There among the Wilcos and Kelly Willises of the inaugural Austin City Limits Music Festival, these scruffy truck-stop rejects brought the rock. Not the classic, not the jam -- the trailer-park psychedelic. The Austin quartet's debut, Night Rider, showers shoegazer guitar over a glammy, Jane's Addiction shriek and will delight the freak family redneck.
The Vacation Gold writes and performs original songs about love, loss, and hope. Compared to MC5, the Stooges, and the Stones, they thrive on using dirty, gritty sounds as a platform for their music while still being original and innovative. Their music is ass shakin', storytelling music.
but.......
Spacetruck is the perfect moniker for this Austin fourpiece. Like a truck, it's a workhorse, hauling loads of original tunes and chunky rock & roll. And like the ubiquitous Texas pickup, Spacetruck has a slightly country-fried flavor, more Marfa and less Lubbock. The space component is easy, created by the group's use of vintage echo boxes. Likewise, the title of their cd Night Rider is apropos, a reference to the distinctly nocturnal mood of this debut. The Seventies are probably the best reference point, as Spacetruck fuzzes things up by adding analog keyboards to their standard rock mix. These nine tracks also have an edge, as demonstrated on the self-assured, sarcastic swagger of Stooges like rocker "The Destroyer." The saturated sound, full of aural surprises, comes compliments of studio Bubble brother Chris "Frenchie" Smith, former Sixteen Deluxer and current Young Heart Attack. If these promising local youngsters continue barreling into sonically interesting territory, while at the same time resisting the jam band urge to noodle, we'll all be Spacetrucking.
