Rock With Some Graffiti and Pistols

Rock With Some Graffiti and Pistols

Bruce Von Stiers

Can you pack a hard punch in rock music with just a duo? It was proved out with The Black Keys and the White Stripes. Now there is another duo that is often compared to those two but yet have a bit of their own distinct style. That duo is known as Black Pistol Fire.

Black Pistol Fire recently released their latest album. This album is titled Deadbeat Graffiti.

The album has twelve songs and a play time of forty-one minutes. It was released by Rifle Bird Records.

The duo behind Black Pistol Fire are Kevin Mckeown and Eric Owen. Kevin plays guitar, sitar, keyboards, guitalele, percussion and does the vocals. Eric plays the drums, keys, organ, drums and percussion. Together they make such a cohesive rock sound that you'd think there was a multi-member band behind the music.

Kevin and Eric are originally from Canada but have found a home in the solid rock and blues community that is a huge part of the Austin, Texas music scene.

Helping out on this album were two vocalists. Those were Tameca Jones and Emily Wolfe. Tameca has been called the “Queen of Austin Soul.” On the other side of things, Emily is one of the top blues vocalists and guitarists in the Austin area.

Things crank it out to the max in the first entry on the album. The song is Lost Cause and is really cool anthem. People who make a comparison of the duo to The White Stripes might make the same comparison for this song.

Tough lyrics can be found in the killer piece, Bully. Some of it goes like this, “I like it you play too rough, tell me when you've had enough.”

Last Ride is a hot anthem with great guitar and slick backing vocals.

Speak of the Devil is a mean, killer blues piece. In spots it reminded me of Eric Burdon & the Animals.

Fast paced, toe tapping music can be found in Don't Ask Why.

Heavy drum and some different key work can be found in Hearts of Habit.

Fever Breaks has some harder rock parts mixed with slightly slower moderate rock. It is an interesting ballad.

Coattails has a bit of a groove mixed with a slice of harder rock.

Blue Dream has a toe tapping beat and slick vocals.

Eastside Racket is a fast paced anthem.

Things slow down quite a bit for the angst filled ballad Watch It Burn.

The album ends with Yet Again. It is a true killer of a rock anthem.

I didn't know anything about Black Pistol Fire before listening to Deadbeat Graffiti. I was kind of wondering how good this album could really be. Just because people were comparing these guys to the White Stripes and The Black Keys, were they really that good? I was pleasantly surprised by the talent that the duo presented in their music. And the fact that they brought in some of Austin's top vocal talent to provide backing vocals didn't hurt either.

Deadbeat Graffiti is available at Fatbeats, amazon and other online and offline retailers.

You can find the Black Pistol Fire at https://blackpistolfire.com/

They also have a Facebook fan page at https://www.facebook.com/blackpistolfire/

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