★★★★★
In the sleevenotes to an earlier reissue of The Blasters' debut album, guitarist and chief songwriter Dave Alvin recalled the advice their label boss gave them when they first entered the studio: "Quit thinking too much, and just keep it rocking." Those wise words did the trick, as American Music turned out to be one of the most blistering, balls-out opening salvos of rock'n'roll energy you're ever likely to hear...
- recordcollectormag.com
2013-04-02
★★★★★
Dave Alvin's most recent solo album, Eleven Eleven, found him working once again with his elder sibling Phil, poking fun at their past differences on the delightful What's Up With Your Brother?. The song made reference to their regular clashes as joint leaders of tough country-rockers The Blasters but, as this San Jose gig testifies, a little family friction can spark some superb music...
- www.recordcollectormag.com
2011-11-07
★★★★★
For a brief and what they described as "final" run last summer, the original lineup of the Blasters ? led by Alvin brothers Dave (guitar, songs) and Phil (chesty bellow) ? once again romped through the honky-tonk blues, rockabilly and jittery zydeco that galvanized West Coast post-punk in the late '70s...
- www.blender.com
2010-08-22
★★★★★
In the mythic America some of us carry around in our heads, every bar boasts a house band like The Blasters. It's pointless to suggest they still miss Dave Alvin's songwriting, as it's 18 years since he quit and, if they can get over it, so can we. That said, the best song here is probably a cover—"Daddy Rollin' Stone". But brother Phil Alvin is still on board, and the rootsy mix of blues, rock, country and soul continues to provide the perfect soundtrack in the roadhouse of our minds...
- www.uncut.co.uk
2010-06-19
★★★★★
The remains of a great catalogue, baited with three rockin' previously unreleaseds that can't hold a candle to the Non Fiction gems now erased from history (a moment of silence for "It Must Be Love," "Bus Station," "Leaving"), this nevertheless makes its willful, undeniable case for the matchless titans of "American Music," rockin' style. Dave Alvin and his singing brother Phil you know, kind of...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-17
★★★★★
One of two bands cited as proof that L.A. punks aren't just bigots with mohawks (the other, the Go-Go's, has--gulp!--girls in it), these rock and rollers don't quite fit their rockabilly revivalist pigeonhole. Where the average Whitecat is so pencil-necked he can hardly hold up an acoustic bass, they have muscles, and where the average Rockin' Ronnie Weiser signing is a barely literate has-been who never really was, they have brains and potential...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Ex-Canned Heat piano man Gene Taylor and a horn section anchored by New Orleans's own Mr. Lee Allen wreck that neobilly image, as do the three reempowered remakes from their debut. Neobilly's just an excuse that lets them play blues--plus r&b, country, New Orleans, all the unfashionable vernaculars they love--to a young and hungry audience in a recharged dramatic context...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
Non Fiction imagined a world in which the American music the Blasters love remained the common tongue of ordinary guys, guys whose connection to their cultural history helped them understand where they were--not in control, but at least conscious...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
★★★★★
"Train whistle cries / lost on its own track" could be half a haiku for Hank Williams should these American traditionalists ever turn Japanese, and if "Leaving" is worthy of George Jones, "Bus Station" and "It Must Be Love" pick up where Tom T. Hall left off. None of which is code for countrybilly--this is r&b Jerry Lee could be proud of...
- www.robertchristgau.com
2009-07-10
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