Band: Nashville Pussy
Album: Up The Dosage
Release Date: January 21, 2014
Label: SPV/Steamhammer
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By: Vaughn Wilson
Nashville Pussy has been delivering their delicious cocktail of sex, drugs and rock-n-roll since 1996. After taking some much needed time off (five years to be exact), the refreshed and super-energized husband and wife team of Blaine Cartwright (vocals/guitar) and Ruyter Suys (guitars) have come back with the perfect prescription of badass in their new album, Up The Dosage. Along with the power drumming of Justin Thompson and addition of new bassist Bonnie Buitrago, Nashville Pussy has delivered what Suys describes as a “100 % pure highly-distilled shot.” Line em’ up, bartender…
Filled with 13 new songs (and two bonus tracks), Up The Dosage was recorded at Nitrosonic Studios in Lexington, Kentucky with sound engineer Brian Pulito and mixed by producer Rick Beato, who is best known for his work with Shinedown.
The first dose up for tasting is “Everybody’s Fault But Mine” on which Blaine Cartwright unloads a lyrically clean track from deep within rock’s core that challenges whether or not Nashville Pussy is just too real for radio (they’re not, but corporate radio is an abomination these days – but we’ll see). I fully anticipate many of the tracks on Up The Dosage to be huge on internet/alternative radio and charts, starting with this one.
Keeping the amps cranked up as high as they’ll go, Ruyter Suys wants us to “Rub it to Death” with a riff-driving track that is awesomely raw and hard; allowing new bassist Bonnie Buitrago to mark her territory like a dog kept inside for too long. Blaine’s bone-grinding vocals bring this one home and he continues on “Till The Meat Falls Off The Bone” – a hard rocking bluesy battle cry that anyone challenging marijuana prohibition will savor.
“The South’s Too Fat to Rise Again” showcases the Atlanta-based band’s own special brand of dealing out a healthy serving of reality to the table. Being from the South, I loved this song more than I love sweet tea, fried pork skins and moonpies (well, almost).
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Nashville Pussy really demonstrates their musical diversity and wit throughout Up The Dosage and one of my favorites is “Before The Drugs Wear Off,” mixing an elixir of deep, smoky guitars and a honky-tonk piano, that truly steps this album up to legendary.
Cartwright and Suys capture the very best in American hard rock on the next five tracks on the album: ‘Spent,” “Beginning of the End,”
title track “Up the Dosage,” Taking It Easy,” and “White and Loud” – all of which can stand on their own, but together really do “Up The Dosage!” Cartwright’s vocals elevate these songs to new levels, making us beg for more Pussy, along with showcasing Suys as hard rock’s premiere female guitarist.
On “Hooray for Cocaine ,Hooray for Tennessee” we again are taken on a departure that is an instant folk classic with mandolin and dobro coupled with Cartwright’s lyrical savvy; we get all the Pussy we want but a sound that is closer to the ancestry home fires.
“Pillbilly Blues” is yet another example of Nashville Pussy‘s ability to hit right to the core of societal issues such as the new “hillbilly/pillbilly” generation of today. We’ve all read and seen the news about the depressed economy of Kentucky, West Virginia and the like. This song resonates the desperation felt by some in the hard-hit regions, who watched their dad’s and grandfathers run moonshine and grow weed. Now, they’re running/dealing and addicted to prescription pills. Listen to this…
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Blaine Cartwright ends Up The Dosage with a reminder about the freedom of expression on “Pussy’s Not A Dirty Word” with Jeremy Thompson at his tribal best on drums, Bonnie Buitrago digging in and Ruyter Suys taking us for a blazing guitar ride. This track is the definitive birds and the bees for rock-n-roll and Nashville Pussy knows how to deliver the message.
Nashville Pussy bring a complexity of a melody and lyrics that can be felt into the marrow of your bones. Given their huge success overseas, I dare to ask: Is Nashville Pussy the too American for America? Let me answer that for you with a resounding HELL NO! Nashville Pussy delivers the absolute very best in American rock, and it’s time they were shown the respect they rightfully deserve. Don’t get me wrong – they’ve been nominated for a Grammy and have a ton of fans in the US, but are they are HUGE in Europe and beyond in, drawing massive crowds on tour (their European tour stars January 30, 2014 – see dates below).
So show your patriotism and support for these home-grown revelers of rock, dammit! Pick up a copy of Up The Dosage immediately, kick back and eat a big slice of apple pie, swallow it down with an ice-cold beer – all accompanied by some hot, sticky, sexy-sweet, Nashville Pussy and I promise you, that you’ll keep coming back for more. I’m totally pussy-whipped.
Up The Dosage is an instant rock classic; big labels and corporate radio be damned!
5 OUT OF 5 SKULLS!
Up The Dosage on AMAZON and iTunes
For all things Nashville Pussy (click the links below)!
