Black-N-Blues ||| The Virus Network ||| BuLLy ||| Dope
In 2005, the two musicians who make up what would eventually become known as Black-N-Blues got together to write and record some songs. Virus had been working full-time as lead guitarist in the Chicago-based nu-metal quartet DOPE, while his brother Daniel helmed New York's soulful riff rock band BULLY. Needless to say, the musically inclined brothers were no strangers to eachother.
The uber-talented siblings, who had played music together on and off during the course of their lives, no doubt relished the opportunity to bounce some musical ideas off one another; they probably welcomed a little extracurricular creative activity to keep their minds fresh while taking a break from their musical "day jobs."
But more than that, Virus and Daniel just wanted to make the kind of music they don't hear on the radio anymore. Music that puts songwriting first. Music that isn't afraid to be intelligent and sincere. Music that gets by solely on the sincerity of its content and the quality of the performances. Music that doesn't need to be propped up by ProTools doctoring or ghost-writing hitmen. In short, these guys wanted to make music that meant something.
In an age when the concept of "rock and roll" has been reduced to the sight of an utterly wholesome Dave Navarro -- once a heroin-addicted miscreant of rock counter culture, reviled and feared by parents everywhere -- mugging genially on network television, now about as threatening as Bob Barker, in a time when American Idol contestants are taken seriously as recording artists and selling more units than anyone, in an era where "angst" conjures up nothing more compelling than the airbrushed minor key blandness of Evanescence...in short, at an undeniable LOW POINT in rock history such as this, it is indeed harder than ever to find music that means something. Music with soul. Music that doesn't just sound good -- it hits you somewhere deep inside and resonates there.
If the brothers set out to make music that mattered, then it's safe to say they succeeded. The six songs that comprise Black-N-Blues' self-produced Volume 1 CD smolder with the sympathetic tension of a yin/yang musical relationship; Dan's raw, bluesy singing, which has driven his band Bully for the last several years, is the gut-level counterpart to Virus's more polished, more controlled vocalizing. The two songwriters are opposite sides of the same coin -- while Dan's riffs and melodies are pipelined directly from his soul, the dark but carefully crafted lyrics and acoustic guitar orchestrations his brother bring to the songs reflect the duo's more cerebral side.
There's a songwriting acumen here that harkens back to the singing troubadours of 1970's am radio, but it's peppered with the kind of world-weariness that can only exist in the post-millenium. The music of Black-N-Blues seethes with smoky angst but the songs float effortlessly on the total assuredness of these musicians, whose skills are undeniable. Listening to Volume 1, you get the feeling you're in the hands of two guys who know exactly what they're doing. And they mean every note.
Take a break from the daily punishment of Clear Channel radio and MTV, from carbon-copied emo bands and lip-synching teenaged paper dolls, from reality TV and our culture of mediocrity -- and treat yourself to Black-N-Blues. Real music that matters has never been a more desperately needed commodity; take all you can get!