Search - 20 Miles :: I'm a Lucky Guy

Jon Spencer Blues Explosion guitarist Judah Bauer needed to recharge his batteries after all the wear and tear of traveling from gig to gig on the endless rock highway. So he teamed up with his drum-playing brother Donovan in New York City and formed a miniband called 20 Miles, making a blues CD before following up with this album of primal, bare-bones rock. According to their record company, the brothers' rock music is in the mold of the early-'70s Stones and Faces. But the dozen songs here, among them the vaguely lyrical "Pure as Gold" and the apocalyptic "Highwater," suggest even stronger connections to the Modern Lovers, the Velvet Underground, the New York Dolls, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and a flock of '60s garage bands that worshipped at the altar of blues heroes like Slim Harpo and Muddy Waters. The young Bauers are neither slaves to the past nor imitators, though, and they project a sense of discovery when singing, wrestling notes out of the guitar, spanking the skins, or blowing harmonica. --Frank-John Hadley