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Porkchop Express is a San Francisco Bay Area alt country band that has been playing together since 2002. They take the gristly scraps from the American traditions of folk, outlaw country, and rock 'n roll, push it through a meat grinder, give it a crash course in honky tonk and put it on stage for all to enjoy. They've been called country music for folks who don't like country music...but basically they're taking country vocals and song structure, adding a punk inspired rhythm section and noisy garage-rock guitars...and an ukulele for that extra dash of machismo.
Lyrically and sonically PCE is influenced by Gram Parsons (natch), The Byrds (circa 1968), Uncle Tupelo, The Gourds, Kinky Friedman, Lucinda Williams, The Jayhawks, early Wilco, and The Bottlerockets. But most of all they feel swept up in the wonderful Americana scene in the San Francisco Bay Area. Bay Area twang bands range so far across the spectrum, from traditional blue grass to heavy metal death-country, that Porkchop Express has ample freedom to enjoy their twangy, lighthearted songs as well as allowing them to get into some darker material about wife-shootin' and such.
Though the band is best known for combining hilarious lyrics with catchy melodies, don't think you can label them as a joke band and call it a day. The band and their songs have matured over the years and they're wise enough to know that bad news is best greeted with a smile, then dragged out back at the end of the night to be buried.
They've self released three CD's: "The Clock Radio Sessions" in 2004; a six song EP entitled "All You Can Handle" in 2006; and a two song holiday disc named "Yule Logs and Sexy Hogs". A brand new, eleven song album is due out in the summer of 2008.
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