Family Business - Nightmares And Wildest Dreams

Size: 85,9 MB
Time: 37:13
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2012
Styles: Blues Rock
Art: Front

01. Downhill (3:49)
02. Fruit (5:22)
03. The Man You Love (4:33)
04. Boogie Man (5:16)
05. Oneironauts (3:57)
06. Sword Swallower (4:01)
07. Full Circle (5:10)
08. Wildest Dreams (5:02)

Members:
Alec White - Guitar, Vocals
Derek Hendrickson - Drums
Eric Ziegler - Guitar
Garrett Wartenweiler - Bass, Guitar

Featuring:
Jimmy Voegeli - Keys (tracks 2, 3, and 4); James "Pie" Cowan - Percussion (tracks 1, 2, and 7); Gary Hendrickson - Guitar (track 3)

There’s nothing flashy about The Family Business’ down home blues-rock, and the local crew’s latest album, “Nightmares and Wildest Dreams,” arrives packed with shaggy guitar riffage, propulsive drums and workmanlike vocals courtesy of frontman Alec White.

Songs like “Downhill” and the relentless “Sword Swallower” could serve as the ideal soundtrack to tearing down Route 66 in a vintage T-Bird, or, in this case, downing cheap beer in a cramped rock club. When the band does opt to slow things down, as they do on the strutting “The Man You Love,” shades of electric bluesmen like B.B. King bleed through. Still, White’s Everyman voice is better suited to those more aggressive numbers, and he sounds infinitely more at home growling alongside that assortment of backfiring licks.

Nightmares And Wildest Dreams

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The Family Business - Rock And Roll Machine

Size: 103,3 MB
Time: 44:43
File: MP3 @ 320K/s
Released: 2013
Styles: Blues Rock
Art: Front

01. Rock and Roll Machine (4:04)
02. Falling (4:04)
03. Sing (2:09)
04. Lora Z (3:35)
05. Chances (4:21)
06. Born to Move Around (4:10)
07. The Island Man (4:06)
08. Diamonds (3:19)
09. On the Road (5:13)
10. Sole Invitation (4:40)
11. Until the Day (4:59)

The Family Business have been purveyors of home grown, down to earth blues flavored rock and roll since 2005. The four-piece released a collection of thunderous, rowdy rock songs in 2009 and called it Fedora. Three years later, their sophomore album, Nightmares and Wildest Dreams, was released. The record fell back on a more familiar, homey/southern sound, and solidified The Family Business as legitimate contenders on the blues scene. Seized by an apparent restlessness, the Wisconsin natives took a year to frantically juggle touring, songwriting, and recording before dropping Rock and Roll Machine in July.

Rock and Roll Machine opens with a track of the same name, and within the first few seconds introduces you to the horns and female harmonies that persist for the rest of the album. In “Rock and Roll Machine,” we sense a new sort of energy from The Family Business; it’s definitely not as heavy as what we’re used to hearing from the Wisconsin foursome. In fact, Rock and Roll Machine doesn’t actually cross the threshold into the big, raucous sound that The Family Business have worn for the previous two records. Instead, a more subtle approach is taken that highlights the band’s use of melody and harmony above and beyond anything they’ve previously done.

The collection of 11 songs comes from an incredibly eclectic mix of influences. “Sing” sounds easily like something from Frank Sinatra’s repertoire, and on “Chances” Alec White does his best Johnny Cash. The lush harmonies on “Falling” have a decidedly gospel feel to them, and “The Island Man” is a strange theatrical take on a country tune that sounds like it should have been a single from the latest Eric Clapton release.

The Family Business also indulge themselves in the oft-forgotten area of sonic experimentation. Effected drums make an appearance on “Falling” and “Chances,” and the latter includes a low-fidelity horn bit that sounds brassy enough to convince you it was sampled off of a gramophone.

It always seems that the faster a band works to put out material, the better that material is. Perhaps this is because when a band hits its creative peak, it can’t work fast enough to pump out idea after idea. Or could it be because when an artist keeps busy, there’s less time for ideas to be over-analyzed. Either way, Rock and Roll Machine is a near flawless album. Keep an eye on The Family Business, because they’re going somewhere. And when they do, it’ll be huge. The Review: 9/10 ~Review by Richard MacDougall

Rock And Roll Machine

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