In my untutored opinion, the blues should punch you in the gut. It should make the little hairs on your arms and neck stand up. It should make you want to dance. It should make you want to booty call that certain someone.
Lonesome Shack’s More Primitive will make you (want to) do all of those things.
Frontman Ben Todd knows what he’s doing. He sequestered himself in the New Mexico desert “to study the music of American folk and blues lineage.” (Man, wish I had the chutzpah to do something like that.) Todd’s studies have paid off. These songs have the contemporary immediacy of the Black Keys without the studio gimmicks. But Lonesome Shack is infinitely more cool than the Black Keys have ever been. There’s a slinky, slithery quality to this hypnotic album that will have you blasting it on repeat.
Lonesome Shack — Official, Facebook, Purchase from Alive Natural Sound Records, purchase older albums from Bandcamp
