Focus Level

New York’s Endless Boogie like their beer cheap, their gear old, their women crazy, their denim dirty, their steaks burnt and their rock loud. Known for playing only a handful of memorable shows and parties a year with extremely limited home recordings, their 2008 debut album Focus Level gave their fans a widely available album that captures the band’s hard chooglin’ rock ’n’ roll. Sounding like they were raised on Exile-era Stones and early ZZ Top, “Smoking Figs In The Yard” opens jamming heavy on the kind of timeless Southern-flavored rock associated with a bygone era when waterbeds were made small enough to fit in the back of a van. “The Manly Vibe” grooves harder and slower with crazed, ranting sung similar to what Captain Beefheart was doing on Trout Mask Replica while “Steak Rock” struts weirdly with repetitive chunky riffs holding down a meaty mantra of beefy boogie. They shift gears with “Coming Down the Stairs,” a faster number that recalls the Groundhogs’ penchant for rocking the blues-rock as loud as humanly possible.