Brontez Purnell Trio and the throttling punkified rock-n-roll backbeat of "If You Can't Help Me" (Official Video)

 

"if you can't help me / please don't stop me / move out of my way / don't try to block me..."


The throttling punkified rock-n-roll backbeat, 2 step forward 1 slide back praise God jazz hands of "If You Can't Help Me" by Brontez Purnell Trio with Oakland renaissance man Brontez Purnell, and featuring NY power pop chanteuse Josephine Network, absolutely slaps. From the fuzz laden bass lines, possessed tom tom beats, Farfisa Fast 3-esque organ, snappy dirty guitar as a potent full on magnetic framework for Purnell's evocative raspy, soulful vocal sound and Network's glorious oooh and aaaahs you cannot help but get off your ass and onto your feet.      

I have always loved 50's / 60's rock as seeds for new punk / garage rock iterations and, to me, while it is hard to exactly define this genre Brontez Purnell Trio possesses the same artful sonic D.N.A. of artist like The Dirtbombs, The Gories, Miranda and the Beat, Thee Mighty Caesars, The Delmonas, The Spaceshits, King Khan & BBQ. BPT and all these kinds of bands celebrate rock and roll and all its predecessor genres as its parents and grandparents and celebrate it all. Their music feels like a cross generational reunion. A time before quantized music, a time when music felt, somehow, much more real. 

LINER NOTES (bracketed):

[The new single and video “If You Can’t Help Me” via House of Feelings. First debuted via FLOOD Magazine, the track is an old gospel standard filtered through Purnell, bassist Josephine Network, and drummer / House of Feelings label head Matty Fasano’s DIY punk lens, adding a dash of scuzz to the song’s candy-coated melodies. “‘If You Can’t Help Me’ is an old gospel tune that Brontez started singing to us on tour,” Fasano says. “We improvised an arrangement and played it onstage at TV Eye and loved it so much we recorded it with Ben Greenberg. Giving a garage rock feel to a gospel song turned out to really hit for us. We wanted to make a video that captured the spontaneity of the song, and so we found an old TV and a studio, and smiled for each other.”] 

About the Renaissance Man:

Brontez Purnell has been making music since the ‘90s. He started in The Social Lies, a hardcore Afro-punk duo in Alabama in his teens, and later Gravy Train!!!. He then went on to lead his long running project The Younger Lovers and now unveils the Brontez Purnell Trio. Based out of Oakland, CA, Purnell is also a writer, dancer, filmmaker, and choreographer (The Brontez Purnell Dance Company). He is the author of 8 critically lauded books, including this year’s Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse, Since I Laid My Burden Down, 100 Boyfriends, and more that have placed him among the most important writers of his generation. 

-Robb Donker Curtius

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM 

https://brontez-purnell.bandcamp.com/track/forgive-me-philip-trio-version

https://josephinenetwork.bandcamp.com/

https://www.instagram.com/brontezpurnell/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rTfSsNbSVZhGMw3xoq7Yf


Brontez Purnell has been making music since the ‘90s. He started in The Social Lies, a hardcore Afro-punk duo in Alabama in his teens, and later Gravy Train!!!. He then went on to lead his long running project The Younger Lovers and now unveils the Brontez Purnell Trio. Based out of Oakland, CA, Purnell is also a writer, dancer, filmmaker, and choreographer (The Brontez Purnell Dance Company). He is the author of 8 critically lauded books, including this year’s Ten Bridges I've Burnt: A Memoir in Verse, Since I Laid My Burden Down, 100 Boyfriends, and more that have placed him among the most important writers of his generation.

Brontez Purnell Trio, garage rock, garage punk, Oakland's Brontez Purnell, writer, dancer, filmmaker, choreographer, power pop chanteuse Josephine Network, "If You Can't Help Me" (Official Video),