The way a band responds to the handy, clichéd interview question of “Who has influenced your sound?” usually says a whole lot about its level of self-awareness. Read enough shout-outs to The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and U2 by young groups whose music shows only the faintest of resemblance to those heavyweights and you begin to wonder if these people are actually listening to their own products.
Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Blues/Garage Rock duo Left Lane Cruiser, on the other hand, provides an example of what happens when the influences question actually illuminates. In a 2008 interview, PunkRockTheory.com pitched LLC drummer/vocalist Brenn Beck that chestnut with a slight twist: If Beck and Joe Evans' outfit was the love spawn of other bands, who would its parents be? Beck's response involved “R.L. Burnside and Clutch (slipping) Led Zeppelin a roofie and (having) their way with them.” A crude and creepy mental image? Yes. Truthful? Yes times infinity. Cruiser's output is brutish, noisy and deep-fried in so much muck and raw distortion that you'll want to take a half-hour shower after a few YouTube listens.
Last June, LLC teamed up with James Leg of similarly inclined gruesome twofer Black Diamond Heavies for a project called Painkillers, and the results are about as sensationally twisted as contemporary dive-bar-ready Garage gets. Hearing any — or preferably all — of these miscreants cover George Thorogood and the Destroyers' “Bad to the Bone” would be worth its weight in prison time.
LEFT LANE CRUISER performs Friday, Jan. 25 at MOTR Pub in Over-the-Rhine with Pop Goes the Evil. Check out performance times and get venue details here.
