The Shrine, Broncho

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THE SHRINE
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On the night of November 6th, 1979 Black Sabbath was at their most drug addled and explosive standing. They were on tour supporting their newly released Never Say Die album and had a night off in Los Angeles. After knocking back a few drinks at the infamous Rainbow Bar, they decided to check out the local rock scene at the Whiskey A-Go-Go. Arriving late, they caught the tail end of a set by The Circle Jerks. Feeling intimidated yet inspired, they rented a rehearsal space and spent the rest of the night jamming. For an unknown reason they exclusively played Thin Lizzy material and Keith Moon was sitting in…

These events never took place. But if they did, the results may have sounded similar to Los Angeles's The Shrine. Formed in 2008, The Shrine play a houserocking breed of heavy, psychedelic, riff based Rock n' Roll. Their debut, recorded on vintage reel-to-reel tape, by local hero Dave O. Jones and under the auspices of the notorious Chuck Dukowski, is the perfect soundtrack to any debaucherous gathering of longhairs. If you and your rag-tag group of riff-raff friends are planning a road trip to Humboldt County to "Score", this is the album you need to be listening to on the way. The Shrine is Josh Landau on guitar/vocals, Courtland Murphy on bass, and Jeff Murray on Drums. Dig It.


BRONCHO
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"Perhaps the best debut album of 2011 came by way of BRONCHO, a garage-punk quartet from Norman, Okla. Frontman Ryan Lindsey is better known as the keyboardist for the Starlight Mints, but this side project has been touring the Midwest since early 2010. Can't Get Past the Lips hit stores this August, and "Try Me Out Sometime" was an instant standout. It's not a complex song, by any means, and the simplicity is fantastic because the execution is so strong. Three chords are plenty enough backdrop for Lindsey to yelp out the hooks. Watch the excellent music video, in which the band barges into unsuspecting, unlikely venues — stores, major intersections, a college classroom — and performs increasingly disastrous versions of the song before darting out. BRONCHO has never played a show outside a narrow corridor from Austin to Chicago, so coast-dwellers will have to cross their fingers for that to change soon." --NPR Music

Harkening back to punk rock's glory days of the 70s, Oklahoma outfit Broncho captures the aggression, DIY authenticity and youthful exhilaration of a bygone era and then drags it by the hair into the Here and Now, creating a fresh sound that's unlike anything being played today. With echoes of The Replacements, Iggy and the Stooges and The Ramones, Broncho's exuberant ten song debut Can't Get Past the Lips is a blisteringly cathartic 20 minute flash of gritty, crunching guitar work supported by an assaultive rhythm section and made whole by songwriter Ryan Lindsey's aggressive, yelping vocal work.

Lindsey's vocals and guitar are supported by Johnathon Ford (bass), Ben King (guitar) and Nathan Price (drums). The project began as an off-the-cuff recording session for Lindsey (who also plays keys for Starlight Mints, in addition to performing as a solo artist). He quickly laid down early versions "Pick a Fight" and "Losers" with the assistance of King (Cheyenne) and Price (Native Lights), and then sent them to Ford (Unwed Sailor), asking for feedback. Ford loved the songs so much that he suggested they begin playing shows as a band.

"The next thing I knew, Johnathon had a show booked in Tulsa," Lindsey says.

That first show, a manic, ultra-lean showcase of six songs that clocked in at less than 15 minutes, occurred in February of 2010, since then the band has performed in Chicago, Austin, Dallas, St. Louis, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, etc, and has released their debut album, Can't Get Past The Lips to international acclaim.

The collective talent and cumulative experience of all involved with Broncho has resulted in an album that, for all its dirty-dishwater punk roots, is a masterwork of garage/pop simplicity. Speaking of the band's reference points, Lindsey says "We all love the way those records sound so we naturally went in that direction, as far as fidelity goes. But more than anything, it's the attitude of an era that I wasn't around for, but feel a connection with. We didn't set out to recreate a record from that era, we just took on that message and made it our own."