Review: Buzzard Canyon ‘Drunken Tales Of An Underachiever… The Saga Continues’

High noon. Through the haze, a band of outlaws walk the dusty streets deep in the heart of (cue the theme from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly)… Connecticut. A ripple goes out. Buzzard Canyon have hit the town and are lookin’ to party. So after a heavy night of drinking (I smashed two whole beers, all by myself… fuggin’ crazy times dude!) and was woken up early by the pussy in my bed (OK, the pussy was my cat, Suzie Q… who clearly didn’t want me to miss the sunrise…) I decided to hit the Selectric and give my account of the new album by Buzzard Canyon, cutely titled Drunken Tales Of An Underachiever… The Saga Continues.

Buzzard Canyon ‘Drunken Tales Of An Underachiever... The Saga Continues’

So, Buzzard Canyon are a five piece, with twin guitars and twin vocals, and the kinda rhythm section that any rock n roll band worth their salt aspires to. Solid playing, interesting styles and flavours, and with production handled by guitarist Aaron Lewis (When The Deadbolt Breaks), who has ensured the tones were fine-tuned to peak performance. And it IS a great sounding record!

The intro to Ruf is the sorta sonic earthmover that most certainly sets the scene for Drunken Tales Of An Underachiever… The Saga Continues. What follows is a whole slew of big riffs, solos, harder than a coffin nail drumming, some dirty free-flowing basslines and capped off with Amber Leigh’s low-slung, darkly clean vocals that slink in and outta the tunes like a cat in heat.

Psychedelic Drug Farm is a punchy rock tune with the first of the dual vox from Amber and Aaron, fueled by some high powered riffage and a meaty chugging stony blues fuzz box running through the middle eight supplying some cool texture. Cocaine And Cigarette Burns is another hard as hell rock song. I particularly like the way the bass and drums jump into the fray, much like bringing a bazooka to a knife fight. There’s no place for subtlety in this day and time! 

being chock fulla shimmering liquid guitar lines, hooks, and melodies, there’s a lot to dig on Drunken Tales Of An Underachiever…

Where Eagles Dare is a hooky stoner blues stomp cover of the Misfits track and my pick of the litter. It opens with that fuzztone bass grinding out the hamburgers whilst drummer Matt Raftery slams the beat into the turf. It’s a catchy, fun-loving song, and the singalong at the end gets me every time! Fools & Halfwits is dark and dirty speed metal riffage meets half pace grind. Divorcing The Savior has a slight shoegaze vibe with some of the guitar lines in what’s an otherwise ballsy kinda rock tune. With some sweet dissonance shot through the arse-end, it’s a tasty way to wrap the song up.

So, being chock fulla shimmering liquid guitar lines, hooks, and melodies, there’s a lot to dig on Drunken Tales Of An Underachiever… The Saga Continues. I dig the dual vocals too, except for the occasional slip into some yarling, which, to be honest, I could always do without. Still, it could be worse. He could slip into sounding like Anthony Kiedis! And I’d have to say, all bets would be OFF after that!! There’s an abundance of fuzztone bass riffs with a huge throaty heft to ‘em, and over-distorted guitars that play nicely with each other. The songs have a tonne of breadth to them as well, so cool to see they don’t mind ditching formulas, and will throw the pages up in the air to see where they land.

So, if you’re hunting some drunken muscle car rock, need a soundtrack to your next illegal drag race, and your head is in a place where the 70s never really ended, I’d be saying grab a copy of Drunken Tales Of An Underachiever… The Saga Continues. And I’ve even heard a rumour that it’s available on 8-track (for the true believers out there!). I’d give it 3 and a 1/2 beers outta 5 (the yarling cost ‘em half a beer!).

Label: Argonauta Records
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram

Scribed by: El Jefe