Yeah, this record is pretty much awesome. There is no hyperbole in that statement either. Just imagine what might happen if you extracted the DNA from The Lawrence Arms (which itself contains some Jawbreaker DNA), Lucero, and The Weakerthans, added some yellow #5 coloring and filtered out most of the alcoholism and you’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to The State Lottery, a band whose members call NYC, Detroit, and Seattle home. It is intense without being overly abrasive and melodic without being overly catchy. It is simply raspy and raw punk rock with the traditional punk instrumentation augmented by organs, keys, horns, harmonica, etc… The eight songs on it didn’t really grab me at first (I’m being totally honest here) but something just clicked near the end of my second time through and I’ve been totally hooked since then. Now, I realize that The State Lottery fits into that category of “hip” bands that combines alt-country and punk rock, but on Cities We’re Not From there is no pretense and it just sounds right. All in all, this is a very very (ultra-fantastic) solid and genre-spanning effort from a new band I was unfamiliar until Will recommended this. You can actually get the whole thing for free from the awesome folks at ,a href=“http://www.ifyoumakeit.com/albums/”>If You Make It (also home of the Pink Couch Sessions).
MP3 | The State Lottery – Tired Songs Cities We’re Not From
MP3 | The State Lottery – Two Way Street Cities We’re Not From
[...] “Yeah, this record is pretty much awesome. There is no hyperbole in that statement either. Just imagine what might happen if you extracted the DNA from The Lawrence Arms (which itself contains some Jawbreaker DNA), Lucero, and The Weakerthans, added some yellow #5 coloring and filtered out most of the alcoholism and you’ve pretty much hit the nail on the head when it comes to The State Lottery” -Can You See the Sunset [...]