TRAINWRECK RIDERS The Perch out now

TRAINWRECK RIDERS new album "The Perch" is out now on CD and iTunes
The album is also available as a limited edition vinyl with bonus CD

RADIO MOSCOW - Disc Exchange

Ah, remember a day when rock and roll was in its prime and just plain sounded the way it should; a day when guitars weighed a ton, hair was long, and the amps had knobs that were as big as pie plates. This was a day when you could still hear the hiss of the 2 inch tape on albums and bands could venture to the heavy end of the spectrum and not scare off the good spirited masses who were merely looking for a new album to throw on the turntables, space out, and expand both their mind and musical pallets. Fortunately for us, there are still musicians out there who abide by these creeds of the late 60's and early 70's, and could easily be considered contemporaries of their heroes, keeping great rock and roll alive in a world in which the majority of popular music has gone to shit. Hailing from Ames, Iowa of all places, Radio Moscow is one of these bands that does things right, from playing through vintage gear and joining forces with Alive Records, a label that can do no wrong in my book. Their newest album out of the oven, Brain Cycles, is a step above their 2007 debut with a greater confidence in both song-writing and musicianship.
I might be beating a dead horse by comparing Radio Moscow to Hendrix, however there is no denying the obvious influence that this music has on this album, from the guitar leads, tones, and effect choices. At the same time, Brain Cycles reminds me a great deal of other behemoths from back in the day including Cream, Blue Cheer, and the Groundhogs. Front man and guitarist Parker Griggs comes from a school of thought in which fuzz and wah are kings and the guitars are loud. Its a good thing too, because this young man has massive chops and an ear for the way rock and roll songs should be written. Chalk another one up in Griggs' column for his percussive work on the album, playing all of the drum parts himself. This leads me to the question, what can't he play? No kidding, there are hundreds of artists out there that would kill to have drum sounds like this, part Mitch Mitchell, part Carmine Appice. On the low end of things, Zach Anderson's bass lines are prime, tasteful, and in the pocket, perfectly complementing the guitar and drum work at hand. Brain Cycles is all about the driving riffs and psychedelic swells that will make the brain swim, swirl with an Are You Experienced? production quality. In fact I would almost require it to ingest Brain Cycles via a great pair of headphones.
Let's raise our glasses once again to Alive Records for bringing another of this year's best to the listeners. And most definitely hats off to the Radio Moscow boys for tapping into something that was in or added to the water back in the days when rock and roll was all about throwing on the cans, lighting some incense, and freeing ones mind. - Andrew Bryan / DiscExchange

RADIO MOSCOW - Adequacy

“Best Played Very HIGH.” This quote is found on the back cover of Radio Moscow’s new album Brain Cycles and compliments the mildly trippy, illustrated, album artwork fairly predictably. Inside is an image of no less than 21 vintage guitars stacked in front of a wall of equally vintage looking amps. Band leader, singer, guitarist, and drummer Parker Griggs is barely into his 20’s. I wonder how he has already acquired so much equipment. Who knows, but in addition to displaying the cultural signifiers of stoner rock, he’s also digested the history of psychedelic blues-rock and mastered producing fun and energetic originals in this style.
Obscure artists like the Groundhogs, Flower Travellin’ Band, and Peter Green are name-checked in the press release, but this stuff sounds tighter, craftier, and more bombastic than any of that stuff. More popular artists like Blue Cheer, Cream, and Hendrix are better touchstones for the sounds on Brain Cycles. Regardless, Griggs and bass-player Zach Anderson play in the classic power-trio, blues-rock style, and prove to be fairly versatile and playful players. Griggs’ guitar playing takes the spotlight and is magnificent, both in melody and sound. It screams, noodles, cries, and echoes all over the place. The guy’s got some serious skills, not just in his playing, but in getting the right sound out of his effects. The rhythm section is agile and loud throughout, laying a thunderous and propulsive bed, jerky and smooth in equal doses. Anderson’s bass flexes just the right amount of muscle, and follows the guitar, drums, or its own path in equal doses. Griggs’ drumming is capably aggressive and jazzy in the typical hard rock Ginger Rogers-aping style, which of course is a blast to listen to. The singing and lyrics are pretty typical and work more as a structural piece than as any sort of expression or communication. It’s typical blues fare, with ruminations about breaking down, holding on, not knowing, not understanding, and getting tired of shit, told from the first person.
It should be noted that none of these songs overstay their welcome and never really devolve into proggy grandeur. The album leads off with three pretty straight rockin’ songs. Although somewhat of a fixture of the style, there’s only one drum solo on the Brain Cycles and it arrives just as the proceedings start to edge into sameness on the fourth track, “No Good Woman”, so it’s a welcome change when it arrives. The next track is the title track and the only instrumental on the album. It continues the variety, starting with a race between the guitars and the rhythm section, segueing into a keyboard workout that stops the music in its tracks for a minute to admire something more feminine passing through, and finishes with a section of shape-shifting guitar work. This is followed by “250 Miles”, which breathes in more languid space before finishing with speed and volume. Two of the last three tracks also show some stretching out, as “Black Boot” and “City Lights” hearken further back into history for some delta blues. These tracks provide some jauntiness lacking at the beginning of the album and wish they’d have been split up for the sake of pacing. The final track rumbles in rambunctiously and burns out gloriously.
There’s plenty here for fans of both blues and psych, although it’s definitely more of a blues-rock record than a psychedelic record. After listening to Brain Cycles, I really look forward to the chance to see them play live. They get in, do their thing, and get out, without drawing things out. This stuff is straight-up homage, no doubt about it, and doesn’t claim to be anything but. It’s done lovably and quite adeptly, so just sit back, turn it up, and enjoy. - Greg Argo / DOA