Blood Pumps comfortably blends smart song craft with interesting, accessible angularity; subtle counter points rhythmically and melodically with intelligent, almost-too-smart-for-pop lyricism delivered with Bill Stevenson’s elastic tenor. The marriage of Black Joe Lewis’ gut bucket guitar with Mike Brinley’s dry-cleaned guitar stands in direct contrast to the washed out reverb and effects heavy sound of many contemporaries in the rock’n’roll scene. All of these ingredients and brush strokes are tied together by an analog beat machine that Stevenson used to record material in between tours of his normal gig backing up Joe.
The five songs on Blood Pump’s EP display the prowess of three individuals applying themselves outside their comfort zone. Their new release,"Long Gossip", comes out in a stratling cacophany then cracks into a mid-tempo 3/4 groove then slyly resets int a 4/4 groove right as the guitar’s quick-cat-lash vertical intro lines delve into Ric Ocasek territory.
-Lee Ackerley