Duckwalk Chuck: ‘High Speed City’
DUCKWALK CHUCK
HIGH SPEED CITY
Released on March 31, 2017 (Duckwalk Chuck)
Review:
No matter what you do, don’t let the band name Duckwalk Chuck push you away or make you dismiss this band without at least listening to one song. My first thought when I saw the album cover for Duckwalk Chuck‘s High Speed City was “What a terrible band name. How can anyone take these guys seriously?” Despite the terrible group moniker, I pushed ‘play’ on Duckwalk Chuck‘s latest album and was instantly hooked into listening to the whole thing. You’d be surprised how many times that I play new albums before just stopping them mid-way if I don’t like what I’m hearing. In any case, this definitely was not the case for High Speed City.
Funny enough, my first thoughts when listening to High Speed City was that this is exactly the type of AC/DC like, simple guitar riff, oriented songs that my predecessor Skid just loved. Lo and behold, Skid had previously reviewed two of Duckwalk Chuck‘s albums: Comin’ Out Blasting (2004) and Rebel (2009). Incredibly enough, Duckwalk Chuck have been around for some time now dating back to apparently 2001. Who would have known? Perhaps it’s because Duckwalk Chuck were not doing the greatest job at marketing themselves — at least back in 2009 — as Skid noted in his review for Rebel that the band’s press releases were pretty much non-existent and finding one of the group’s CDs required a talented private detective. The good news is that it’s not 2009 anymore and Amazon appears to be the best vehicle to purchase any band’s physical albums these days including — surprise, surprise — a good portion of Duckwalk Chuck‘s discography including Tombstone Stomp (2008), Rebel (2009) and of course, High Speed City (2017).
I’m not going to beat around the bush on this one any longer. I am absolutely loving Duckwalk Chuck‘s High Speed City. If you really like Airbourne — and I know that there are many Sleaze Roxx readers (including myself) who do — odds are that you will really enjoy High Speed City. On the fast paced tracks “Bite The Bullet” and “Dog Bites Back”, you would even be hard pressed to distinguish between the two bands. The Norwegian group Duckwalk Chuck have adopted it seems a faster paced approach on most of their songs (the exceptions being “Heads Are Gonna Roll,” “Animal Attraction” and “Southbound Man”) as their musical output reminds me of the faster paced tracks that Airbourne have come up with over the years. Even though most songs are faster paced, I find that there is a decent amount of variety on the album and no two songs sound really alike.
If you haven’t guessed it, I like all of the tracks on High Speed City. Every song is a good one. My favorites are “Drive” with its infectious guitar groove, the fast paced “Bite The Bullet” and the aptly named “Too Hungover For Action.” If you were to check out only one new band this year — and I say “new” with a grain of salt since these guys have been around since 2001 but I am going to assume most of you don’t know Duckwalk Chuck — you have picked the right band if you are only checking out Duckwalk Chuck.
Track List for High Speed City:
01. High Speed City
02. Drive
03. Heads Are Gonna Roll
04. Bite The Bullet
05. Animal Attraction
06. Too Hungover For Action
07. Dog Bites Back
08. Southbound Man
09. Drinking Again
10. Snakebite
Band Members:
Arvid Thorsen – bass, vocals
Ariled Rettore – guitar
Hakon H. Ronneberg – guitar
Havard Moe – drums
DWC – backing vocals
Additional Musicians:
Rune Thorsen – spoken word (8)
Production:
Recorded by Bjørn Erik Sørensen (1, 3 to 10)
Produced and mixed by Bjørn Erik Sørensen
Recorded by Even Gramstad (2)
Mastered by Jim DeMain
Band Website:
Facebook
Reviewed by Olivier for Sleaze Roxx, July 2017
Duckwalk Chuck‘s “Drive” video:
Duckwalk Chuck – Drive (official music video)
Music: Duckwalk Chuck – DRIVECheck´em out: https://www.facebook.com/Duckwalk-Chuck-305323249490316/Photo and Edit: René UndemGrisebank Productions 2015FB: ht…