After a nine-year hiatus full of setbacks, Raleigh, North Carolina-based indie rock quartet Lonnie Walker returns with a new (third) full-length album, ironically titled Easy Easy Easy Easy. Songwriter Brian Corum (guitar, vocals, bass, harmonica), Eric Hill (guitar), Michael Robinson (bass, guitar) and Raymond Finn (drums) recorded the eleven original songs live to tape on a Tascam 388 8-track recorder, and that straightforward approach works out well. More importantly, the band is not a one-trick pony, but a creative force that links spontaneity to urgency, with a forceful frontman spitting out daily life musings and experiences over hypnotic guitar gymnastics and a richly textured bass and drums base. Most breathtaking is Funny Feelin’, an oppressive portrayal of opiate withdrawal (“All the cells inside my body hurt, the sickness superseded // I’m shitting on the toilet screaming easy easy easy easy // Belly pain, migraine, pepper jelly in my veins // Cold sores, loud snores, could I be anymore”), but the rest of the record also offers so many striking words and sonic twists that digressing is not an option anyway.
Easy Easy Easy Easy, recorded by Colin Swanson-White, is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Sleepy Cat Records. Also featuring Kate Rhudy (fiddle), Kate Rhudy (vocals), John Wollaber (vocals), Thomas McNeely (keys) and John Mitchell (Synth drone) on select tracks.
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