Skin Walker takes Brother O’Brother’s already monstrous sound to the next level. Thundering guitars and drums are HEAVY and passionate lyrics meld into a wall of head-banging fury. My favorite track is the ass-shaking, boot-stomping “Who Wants It, Who Gets It.” Also amazing is the psychedelic speed-metal “Elixir,” the single “Cyborg,” originally released in 2020 as part of a split 7″ with The Pack A.D., and the title track “Skin Walker” which they performed at the Mile of Music set at Chadwicks on Friday August 5th. The digital version of Skin Walker is set to drop this upcoming weekend so audio and video links will be more readily available after that. And for those unfortunate souls who haven’t made it to a BoB show lately to get the LP directly from the source, more vinyl will be available to pre-order from the band’s website in about a week.

And because Chris (guitar/vocals) and Warner (drums) are really great, sweet guys and know our kid really well, they recorded a video message for him after the show since he wasn’t able to be there with us. (Note: we did not leave him home with just ravioli to eat, but there was ramen)

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We picked up this single at their show in Milwaukee this past December. “R.O.S.E.” (when played at the correct speed) is a slow-burning heavy bluesy rocker, complete with Brother O’Brother’s signature musical tension provided by Swopes’ tight rhythm that builds and builds and builds before exploding into pounding fury. Add to that Banta’s gospel-tinged lo-fi vocals and power chords and it’s a blistering track that also appears on Live at Radio Radio (Shed House Records, 2016).

Side B has two tracks by Veseria, a band I am not familiar with, but they are also from Indianapolis and according to their bandcamp page are “a 4-piece rock group…their fusion of the raw power of classic rock, early punk beats and the lyrical and melodic tones of American folk music has captured their audiences at home and across the Midwest.” They are on Banta’s Romanus Records label and after listening to “And Also” and “Hunting Accidents,” I can picture watching Veseria at an outdoor summer festival, dancing barefoot in the grass while the sun sets: harmonic, sweet sweeping music.

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Brother O’ Brother “Brother O’ Brother” 2014. Fonoflo Records. There I am with guitarist-singer-frontman extraordinaire Chris Banta and champion heavy-hitter drummer Warner Swopes!

We cleared our calendar and scraped the ice off the car to catch the Indianapolis-based power duo at Brenner Brewing Co. in Milwaukee on Saturday night in the midst of the first big snowstorm of the season; after seeing them for the first time in August at Appleton’s Mile of Music and having our minds blown, a little weather wasn’t going to deter us.

Banta and Snopes brought the blizzard mixture of garagey punk-blues stompers and gospel-infused howls indoors with their wild performance of songs from the debut LP Brother O’ Brother, including the slow-burn bluesy “Means To Be a Woman.” (I honestly don’t remember if they played another favorite “Coke Bottle Lens” but I’m including it here because it’s so damn good.) They also ripped through several stand-out tracks from their 2015 release Show Pony: “The Itch,” “You Would” and “Wolf In Sheeps Clothing.”

Because of the weather, attendance was pretty small for the show. The upside was that we got to chat with the guys for awhile both before and after the show, including a conversation about Banta’s white loafers (see picture above): Joe has the exact same pair and I may have given him some shit about them in the past. Well, he’s vindicated.

Brother O’ Brother will be swinging back through Wisconsin in January, playing at Mill Creek in Appleton on January 6th, and we will be heading up there to see them again in all their frenzied garage-blues-punk energy.

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Our 7″ is mislabelled (which didn’t take me long to figure out). Side A is supposed to be Brother O’ Brother’s “I Confess” and “I Got It,” both excellent bluesy garage rockers, but in reality the tracks playing are Ghost Wolves’ “Vroom Vroom” (not actually a song, just 2 or so seconds of an engine vroom-vrooming) and “I Got $.” “I Got $” is a slow-grooving, rough rocking burner that showcases Carley’s howling guitar and clear vocals and Jonathan’s power hits. I was unable to find a video for the track or any performances from Mile of Music, but here is a pretty great mini-film of their tour and performance in Japan 2014. Also if you go to their Facebook page and scroll to July 30th, you can see a hilarious video of Brother O’ Brother and The Ghost Wolves doing Pilates.

Runoff groove etchings:

Side A (or is it B?): “Mo Money”

Side B (or is it A?): “Mo Problems, Cream”

And here is a photo from the Mile of Music Facebook feed (taken by Graham Images and Photography) of Brother O’ Brother’s Chris Banta during the show we saw at Chadwick’s.

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Anyway! We read the description of Brother O’ Brother in the MoM program, “Brother O’ Brother, an Indianapolis-based duo [Chris Banta: guitar and vocals and Warner Swopes: drums], formed in the Summer of 2013 and began making music with the message of love in mind and combining their message with their garage, blues and gospel sound. They participate in this conversation of life by drenching guitars in fuzz, booming drums, and mountains of smoke and lights.” SOLD! They were playing on Saturday afternoon, the totally non-sexy hour of 3:00 p.m., at the small College Avenue bar Chadwick’s. They started early (!!!) and ripped into a raucous set filled with raging guitar, crashing drums and the highest performance energy I’ve seen in a loooonggg time (probably not since Murder City Devils’ and Nashville Pussy’s shows in the late 90′s). Banta was everywhere – jumping off the walls, rolling on the floor and a stroll down the bar, dumping ice water over his sweat-soaked head.

Swopes was not idle. Oh no! Frequently leaping out of his drum stool with the excellent posturing of a WWE fighter, he at one point began swinging from the temporary stage scaffolding (he did mindfully check its integrity first though).

Show Pony is Brother O’ Brother’s second full-length release. The best band comparisons are White Stripes, Soledad Brothers and Flat Duo Jets: blues garage rock with lots and lots of soul. “The Itch” starts off the album with an ass-shaking blues beat and dirty garage guitar. “Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing” is a blues head-banger and check out the power on “You Would” which starts off almost demure but then intensifies into mass stomping fury. And here is their performance of “White Dove” from the show we saw at Chadwick’s.

As soon as the show finished we headed to the merch table, waited a few minutes and the guys, dripping with sweat and all smiles, came over to sell records, cd’s and t-shirts so we got to do a brief chat and bought as much as we could afford (2 records – this one and their self-titled 2014 release, a 45 split with The Ghost Wolves – I’ll be posting about that soon – and a t-shirt). These guys work their asses off and we will definitely see them again.

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