Howlin' Rain - Howlin' Rain

Grunge did more to damage the reputation of the lumberjack shirt than any other legacy it might have left. Whatever happened to mopping your brow with a dirty rag and gulping down cool beer after chopping wood all day? or thumping the steering wheel with the open road stretching away into the distance? Everyone knows lumberjacks and truckers have the best rock'n'roll. Ethan Miller from Comets on Fire and Sunburned Hand of the Man's shamanic ringleader John Moloney strip away the free-freak-out of their mother groups, crack open the beers and straighten out the rock. Well, mostly - there are still a few trace elements of the head-bend psych of New Weird America present. But for the most part this is low-down, dirty, sweaty, hairy, country rock. Lynyrd Skynyrd would be proud. It's rough and it's raw, but after a hard day's manual labour, it hits the spot like no polished product could ever hope to. [Ali Maloney]