Focus Level
New York’s Endless Boogie like their beer cheap, their gear old, their women crazy, their denim dirty, their steaks burnt and their rock loud. Known for playing only a handful of memorable shows and parties a year with extremely limited home recordings, their 2008 debut album *Focus Level* gave their fans a widely available album that captures the band’s hard chooglin’ rock ’n’ roll. Sounding like they were raised on *Exile*-era Stones and early ZZ Top, “Smoking Figs In The Yard” opens jamming heavy on the kind of timeless Southern-flavored rock associated with a bygone era when waterbeds were made small enough to fit in the back of a van. “The Manly Vibe” grooves harder and slower with crazed, ranting sung similar to what Captain Beefheart was doing on *Trout Mask Replica* while “Steak Rock” struts weirdly with repetitive chunky riffs holding down a meaty mantra of beefy boogie. They shift gears with “Coming Down the Stairs,” a faster number that recalls the Groundhogs’ penchant for rocking the blues-rock as loud as humanly possible.
Though they've been around a decade, Focus Level is the full-length debut by these choogling blues minimalists; true to the band's name, there is plenty of boogie here, and the record also seems to last forever.
The musty reek of a record collector’s basement must follow Endless Boogie around everywhere they play.