All You Can Eat!!

Album Review

Left Lane Cruiser is the duo of singer/guitarist Freddie J. Evans IV and drummer Brenn Beck, from Fort Wayne, IN, and their music not surprisingly recalls that of the White Stripes, another twosome with the same instrumentation. Like the White Stripes, Evans and Beck are self-consciously primitive in their approach, and they are equally mannered in their effect. The main difference is that Left Lane Cruiser is more of a blues act. Beck stomps on his drums, and Evans plays familiar loud, heavy riffs on his electric guitar while howling into what sounds like a microphone not intended to handle vocals, such that his singing comes off distorted, even when he isn't yelling. For only two musicians, they make quite a racket, but their relentlessness can be enervating unless one really has a taste for it.