Goodness Gracious, Great Balls Of Fire! It’ll come as to no surprise to any of you old timers that the most exciting new band of today was largely conceived by NYC dandy/designer/renaissance man/all-purpose rock’n’roll motherfucker, Scarlet “Motherfuckin'” Rowe, whom many of you may know from vintage underground glam-bands, like Sweet Pain, Angels In Vain, Saigon Saloon, and Joker Five Speed.Brass Knuckle Evangelists are stylish purveyors of smokin’, sixties soul, and seventies-funk influenced, good times rock’n’roll. Fans of the Bellrays, Primal Scream, the Fleshtones, Rare Earth, James Brown, and the Rolling Stones are all gonna be blown away. I’m not usually this enthusiastic about very much white boy funk. These guys play gospel tinged, urban, soul music with guts and passion. Lenny Kravitz and the Black Crowes have seldom achieved this overall level of absolutely undeniable, totally authentic, rock’n’roll excellence-this stuff reminds me of Sly And The Family Stone, the Chambers Brothers, the Temptations, Booker T. & The M.G.’s, Ray Charles, the O’Jays, the Master Plan, and the Philly Soul music, popularized in more recent years, by Quintin Tarantino’s soundtracks. If you liked the 70’s David Johansen Band, Archie Bell & The Drells, or the blacksploitation infused punk-junk-funk of Sour Jazz, this will be your favorite new group.
Every loud, passionate band on the planet gets compared to the MC5, but Brass Knuckle Evangelists bring the white-hot, badass, blue eyed soul. The call and response vocals are amazing. Scarlet possesses phenomenal leadership skills, because in all these years of loving so many of his groups, I never even recognized what a good singer he is. What a team player! Every guitarist in the world is a frustrated lead singer, but I always saw Scarlet as merely one of rock’s great bassists, a Sami Yaffa, Dee Dee Ramone, Duff, or Tony James figure. Who knew he had a voice on ‘im?
Here, he’s convened an utterly fantastic band, co-starring a charismatic vocalist/natural born entertainer-personality, Tor, from Joker Five Speed; a marvelous Billy Preston style keyboardist named Steve “Babyboy” Esposito, Mike Maenza on the I can make you d-d-d-d-dance drums, and Chris Goercke on super rock guitar.
Brass Knuckle Evangelists are getting ready to play some major shows, opening for Michael Monroe, and hopefully, the Jim Jones Revue! That’s the tour I wanna see: Brass Knuckle Evangelists, Fleshtones, Jim Jones Revue, and Michael Monroe. Their essential E.P. will be available for purchase on iTunes in October 2011. People, Get Ready! This band has come to make you party, forget your troubles, and take off your clothes. Chris Robinson, and Bobby Gillespie, watch your backs. You’re been warned.(-review by Anguish Young)
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