A satisfying gzzzk of jack lead penetrating guitar opens the track before a head-banging metronome eggs on the first riff - and it's a fucking nice riff. It doesn't care who you are, it doesn't care how many Pretty Green shirts you own, it just walks on by with a coy smile on its face and slips its number to a group of girls in the corner. A rhythm section straight from the likes of AC/DC and Deep Purple comes to greet it, pumping a deep 2-and-4 snare splatter at perfect head-nodding pace.
Vocals are reserved, aching with cool and composure. 'Flick It in The Ashtray' is the perfect name for a track, with the hook latching itself securely to your ears and riding you like the mechanical head-banging bull you are. Lead guitar work ties vocals and rhythm sections together; unfussy, straight-to-the-point, and not giving a flying fuck what you think. You don't have to shred to blow someone's eyebrows clean off their face.
For a relatively new band, there is a great deal of sure-footedness in Chapel Row - 'Flick It In The Ashtray' is a solid chunk of rock'n'roll. Mixing rock and post-punk into an oozey, grungey angsty paste, Chapel Row channel the energy of the Sex Pistols and The Clash, but carry with it a more slackened, reserved cool. 'Walk quietly but carry a big stick' is the old saying, and it applies very well to Chapel Row.
So, Chapel Row. Hot air? Not at all. 'Flick It In The Ashtray' is made of big, swaggering stuff. Rolled up and filtered through a more demure, gloomy Raconteurs-y cool, Chapel Row have got the makings of something very exciting. Merthyr is good at this sort of thing, and Chapel Row are a chip off the old block.
What do Chapel Row sound like?
Give the punk offerings of Stiff Little Fingers and The Clash a Twenty-bag and some rolling papers. Jack White fatness filtered and simplified; hard-hitting and uncompromising, but it doesn't want to kill you. Smash under that the 4-on-the-floor rhythm sections of AC/DC and Airborne, and you've got an achingly cool, strutting and perfectly unpolished sound straight outta Merthyr.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chapel-Row/743354489118299?sk=timeline
https://soundcloud.com/chapelrow/flick-it-in-the-ashtray
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