Santa Ana River Delta Blues

Album Review

Coyote rock septet Wiskey Biscuit have been together for over a decade, but this is their first self-released full-length effort and an excellent intro to the much loved L.A. band. Singer Jason Mason's meandering upper-register warble is adaptable to a wide topography of rockish styles represented; the album comes across like a lo-fi indie rock Exile on Main Street, blending cosmic American country-rock and swaggering bluesy riffs with early-'80s Cali punk and indie sensibilities. "I Like Sleeping" is the slacker anthem that everyone thought Beck's "Loser" was (but wasn't). Beachwood Sparks/Tyde lap steeler Farmer Dave Scher shines on the country-blues "Fallin' on Your Face." The moody organ-driven "Out of the Dark" and "Stoner Girl" are other standouts. "Dada Munchamonkey" (Ed Ruscha, Jr.) also appears on synth. Through it all, Wiskey Biscuit have managed to take the sharecroppin', a*s-whoopin' Texas country-blues of musicians like Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin' Hopkins to heart, adding Hammond organ and the occasional accordion riff to create their own brand of raunch and rumble electric blues.