Teen Sound Records

Capturing the essence of a sound and vibe from another time while making it fresh and captivating and original is a delicate balancing act that many try and only a very few succeed at.

St. Phillip’s Escalator is one of the rare ones: Elevation – their latest release – is infused with bluesy, psychedelicized vapors of yesterday that offer up repeated just-out-of-reach reminders of rock ‘n’ roll’s glory days. At the same time, this Rochester, NY-based power trio is breaking ground that no Cuban-heeled ankle boot has trod upon before.

Right from the opening cut – the chugging six-string slasher “Sick On You” – drummer Zach Koch, bassist Noel Wilfeard and guitarist/vocalist Ryan Moore will remind you of The Stooges or pre-Learjet Stones while laying down something you’ve never heard before. Moore’s guitar tone here relies more on picking-hand dynamics than anything (the delightfully weirder shit is yet to come), combining full-arm pile driver rhythms with a fiery Chuck-Berry-got-dosed lead break. Roch and Wilfeard bob and weave in formation, providing a slam-crash foundation for Moore while adding accents and punctuations of their own.

Things really get cooking during “South 4th Street Blues”, a roll-and-tumble fuzzfest that showcases just what this band is all about. Yep, it’s the blues – but it’s the kind of blues that Mister Jimi hisself would’ve loved, conjured up in a smoke-choked juke joint on the banks of a river that runs purple. Moore’s guitar is all torn speaker snarl and sputter, a fine lesson in well-harnessed madness. Koch’s drums, however, are absolutely scary – he goes from in-the-pocket slow-slam blues hump to crazy-ass Ginger Baker-style intricate recklessness in the blink of an eye. And then there’s Wilfeard, patrolling the ground between his bandmates like a true groove soldier: one moment he’s letting fly with a wild rumble to complement one of Koch’s crazy rolls – only to tuck neatly wingtip-to-wingtip with Moore’s guitar as they come out of the break.

Oh, sweet madness.

There’s under-the-dirty-streetlight swagger and drawl that had to have been recorded at an hour closer to dawn than sundown (the title track – half ear-snatching hooks and half jam); there are moments that capture the cement-floor slam of garage psychedelia at its finest (“Overload”, “Rebel City”); and then there’s “Drone #1” – a spilt-beer-on-the-flying-carpet blend of punk urgency and Far East inner vision. (Whether it was co-producer Alex Patrick or the band themselves, somebody knew what they were doing when they added the touch of the repeated single piano note: now I wanna be your dog, baby – as soon as we spin ourselves clear of this whirling dervish.)

The only downside to Elevation is the fact that it’s an EP rather than a full-length album; but even at that, St. Phillip’s Escalator will do a dandy job of spinning your brain while you’re shaking your ass.

There are bands that would kill for a double-disc album that carried the wallop these three lads pack into six tracks.

The liner notes refer to Elevation as a sampling of what’s to come. For the sake of rock ‘n’ roll, I have two words for you guys: hurry up.

*****

Brian Robbins vacuums the flying carpet over at www.brian-robbins.com