For my ears, the most powerful rock & roll wears its blues influence on its sleeve. This all girl outfit from New York fuses the sticky thrills of golden era punk and blues with a boatload of attitude that is pretty rare these days. “Not a lot of bands can capture the excitement, sweat and charisma of the 70’s band we grew up listening to” says the band, “but we can and do.” They ain’t lying.No B! is the debut album from Dana ‘Danger’ Athens (vocals), Melissa ‘Cool Whip’ Houston (drums), High Top (guitar), Tina ‘T Bone’ Gorin (guitar) and Hail Mary Z (bass), though the band sounds far more self assured than you’d expect. The rock they play has the blues and the blues numbers they take on surely rock, with standards like Muddy Waters’ Champagne & Reefer, Willie Dixon’s Shake For Me and Albert King’s The Hunter being played with the kind of confidence and self assurance as if they’d written the songs themselves. “We’ve been having a blast taking the spirit of these amazing songs and developing a style to write our own original songs’ the band says.From Dana Athens’ scorched earth vocals to the twin guitar attack of High top and T-Bone to the muscular groove of Houston and Hail Hail Mary Z in the engine room, this disc is a high octane party waiting to happen. Of this album Tom Tom Magazine says it “captures the nostalgic feeling of classic blues rock, a ballsy punch in the face to the dispassionate electro-pop that often dominates the musical landscape” and that’s right on.Jane Lee Hooker and No B! are certifiably the real deal, much moreso than someone like George Thorogood. I’ll leave the last word to the band; “We play with the same passion to twenty people that we do to a thousand. The secret is we’re having a ball playing together. We are doing it all for us, and we are happy anyone wants to come along. It’s like we are driving up to your house in a Camaro and throwing open the door- we hope you climb in, but if you don’t, we’re still going.” Make room in that back seat girls, I want in.ESSENTIALS: Wade In The Water, Mannish Boy, Champagne & Reefer
The GO Team!
