Too Crowded On The Losing End

Wenn eine Band nicht regelmäßig mit neuen Veröffentlichungen aufwartet, dann kann sie noch so ausgiebig touren und sich den bewussten Hintern runterspielen - ihr Bekanntheitsgrad wird sich über die lokale Szene hinaus kaum vergrößern. So hat die Welt nicht gerade auf eine neue Platte von PATTY HURST SHIFTER gewartet. Aber wenn Too Crowded On The Losing End in diesen Tagen erscheint, dann wird es manche Fans amerikanischer Gitarrenrock-Musik geben, die sich mit glänzenden Augen erinnern: Patty Hurst Shifter? Das sind doch die, die vor über 3 Jahren mit ihrem Debüt Beestinger Lullabies eine kräftige Marke in Sachen "guter alter Rock'n Roll mit Indie Americana-Aura" setzten und ein wirklich überragendes Album der ewig vitalen North Carolina-Rockgemeinde schufen!

Patty Hurst Shifter bestehen vornehmlich aus Bandleader J. Chris Smith (Gitarren, Harmonica, etwas Keyboards, Lead Vocals, Texte) und dem nicht mit ihm verwandten Marc E. Smith (Lead & Rhythm Guitars, Keyboards, Backing Vocals), den man auch als Gitarristen von 34 Satellite und Snatches Of Pink kennt. Die neu formierte Rhythm Section bilden ex-Nickel Slots-Gitarrist Jesse Huebner am Bass und Whiskeytown-Urmitglied Skillet Gilmore am Schlagzeug. Gegründet wurden PHS bereits 1999 als Vehikel für J. Chris Smiths Songs und in völliger Bewunderung für die befreundeten Drive-By Truckers, Whiskeytown und Backsliders. Mit ihrer rohen, rau und eckig klingenden Guitar Rock Music im typischen "North Carolina-Gewand" haben sie sich schnell im kulturellen Dreieck Durham-Raleigh-Chapel Hill integriert - zwischen Tres Chicas, Caitlin Cary, Chris Stamey, Two Dollar Pistols, Greg Hawks & The Tremblers, Chatham County Line, Trailer Bride, Red Star Belgrade usw.

Too Crowded On The Losing End führt den mit Beestinger Lullabies eingeschlagenen Weg eindrucksvoll fort, wirkt allerdings im Ergebnis kompakter, schnörkelloser, mehr als Bandeinheit und noch beseelter rockend! Basierte das alte Material auf frühen Solo/Acoustic-Demos, die dann von der Gruppe entsprechend aufbereitet wurden, so handelt es sich beim zweiten Album um hundertprozentiges Teamwork. Während sich der eine Smith geradewegs die Seele aus dem Leib singt, begeistert der andere mit gekonnten, innovativen und den Songs jederzeit dienlichen Griffen und Kniffen auf der Elektrischen. Akustische Gitarren sind bei diesem hochelektrifizierten Gitarrenrock nur noch Nebensache, das ungeliebte und weitgehend unzutreffende No Depression/Alt.Country-Etikett wird nun garantiert niemand mehr bemühen! Klasse Rockmusik ist das also, die gerne sehr laut gehört werden will - in bester Tradition so bekannter Idole wie True Believers, Go To Blazes, Replacements, V-Roys, Backsliders und einer gehörigen Dosis Exile-Stones meet Deluxe-Burritos. Nicht ohne Grund unterzeichnet die Band aus Raleigh ihre Mails und Newsletters mit "Patty Hurst Shifter - Rock Like Hell"!

Too Crowded On The Losing End hat 12 selbstverfasste Stücke von recht unterschiedlicher Länge - so kommen die knappen, riffigen Ohrwürmer "She's Like A Song" und 'Happy?' nicht mal an die 3-Minuten-Grenze, die ausladenden "Sadder Side" und "Acetylene" werden dagegen über 7 bzw. 10 Minuten ausgebreitet. Knackige Rocker wie "Never Know", "Break Everything" und "Shine" entpuppen sich als wahre Hymnen mit hohem Wiedererkennungswert! In der Regel spielen PHS in klassischer Quartettbesetzung, auf einigen Stücken helfen bekannte Freunde: Tonya Lamm und Caitlin Cary (2/3 Tres Chicas), Keyboarder/Produzent Greg Elkins, der allgegenwärtige Ian McLagan (Orgel), die ehemaligen Bandmitglieder Ron Bartholomew (Bass) und Johny Williams (Percussion). Abgemischt wurde das Album von Trina Shoemaker, einer anerkannten Fachfrau für klangliche Authenzität, die schon für Sheryl Crow, Blue Rodeo, Kristin Hersh, Victoria Williams und Matthew Ryan gearbeitet hat.

Überlassen wir das Fazit einem der glühendsten PHS-Verehrer, Ryan Adams: "really incredible songs. Patty Hurst Shifter rocks ass!"

Too Crowded on the Losing End, the second album from Patty Hurst Shifter, begins with what could pass for the credo of the spirited Raleigh-based band. “If she’s like a song then I’m like the radio,” frontman J. Chris Smith sings, in a tight, reedy voice that’s frayed at the edges like Keith Richards’ bleat, but with some there there. “She’s turnin’ me on and takin’ me out for a ride.” In those two lines, Smith hits on the nub of what has kept rock ’n’ roll vital for more than a half-century: girls, cars and electricity. It’s apparent in these lines and in every note they play that this young band believes in the enduring virtues of a heart full of longing, a full tank of gas and the shake, rattle and roll of an overdriven tube amp. Remarked Ryan Adams recently, “Really incredible songs. Patty Hurst Shifter rocks ass,” which is a more direct way of saying the same thing.

The album was tracked by Greg Elkin at his Desolation Row studio in Raleigh and mixed at Piety Street Studios in New Orleans by the renowned Trina Shoemaker (Queens of the Stone Age, Sheryl Crow, Whiskeytown). Faces great Ian McLagan plays the Hammond B3 on the rootsy ballad “The Sadder Side,” while Tres Chicas principals Caitlin Cary (Skillet’s missus) and Tonya Lamm provide backing vox on “The Sadder Side” and the above-referenced “She’s Like a Song.” Too Crowded on the Losing End will be released Jan. 24, 2006, on Fontana/Universal-distributed Evo Recordings.

For a band that loves to fire away, Patty Hurst Shifter displays an impressive musical and emotional range on Too Crowded, rolling from jacked-up rockers like “Happy” and “Never Know” and Exile/Burritos-style shitkickers like “When You Lie” and “Shine” to the billowy, bittersweet “Break Everything” and the panoramic, 10-minute epic “Acetylene,” the musical equivalent of watching the autumn sun go down while barreling toward the western horizon on Interstate 40. Echoes of bands from the Stones and Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers to R.E.M. and The Replacements can be picked up, not surprising considering these musicians cut their teeth on all of the above. Fittingly, Neil Young’s Buffalo Springfield classic “Mr. Soul” has become a showstopper in their live sets.

The band—singer/guitarist/songwriter Smith, lead guitarist/vocalist Marc E. Smith (no relation), bassist/vocalist Jesse Huebner and drummer Skillet Gilmore—is dedicated to the basics: writing relatable songs, rocking crowds wherever the play and having a blast, onstage and off. While these goals may not sound terribly ambitious, they’re no different from what has driven the Rolling Stones for more than four decades, and what’s good enough for the Stones is good enough for PHS.
“At the core of it all, we are just friends,” says Marc. “The fact that we’re musicians and write songs together is just coincidence. If we were wood carvers it would probably be the same. We just wouldn't have to get in a van and drive to another state to carve wood.” Adds Gilmore, “We're friends, first and foremost. The music is the by-product of us hanging out.” Yet another rock ’n’ roll tradition honored.

“There’s a lot of sincerity in what we do, but not in a heavy way,” Chris points out. “It’s fun, but at the same time I think we have a knack for taking painful experiences and imagery and turning it into something that rocks.”

Patty Hurst Shifter (the name started as a joke but stuck) has evolved considerably since releasing its 2002 debut, Beestinger Lullabies, an album distinguished by “hard-hitting, textured anthems with plenty of space between the notes for the vivid scenes set by Chris Smith to sink in,” according to No Depression’s Rick Cornell, who added, “The band can bite hard or burn slowly, bringing to mind big-beat outfits like the True Believers and late local heroes the Backsliders.” David Menconi on NewsObserver.com made his own Backsliders reference, taking note of “Marc Smith's overdrive buzzsaw guitar, balanced off by the high lonesome vocals of Chris Smith.”

Whereas roughly half of Lullabies consisted of amped-up treatments of acoustic-based material Smith had penned during his days as a solo singer/songwriter, Too Crowded is in every way a band effort, and that makes all the difference. “There’s very little acoustic guitar on the new record,” Chris points out. “We only used it because it added the right touch in a couple of songs, whereas it was the basis for everything on the first album—which is why I think we got tagged as alt country. People who thought that will be surprised by this new one.”

Their surprise will no doubt extend to the current PHS lineup, which is substantially different from the one that recorded the previous album. Whiskeytown alumnus Gilmore joined up as drummer after that LP was completed, whereupon original drummer Johny Williams switched to bass. But Williams left the band in late 2004 in order to stay close to home with his family, and Huebner solidified the current lineup in time for the bulk of the Too Crowded sessions. Along with the personnel changes came a fundamental shift in approach from the bandleader. “I think Chris figured out how to adapt his style to the band as much as the band adapted to him,” Marc explains. “It all became much more collaborative and, in many ways, easier.”

The band’s growing legion of fans seems to agree, considering the feverish response their recent shows have been getting. “We just played in Arlington, Virginia, and a friend who’s seen us plenty over the course of our rampage was there,” Chris recalls. “He said to me, ‘I love you guys ’cause you always lay it out.’ I asked him what he thought were the elements of our ‘thing’ that set us apart. His reply was, ‘The lyrical content, your unique vocal quality and the band’s raw energy.’ I like the sound of that just fine.

“We’re just good at what we do,” Smith says, his words resonant with hard-earned knowledge. “Sometimes it’s great, and that’s happening more and more often. We’re a band that believes in finding your thing and doing it like you mean it.”

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