SKINSNBONES // Is There Meaning? (Single)

skinsNbones are a band as rough and weathered as old motorcycle leathers.

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Comprised of Bones, Hoss, HRH the 1st, and Red, these rock n’ rollers feel like veterans of the craft. Timeless and hard driving with a fuzz that forces bricks through speakers, Is There Meaning? has kin with the blues rock masters of old: Eric Clapton, Robert Plant, Mark Knopfler.

Droning yet off kilter, as if this track was composed and committed to tape in a David Lynch film, vocalist Hoss’ gravel-scratch voice is comparable to Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music) or Mark Lanegan. It’s all cut up and bruised but still pressing on to carry that weight.

Stick a dollar in the jukebox and drown your sorrows; you’ll be glad you did.

The weight presses into us as much as Red, too. He pours his heart out like a jaded bartender pours whiskey in an anonymous dive; pleading and yearning “Is there meaning?” There might be an answer but you sure as hell won’t find it here. Soulful and sumptuous lead work takes the reins towards the latter end, evoking a bygone age when rock n’ roll was born and raised in bars instead of manufactured in digital labs. Everything here is stripped back to the bare essentials. If they recorded this in a rickety shack on a four-track tape recorder, I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest. It’s no frills and all soul. Verging on murder balladry while keeping headbanger’s spirit, Is There Meaning? is an anthem for the down and out. Stick a dollar in the jukebox and drown your sorrows; you’ll be glad you did.

STICK THIS NEXT TO: Mark Lanegan, Hot Water Music, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club