Box Of Stuff
It’s Not Hollywood
It can’t be easy sticking to your classic hard rock-guns in the current musical climate, and LA-band Box Of Stuff deserves kudos for doing it for what must surely be love. A combination of swampy blues-rock and good-time roll will neither tear up the charts nor earn them much critical support this side of the millennium, but hey, if it’s any good, it’ll still be able to kick your ass. Which may or may not be the essence of rock, anyway.
Box Of Stuff makes absolutely no bones about who they are and what they stand for, and go straight ahead for a full-on classic Las Vegas-styled David Lee Roth swing, complete with howls, screams, leaps, and probably, a lot of pyro. They have an admirable ability to not play everything enormously fast, making sure that opening track “Melrose” comes with a cool, slow groove and that “Finally Hit the Top” sounds like an Aerosmith outtake. Lead guitarist Tim Trakh does a rather impressive impersonation of Ace Frehley, which is a good thing, while vocalist T. Conrad Williams sounds like everyone from Glenn Hughes via Roth to Steven Tyler. The songwriting isn’t always too exciting and they’ll never be accused of originality, but that’s beside the point: This is above all music to rawk out to. If it makes you get up and dance, this album will have served its mission above and beyond the call of duty.
Box Of Stuff: http://www.box-of-stuff.com
