopping beat with swaggering nervous energy. The band’s edge is deliciously cool while Austin injects his vocal into the song’s open spaces with a hipster’s sense of everything cool. Eruptive guitar lines burst into the song and then become dominant melodic phrases. It’s the sense that every musician here his or her place in a song that makes it rock. Ever player gives it his or her all in just the right places.
“Love Me Like You Love Your Pills” features more of the rock and roll purity and energy that will make you love this band. Drummer Kieran Bittles keeps this number rocking with emotive funk. He smacks the skins and kicks the bass with a palpable persistence that makes this a number you can feel. Around that funked up rock vibe keyboardist Corporal Cream spices up the sound with frenetic soul while guitarist Sage Griffin offers an effective riffiness to draw listeners in. Meanwhile, Austin finesses his vocal line with soulful steadfastness, a voice of poetic sensibility inside a rock and roll band.
“Sugar Mama” rolls forward with funky aplomb and a guitar phrase that wraps itself around the groove with elastic cool. Austin sounds like he just blew into town from an earlier decade in rock. His vocal verve and personal swagger dot the landscape with a funky way he has of dropping his hipster lyrics right in the middle of a meter. Further artistic flourishes from the guitar and keyboards top it all off nicely.
“Off My Mind” bursts out of the speakers with Sage Griffin’s smoldering guitar phrase. Griffin continues pressing out burst of guitar energy in this bopping, stomping groove fest. His guitar is on fire throughout this piece, and he keeps increasing the drama, setting the stage for Austin to belt madly before winding it in to a cooler, lower, quieter drawl. This one jumps out of the stereo speakers with explosive energy, jacked up by Lily Burns’s knobby low end.
Swaggering in with a wedge of groove and spiffy guitars and keys, “Big Country” pushes its way forward, the drums punctuating the vocal verses with hefty smacks and the bass pumping out a feisty line. Guitar and keyboard riffs practically dance around the beat while Austin does his neo-hippie funk rocker best to express bluesy inflections and urban wisdom.
“Fool Out Of You,” a favorite among Austin & The Sound fans, is a catchy, high octane rocker. It’s waves of guitar notes and its hooky, swanky chorus tug the ear while the song rocks with complete abandon. Rolling on with compressed energy through the verses, it erupts with a powder keg of guitar. This is the kind of song that you’ll like hearing on your car stereo as well as at a party or at the gym. It motivates the heart, soul, and body with it frenetic energy and its irresistible drum work.
Closing out with “Rock And Roll(Won’t Let You Down),” Dave Austin & The Sound leave us with a nice slice of their bopping funk and lyrical street wisdom. Austin sings about life, work, and how music is the only consistent balm for our continuing struggles. Listeners will certainly feel better after hearing this sweeping piece of rock and roll philosophy and spiced up melodic joy.
Dave Austin & The Sound could certainly go places. Their classic rock influences could find them a good home among middle aged music fans. Their neo-hippie funk rock groove could certainly find them a space on a younger music fan’s shelf, in between discs by Sublime, Counting Crows, The Spin Doctors, Hootie And The Blowfish, and Phish. Their live shows are even more exciting, and it’s only a matter of time before large numbers will be singing along to these songs at a really big venue.
Dave Austin & The Sound have a New England Music Awards showcase on April 10th at Copperfield’s in Boston.
http://www.daveaustinsound.com/
