So The Gourds’ hicked-up hip-hop covers opened your ears — and mind. Or perhaps it was The Avett Brothers’ sweet-and-sour mix of emo and SoCo. Maybe your first hit goes back 15 years to Leftover Salmon’s “polyethnic Cajun slamgrass,” or the so-called “alt-country” explosion of Old 97’s. Maybe it’s even a habit you acquired decades ago, pounding shots alongside Lynyrd Skynyrd or in between hash-tokes with ‘60s-country counterculture dark knight Johnny Cash. Whatever musical gateway drug got you stirring some hillbilly heroin into your rock ‘n’ roll speedball, 6 Day Bender is your next step toward complete addiction.
Like all the aforementioned modern favorites, the main hook to this Charlottesville, VA, act is a sharp, Southern twang that blasts the senses, particularly from some pungent bluegrass-inspired banjo. But even though 6 Day Bender puts on a hell of a live show filled with hot licks, this ain’t no tie-dye-wearin’, consciousness-expandin’, high-falutin’ “jam band” noodlin’ to nigh on eternity. They hit hard with pounds of solid structure for every four-minute tune, and in 16 short cuts, you won’t find a single maudlin mandolin or acoustic six-string; it’s all dirty Telecasters and bent solos. It’s kick-drum-boosted, bass-line banging, shitkicking stomps. It’s train-chugging ditties with rambling breaks of fingerpicking goodness. It’s painful ballads. It’s even confused alt-rock angst, borrowing a healthy dose of blues to thicken things up with gritty topics to boot.
From just-out-of-jail, down-on-your-luck first-person reflections, to scathing wartime protests, 6 Day Bender always maintains that tongue-in-cheek, life-sucks-but-shit-on-it-let’s-just-get-high-and-forget-it-for-now appeal that’s impossible to resist. And whether new or old, happy or sad, pleading or just plain pissed off, if there’s one skill any good Southern act knows better than anyone, it’s how to tap into every level of the human condition while having a good time — and sounding good doing it.
-Matt Walker / Surfing Magazine
Info via myspace.com/6daybender. Photos via 6daybender.com.
