Crossing The Pond: Shoogar

It's occasionally easy for me to venture an educated guess that I'll like a band, even before I listen to them. Such a happening occurred while I was feasting my eyes and ears upon Shoogar. If you're wondering why I knew I'd like them, friends, the answer is pretty simple. To my mind, it's hard to imagine a band that name checks The Band, Queens Of The Stone Age, The Black Keys, and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club being anything other than awesome. And happily, with Shoogar this turned out to be rather sound reasoning.

The Scots boys do tend to resemble their elders somewhat in a variety of ways, bringing together the fiery crunch of QOTSA, the blue-eyed blues of The Black Keys, shades of that old-time relijun BRMC can sometimes harness, and the musicianship of The Band into quite a potent wallop of noise. They also have a tendency to sound a little boozed-up, which is really how it ought to be. For example, "Heartbeat" is on the heavier, more virile side of the spectrum, while "Cold" seeks to follow in the smoky, dynamic Black Keys mold. At times they come across a bit cock rockish, but then again, nothing wrong with that. My favorite of the tracks I've got my mitts on is the initially slow-burning and eventually barn-burning "Desert Song," all bombast and zealous rock and roll. All rather enjoyable, if you ask me.

mp3: Desert Song (live) (Shoogar - more here)