Akimbo
Jersey Shores
Neurot Recordings
Seattle’s Akimbo have recently been heralded as one of the Northwest’s best kept heavy rock secrets, and for good reason. This trio — Jon Weisnewski on Bass and Vocals, Nat Damm on Drums, and Aaron Walters on Guitar — makes music that delivers much more than the sum of its parts. There’s more dynamic songwriting on Jersey Shores than on previous Akimbo releases. Not that previous albums were all just straight ahead heavy rock madness (though they can certainly do that), but this time around they really hit several points across the spectrum, from low and bluesy to balanced and building to massive and downright crushing. Runs of mostly clean guitar lines over ominous rhythmic tension explode into cacophonous blasts and passages of monster riffage accompanied by the kind of up-front guitar solos that are precise enough denote masterful fretboard dexterity while maintaining the wonderfully fucked up vibe of the music’s overall tone. There’s definitely a barn-burning southern heavy rock influence apparent in tracks like “Rogue” and “Jersey Shores” — with bursts of guitar attack and thumping, almost funky bass lines (I really like Weisnewski’s bass sound) — that might be attributed to the fact that this record (like last year’s Navigating the Bronze) was recorded at Headbanging Kill Your Mama Music in Louisville, KY. This one will definitely make my annual top 10 list.
Listen to Akimbo, “Rogue,” Jersey Shores (Neurot):
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.