Austin, Texas’ Bottlecap Mountain’s new album Electric Love Spree hit the digital shelves this month, showcasing a band peaking on all levels – songwriting, performance, production, and groove. The record establishes early on that the message here is love, respect, and kindness. While those positive sentiments permeate the lyrics, there’s some sharper edges to the instrumentation and execution, providing that sweet blend of melody, melancholy, and energy that defines the powerpop tag.
Bottlecap Mountain - Electric Love Spree
“I Need Love” comes in with a Nobody’s Darlings-era Lucero-like guitar lick but quickly morphs into a powerpop/rockabilly rant about, yep – love – complete with a singalong, bashing chorus and droning organ line provided by Yvonne Love, acting as the glue to the choppy guitars. It’s pretty clear that this stuff has some hours behind it, and the work has paid off.
Bottlecap Mountain (L-R): Yvonne Love, Stewart Gersmann, Ray Flynt, Chris Stangland
“Piece of Cake” finds main-dude Stewart Gersmann at his most personal, tracing his family tree back, reflecting on the challenges of living up to the impossible standards set by generations past, but knowing that not trying isn’t an option.
Probably the most rockin’ offering on the record is “When I’m With U,” a sort of Boz Scaggs meets early Cheap Trick jam that leaves the bass of Chis “Stang” Stangland and the drums of Ray Flynt to carry the verses while a wall of sound comes in for the choruses. It’s infectiously hooky, and in our house, what we call a “repeater.”
The Bottlecaps (who probably hate when I call them that) have evolved and swayed in and out of sounds and influences in their 11+ years of existence, but they’ve never been this comfortable sounding while weaving across and back the rock and pop line at the sobriety checkpoint of the genre police. There’s elements of Springsteen, Jason Isbell, and Ryan Adams that step in and out, but there’s Motown and Stax vibes at times too. There’s a recurring 70s vibe that they don’t shy away from – the above-mentioned Boz Scaggs, but also elements of early Billy Joel at his most rockin’ and occasionally the rarely-mentioned but amazingly awesome Badfinger.
Bottlecaps & Tucos, Lansing, MI - March 2023 (L-R, clockwise): Stang, JP, Stewart, Jake E. Lee, Y-Love, Ray, Gabriel.
These guys are tearing up the crowded Austin club scene and venturing beyond the Lone Star State some too, but they belong on the big stages of the national shed circuit, providing the soundtrack to the summer for the dancing, grooving, feel-good rock and roll loving masses.
Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.
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Twitter: @jeremyportermi | Instagram: @onetogive & @jeremyportermusic
