Album Review- Black Pistol Fire

When I was a teenager, we lived in the country and a main outlet for music for me was Canada’s MuchMusic. Yes, the easy explanation was Canada’s MTV but due to Canadian content laws, there was a lot of homegrown music. There were some great bands I discovered and they fill the spectrum of hitting fame in US to being nearly completely obscure here (Crash Test Dummies, Barenaked Ladies, The Pursuit of Happiness, Tragically Hip, Blue Rodeo, Moist, Northern Pikes, Grapes of Wrath and many many more) Now over two decades later, one of my sources for new music is also Canadian- and that is the alt-rock and alt-country channels on SiriusXM. Which of course, I find hilarious since they are listed as ‘Canadian’ like it’s a genre like jazz or R&B or Country or Opera. In any case, a band that gets quite a bit of AirPlay there that has caught my ears is the Austin based (via Canada) band Black Pistol Fire. Which like the bands I mentioned above, surprise me that they aren’t huge here. (Some other artists that I have been turned on to are The Beaches and Dan Mangan). The band that immediately springs to mind is the Black Keys. It’s that same mix of garage punk and Southern rock. (Oddly though they seem perfectly post-Auerbach, besides the Black Keys you can probably draw lines to the Black Pumas, not that far away in their ability to make a noise like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and this is probably a stretch but the similar aspects of the Black Crowes is close enough for the Black superfecta.) They do seem an obvious choice for the current American alt rock scene (the Arctic Monkeys comes up repeatedly in comparison in reviews, the vocals for sure. Queens of the Stone Age as well and the Kings of Leon if more in spirit than execution). Yet they probably could easily fit in this slightly more mature folk rock/blues rock group of recent-year bands like Nathaniel Ratliff and the Night Sweats, Kaleo and the Record Company. You could probably make an argument that they’re too polished, but the talent is there. Their success in Canada is no joke, but with radio being what it is, I’m not sure what a breakthrough looks like for this band in America. But this is a pretty solid alt rock record - perfect for radio but a rewarding listen. One can only imagine that the band is on a trajectory to break American radio, but such things are never guaranteed. In any case, this is a record that should be heard if Modern Day FM Rock Radio is your thing. 2021 - Black Hill/ Round Hill