Left Lane Cruiser's "Bring Yo Ass To The Table" is some pretty raw stuff by the duo of guitarist/vocalist Freddy J IV and Drummer Brenn "Sausage Paw" Beck. The resophonic guitar work by Freddy J IV is commanding and his vocals probably obscene (if we could tell for sure). But setting it off on tunes like "Wash It," "Pork N' Beans," "G Bob," and "Mr. Johnson" are Beck's simple back-and-forth grooves, from double-time to half-time, heads barely tightened on, cymbals cranked, cowbells stung on the off beats, metal scraped, and cardboard trashed. ~MODERN DRUMMER
LLC is another two-piece gritty, raw, dirty blues outfit but the depth of sound they bring is unreal. First you have Freddy J IV (Joe) on guitar and hoarse, screamed vocals. All too often people talk about smoke and whiskey ripped throats, but in the case of Freddy J IV, his vocal cords appear to be held together by only a few sinewy strands. People always talk about emcees being hungry on verses, well, in this case I think Joe is thirsty. He rips through the tracks, giving every ounce of sweat and energy he has, in a Southern Pavlovian response. It's like he knows the minute the track finishes, he can catch his breath and pound a shot. I can picture him tossing the glassware across the studio, wiping his brow and signaling to Brenn to start up again. It doesn’t matter that they are in the studio not on stage, he treats the recordings like a performance; live, rugged and adrenaline/whiskey fueled. Joe is backed up by Brenn. While he is listed as the "drummer", Brenn is much, much more. He pounds through the kit, stretching the limit of the material like the seat on Kim Kardashian's jeans. He fills open spaces with harmonicas, mouth harps, and backing (occasional lead) vocals and you are left with a wall of sound that hits you in the jaw like you were caught dancing with it's girl. Obviously, you can tell I love this record. That's the beauty of blogging not critiquing. I don't have to waste my time looking for some counter point. I can gush about the fact the cover design on the record reminds me of the old Jimmy Smith cover for Root Down. I can say that the fact Brenn's nickname (Sausage Paw) makes me want to love this band even more. But most importantly, this record blows the door off the hinges for 12 songs. - Herohill
Left Lane Cruiser’s high-voltage blues sound is downright nasty. Blistering electric slide guitar and leering vocals distill old-school Mississippi blues down to its rowdiest essence. This band has some major mojo. - Casual Listening
In another life, Freddie J IV could have been a good ol' fingerpickin', porch-playin' blues guitarist. Basking away in the sun, he could have whiled away his time exploring the many shades of blues, from country hit whittling to Delta swamp wading. But there was fire in his belly and a flame in his soul, and in his hands the blues were transformed into an assault weapon. Bren "Sausage Paw" Beck was perhaps every mother's nightmare, a boy who seemingly just couldn't sit still. In a world pulsing with rhythm — from the blood pounding through our veins to the cacophony of traffic in our towns — Beck had to drum back in response at every turn, on anything and everything available. He is a continuous tattoo, battering out the beats of his own internal drums. Fatefully, one day the two met, and so was born Left Lane Cruiser, an astounding two-man blues band. Lo-fi is a totally inadequate term to describe their sound, a sizzling mix of Beck's pusillanimous drums, claps, percussion, and hoots and hollers and Freddie J's blistering guitar and husky vocals. This is the blues in their purest form, rough and ragged, rubbed raw by too much hard living and too many tough breaks. The blues' African-American progenitors could bare the pain in their souls, but dared not express the anger that underlay it. Cruiser, however, are under no such constraints, and on the trio of songs that close the set the music bristles with barely repressed rage that immediately brings the Stooges to mind. In contrast, the exuberant crash and bash of "Wash It," the dizzy stomp of "KFD," and the gleeful hook of "G Bob" all roil with a grand joie de vivre, with the exhilarating "Set Me Down" the perfect band anthem. Then again, every track on Bring Yo' Ass to the Table ripples with energy and an electric charge of creative frisson. Whether celebrating a plate of "Pork n' Beans," "Big Momma"'s delights, or "G Bob"'s steel guitar playing, the Cruisers rumble through the back streets of life, focusing on the small details, although the scathing "Amerika" does look at the bigger picture. A thoroughly unique journey down a well-traveled road; best now to sit yo' ass down a spell and listen to this stunning album. -Jo-Ann Greene(AMG)
Alive Records has released Left Lane Cruiser’s label debut, Bring Yo’ Ass To The Table, and it is everything fans of their self-released album, Gettin’ Down On It, could have expected and so much more. I got an iPhone for Christmas and in preparation for the beginning of the year, I planned to load the new LLC, Drive-By Truckers and N. Mississippi Allstars albums on it for listening in my New Years travels. I never made it to the DBT or NMA discs. Joe and Brenn headed into Painesville, Ohio’s Suma Studios, a studio full of reel to reels and vinyl cutting machines, and emerged with a blues-fueled, rock-driven cd on the verge of a whiskey rage. This is a must add to the Essential Listening list and currently my favorite cd of this young year. You like this site? You’ll love this disc…trust me. - Nine Bullets
One of them there lo-fi slide guitar street corner broken string wooden box for a drum two piece greased up whisky drenched hobo blues bands outfits. R.L Burnside, Seasick Steve, trash cans, hub caps, meth smoking two dollar pawn shop mics and all sounding as cool as that all sounds – sound, pass me that square bottle with the number seven on it while I go put this sucker on line. - Organ Magazine
The lo-fi, hard punk-blues sound is raw, gritty and often ferocious, thanks to singer Joe Evans' aggressive slide guitar and Brenn Beck's minimalist percussion. How could you not like a band that rhymes "Johnson" and "Wisconsin"? - Startribune
You know they put word counts on these to maximize space for ad revenue. I get it. Folks gotta eat but sometimes I just wanna write a review with 150 of the longest words I can find and see what the reaction would be. Besides, I only need 2 words to review the new Left Lane Cruiser: fucking awesome. Too short? Fine here it is in long form: Fucking awesome punkass garage blues. Imagine if the Black Keys got pissed off. LLC is the reason your cd player has an 11 on the volume knob. I got mine on 28 right now. Just ask the neighbors 2 blocks away. LLC is music to get drunk and pet your dog to so I'm gonna stop typing, refill this glass and help the neighbors 3 blocks know what's up. - Reax Magazine FL
A number of tunes make return engagements from previous recordings, and they don't disappoint. It makes sense for LLC to showcase these live favorites again for a bigger audience, and it's a hoot to hear them again. The whole package sounds great, and LLC perform with an air of authenticity and total commitment that sucks you into their world from the first note. - Whatzup
Guitar and drum combos are becoming the arrangement-du-jour, with notables such as The White Stripes, The Black Keys and Two Gallants all finding a massive audience. Left Lane Cruiser are at the whiskey'd up badass Seasick Steve end of the spectrum - this is dirty rock blues, like ZZ Top at their early best. As you may expect, it is the intensity of the bottleneck guitar attack and ferocity of the drumming that sustain the interest here. The fact that the 'band' is a duo isn't actually noticeable - bands like Black Eyed Snakes and North Mississippi Allstars make music that sounds similar - but perhaps the wild-eyed interplay between the two elevates the energy to 11. Bring Yo' Ass To The Table is the kind of music that could care less about whether ties are straight or thin this year, and in doing so defines its own coolness. - Salisbury Journal
Left Lane Cruiser= Pink Lightnin’ + The Black Keys (if they had a musical orgy) Left Lane Cruiser have four years under their belts now and its about time they put out another doozy of an album. The energy of these guys is really intense, almost death metal-ish, and oh-so-perfect. When listening to the record, you can close your eyes and almost picture them onstage in front of you. All of the riffs and solos are fuckin’ amazing, and the fact that they use anything else they can to make more noise (i.e., ladders, hub-caps, trash cans, etc.), only sweetens the sounds coming from the musical device. This is high-quality music from a group who practiced in a heatless garage in Indiana, and whose philosophy in music is “Let your soul drive what you do.” Pretty good philosophy, if I say so myself. – adam dorobiala(slug mag)
LLC won’t seduce you with poetic lyrics, but they’ll start you off with a whiskey on the rocks to warm you up on the intro track, “Wash It,” and then run you over with brute force throughout the rest of the album. Lead singer/Slide guitarist, Joe Evans, sounds like he is foaming at mouth as he isn’t going down without a fight. Brenn Beck beats the drums like they owe him money and blows a damn good harmonica. Three songs into Bring Yo’ Ass to the Table, we’re greeted by “Pork N’ Beans,” a song about a plate of pork n’ beans. Nothing more. In the same vein as Mofro’s “Ho Cake,” Left Lane Cruiser show that simple tunes about food can hit with as much punch as the most complicated piece of music if performed well. This is a booze-fueled, blues romp that Evans devours. Midway through the album you’ll find “Justify,” a song full of rage about racism. It’s the song Zach De La Rocha would have written if he’d have grown up in a swamp with lyrics: “Well the mama and the children, came out to watch you burn/ And the lawyer and the preacher, came out to take their turn.” - Hear Ya
Another in the growing number of young, raw blues acts carrying the torch for the late R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, this Indiana guitar/drums duo certainly sound ready to compete with peers like the Black Keys on this full-length debut. And while it suddenly seems fashionable to crank out a few Robert Johnson slide guitar riffs alongside a meth-fuelled drummer, Left Lane Cruiser actually possess enough chops to write some memorable songs. What’s at the root of them is the unshakeable rhythm that singer/guitarist Freddy J IV and drummer Brenn “Sausage Paw” Beck create together, leaving plenty of space for Freddy to strut and holler over top. The line between hip-hop even blurs slightly on heavy stomps like “Big Momma” and “Pork ‘N Beans.” But it just goes to prove that when reduced to its basic elements, the music is all rock’n’roll. And when played with such conviction as Left Lane Cruiser displays, it doesn’t get much better. - Jason Schneider / Exclaim
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