CB Brooks has had enough. While he grew up in the punk and skateboarding culture of the Philly ‘burbs, Brooks has spent the last decade in folk rock and outlaw country music scenes. He was drawn to country/roots for the honest storytelling and bare-bones composition that country and punk rock tend to share. However while the world was trapped inside during the pandemic, Brooks was stuck in a prison cell.
After his incarceration for weed charges was up, he skipped town to Nashville, Tennessee to pursue his counter-culture country music dreams and quickly thereafter threw in the towel. There was no way to escape the rampant commercialism and nostalgia-driven propaganda that has engulfed the country music establishment. He could no longer turn a blind eye to the injustices he had witnessed over the past year, both in his one-on-one encounters with law enforcement and in the violence across the US played ad nauseam in the news.
His giving up birthed Love Hounds, his new Nashville-based four piece. In what Brooks has dubbed UnAmericana, Love Hounds unites his love of punk rock and outlaw country with a wink and a nod to cowpunk, but a sound all of their own. The band consists of David Keith on drums, Eric Ralls on lead guitar and Josh Emmons on bass, tied together with Brook’s distinct gravelly voice.
Their forthcoming first album, No Love, is a reflection of and reaction to Nashville’s honky tonks and highways, sprawling suburban strip-malls, two-day delivery conglomerates and a skyline of cranes. It’s being back in the burbs, all anger and angst with silence no longer being an option. This collection of screams into the void results in a rowdy and incriminating protest album that points the finger at everyone, but most especially Brooks himself.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the album in its entirety. Hitting right out of the gate with an edgy intensity that brings to mind the gritty alternative rock of the 90s with its anger and infectiousness alongside more explosive cowpunk sounds. Across the album’s ten tracks, the band veers from cranked up punk to loping alt-country, to blistering rock and roll. They do this while packing a potent lyrical punch that showcases vivid imagery and experiences from lives that aren’t always so pretty. CB Brooks clearly draws from his own life for some of these songs, including the anthem “Cops.” It’s easy to hear influences like Old 97’s, Lucero and Drive-By Truckers as well as Dead Kennedys, NOFX and the Toadies. In other words, if you’re looking for a hard rocking bar band with smart, thought-provoking lyrics, Love Hounds are sure to please.
CB Brooks describes the inspiration and behind the album:
We see the album as merely the physical representation of the ephemeral experience. Part of the message can only really be felt when in a crowd, a community. A protest album only has power in a room of screaming bodies.
LISTEN:
One Response
Great lyrics! A long time waiting for authentic, angry music like this