Music
Press
"...literally in the crowd, was Bottle Up and Go a guitar/drum two piece with a third wandering Sax player showing up occasionally. Mention must be made of their screeching blues and maniacal playing, giving the feeling of the Black Keys jacked on speed while being kicked in the junk by the MC-5. Sounding at home covering Nick Cave or Leadbelly these guys are worth catching as well." - GLIDE MAGAZINE
The blood-blister yawl of Bottle Up & Go singer Keenan Mitchell is vintage Soundgarden-era Chris Cornell, but the boiling rawk brimstone beneath is electric blooze whiplash napalm: electrified-fence riffage lashed to (and by) crashing drum kit indigestion and face-melting sax squalls. On “Wayward Son,” Mitchell belts out the kind of Dear Mom missive no momma ever wants to receive—“I got so thirsty, I fell down the weeeeeeeeell/Fell asleep in my bed, I woke up in Hell”—he’s in too deep, a gun in his hand and a dead girl in his bed, and “Wayward Son” is a jolting study in turmoil, a skidding declaration that shit’s fucked up beyond belief that doesn’t project a path to positive resolution.
Bottle Up & Go frontman Keenan Mitchell on ‘Wayward Son’
Would you characterize yourself as a wayward son?
I have had a few moments in my life when I felt like the wayward son, not to mention the countless nights waking up on the living room floor with the room spinning, thinking about how my mother would cry if she saw me... The worst was probably getting rousted out of my jail-cell bunk at five in the morning in the Florida panhandle to find out that my mother had just paid my bail from our home in Oregon, and I hadn’t even asked her to do it. I guess she found out from my uncle, whom I had called with my one phone call to ask for an immediate loan. The worst part was calling her from the jail phone and hearing the automated voice say “Hello, this is a call from the Escambia County jail. Would you like to accept a call from—my voice, forlorn—“Keenan Mitchell” That’s what I wrote the song “Low” about, incidentally.
You really attack the vocal here. Have you ever blown your voice, or feared that you would?
I have to spend a few days after every little tour we do whispering like the Godfather because my voice gets so wrecked. My range has gone down by at least a quarter octave during the time I have been singing for Bottle Up & Go, from all the smoking and screaming. It’s gotten so bad that I can’t sing some of the songs we used to play when we started out. I think I have a plateau now, though. My voice isn’t going to get much rougher than it is now. I hope.
If you found out in advance that you were headed straight to Hell and were allowed to bring a case of any beverage with you, what would it be?
Initially, I thought I would just pick up a case of the cheapest malt liquor at the corner store before I headed off to Hell. Lucas [Carrico, saxophonist] persuaded me that a flat of Graves grain alcohol would be the way to go. As long as you are going to suffer for all eternity. You might as well bring something that will last a few weeks. - RAYMOND CUMMINGS - Paperthinwalls (www.paperthinwalls.com)
With their name yanked off an old blues standard (Leadbelly, John Lee Hooker, etc.) and a two-piece setup that says “whatever” to the bass, Brooklyn dudes Bottle Up & Go are making it clear from the start that the blues is in their whiskey tumblers. They sing with the want of most white blues guys; there’s the plead and the whine and the stamping of the foot, and if the songs didn’t have their name on it, would you really know the difference? Because they’re not Leadbelly, or John Lee Hooker, or even the Chickasaw Mudd Puppies. And in the sweeping slide guitar leads of “51 Weeks, 7 Days” and the hyperactive yowl and clatter of “Wayward Son,” in the downward stumble of “My Yoke Is Easy” (”Oh God, tell me what to do!”), Bottle Up & Go are giving us the blues-tainted goods, and kicking bottles out of the way, and probably falling off drum thrones and getting sliced in their beards by exploded guitar strings. They’re definitely not blowing minds, but they definitely do understand that the dirtier blues is, the more it yells from where wits fell off the end, the easier it is to just drink up and love it. — Thomas Rooker White - Detour-Mag (http://detour-mag.com)
"With the hook-heavy, country-tinged rock thing they've got going on (think Two Gallants meets My Morning Jacket), Bottle Up and Go sound like they haven't left the bar since, well, ever." and this rather more recent and urgent write up, "We're worried about Bottle Up & Go. Compiling these listings week after week, we see them scheduled to play show after show. We fear they could be catching mono, so go out and see them while you still can, won't you." - L Magazine
"...Meanwhile, Bottle Up & Go egg you on with rowdy (and often shirtless) blues rock — think the Black Keys, but faster, louder, and with more whiskey; it's rough around the edges, but this is one duo you don't want to smooth out or gloss over." - Flavorpill
With the popularity of groups like the White Stripes and the Black Keys, the electric blues duo has reminded music listeners of two things: The blues are pretty good, and maybe some decent music was being made before the advent of the Beatles.
Because of the length of time between contemporary rock and prewar blues, artists like Leadbelly, Robert Johnson, and Charlie Patton can seem alien. But here comes Connecticut's Bottle Up & Go to put the nail in the coffin of anyone ignoring the ancestry of modern rock.
Their music, though it has a tendency to be aggressive and volume-reliant, has a catchy groove and some clear ties to American roots music.
Keenan "Hot Pants" Mitchell and Fareed "The Prince" Sajan make up the duo, and their recent signing to Kill Normal Records will lead to an EP release in May or June.
Until then, the songs on their MySpace will have to suffice.
For more information on Bottle Up & Go, visit myspace.com/bottleupandgoband or killnormal.com/bottleupandgo. - The Needle Drop (http://theneedledrop.blogspot.com)
By Andrew Rozas
Sometimes a band’s music calls out to be played at specific times. Portishead is good for sex, Kraftwerk for doing the robot, Pink Floyd—staring at a wall. Bottle Up & Go’s debut EP, These Bones, is perfect for drinking about 1,000 beers and slipping into a manic fit. This blues-rock trio nails making whiskey friendly tunes for either drinking alone, or in the company of your most self-destructive of friends. However, listening and drinking lends itself to the conundrum of the chicken and the egg.
While I’m no different, (this band’s write-ups often comment on the drinkability of the music), this isn’t just kids drinking dad’s leftover Zima in their basement and dicking around with an out of tune guitar. Building on a core of blues, Bottle Up & Go simultaneously cling to the basics while venturing into the experimental.
Men on a mission, the duo vomit their music with remarkable deftness, plowing through stripped down, jacked up bluesy anthems with the aura of a wounded pride fighting for redemption. This is a band that has taken on the blues not only with a guitar and a bottle of the good stuff, but also with a never-say-die punk attitude that won’t give up, but just might drink until it doesn’t remember anymore.
The songs vacillate from soothing lows, where singer Keenan Mitchell’s gritty vocals detail their sorrows, to a surprisingly coherent cacophony of guitars and drums and sax that provide moments for reflection on and reprieve from the miseries of life. Dance therapy has never been so raw. - Impose Magazine
“I don’t think our music could get much louder,” says Keenan Mitchell (vocals/guitar) of his garage blues duo, Bottle Up & Go. Power amps and whiskey induced temper tantrums fuel Mitchell’s frenzied slide guitar and Sajan Fareed’s (drums) fervent pulse. Songs jolt from agony to redemption as the Mitchell and Fareed polish off another bottle. “It’s second semester senior year, so we don’t have too much homework,” Mitchell jokes. Using long weekends and breaks to tour Mitchell acknowledges, “We were writing our songs for wild shows with big ridiculous endings.” It wasn’t until the boys realized they needed an EP to get booked in New York City that they recorded their debut, These Bones.
When making the album, the boys steered clear of technologies and recorded all their songs face to face, capturing the restless exuberance of their performances. While the name Bottle Up & Go gives an immediate nod to their biggest influence, blues badass— Leadbelly it’s the grungy raw quality of their sound, not to mention their age, that gives the music a youthful appeal. “I want to be compared to Little Richard and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins,” laughs Mitchell, keenly aware that most of his audience would prefer to compare the duo to The White Stripes. - Relix Magazine
"Bottle Up And Go" is born and bred to go with Jack Daniels from the bottle (and a gun shoved down one's sock.) It's the most enticing mix of blues mixed with garage band punk we've heard in a while. Singer/guitarist Keenan Mitchell and fierce drummer Fareed Sajan ain't afraid to make a scene- especially in dark basements- mixing "chain-gang blues, slave-song howls, murder ballads and bootleg whiskey." With a voice similar to Cold War Kids' Nathan Willett on various tracks, Mitchell's voice meanders from screaming to whisky-slurred whispers- while he frets about losing his baby and waking up with a gun in his hand. They're playing CMJ; I'd bring air plugs and a flask. - RCDR LBL
"On their debut EP, the two young livewires of Bottle Up & Go explode like shook-up soda pop, uncorking a maelstrom of moans, squealing guitars and cymbals as they conjure the ghost of Leadbelly with their saxophone-accented-barnburners." - Sara Miller, September 2008 issue of Paste Magazine - Paste Magazine
Discography
These Bones EP released by Kill Normal Records, 2008
New demo of 'DAY I DIE' posted on myspace.com/bottleupandgoband; to be released on full length. Record label: TBD
Photos
Bio
Bio Excerpt from 230 Publicity:
BOTTLE UP & GO formed in the dank basement cage of a peeling wooden-framed house on the campus of Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. Take a closer look at the scene that surrounds this small and unassuming liberal arts school and you'll see a burgeoning musical environment that strikes the balance between high art and primal energy.
"I believe there is something pent up at our school," says BOTTLE UP AND GO drummer Fareed Sajan. "People want something loud, but still intelligent and doused with meaning or, perhaps, a tradition that is larger than what is current to our times."
Sajan and singer/songwriter/guitarist, Keenan Mitchell, took inspiration for BOTTLE UP AND GO from chain-gang blues, slave-song howls, murder ballads and bootleg whiskey. "Indie sometimes falls to the mercy of being too soft spoken and heavy on the melodic emphasis. It somehow doesn't have the primal urges and roots we want. Adapting blues in a punk/post-punk mindset is something that feels natural to us."
BOTTLE UP AND GO's live show features Keenan's grating, art-damaged slide guitar work and impassioned, frothing-at-the-mouth vocals, with Fareed pounding heavily and crashing into the drum set to fiercely accentuate rhythmic intricacies. Keenan notes that their music is "loud and drunk and direct.” He adds, “We like to see people standing up right in front and moving their bodies." This is certainly not the cheap, white boy blues you've heard a million times before and winced at. It's the primal call of tradition; echoes of Charlie Patton, Blind Willie Johson, Leadbelly and even Hound Dog Taylor... filtered, fucked and warped by the insanity of our modern age.
Documenting music this raw required an equally raw approach. The songs that would become the These Bones EP were recorded at the Eclectic Literary Society, an old mansion on the campus of Wesleyan. Keenan and Fareed set up their instruments on opposite ends of a huge ballroom with a wonderfully natural, reverberant sound and fired through all the songs in six drunken hours. "I think a few hours in the studio captures our sound better than a few months” says Keenan adding, “What could we practice for that long?" BOTTLE UP AND GO emerged from the mansion-turned-studio with a recording capturing the immediacy and passion of their live performance; the true sound of musicians without being glossed over by studio band-aids or digital tricks.
Mitchell's tales of heartache, hard times and hard partying remind us all of how little have changed in the past 100 years of western music. "I guess nothing ever changes, really," adds Fareed "people still get drunk, and fight and cheat and fall in and out of love." These familiar themes resonate on entirely new levels in the 21st century, as technology has left us more lonely, alienated and depressed than ever before, leaving culture to die a slow and painful death. After all, wasn't the blues THE original cry to be heard amongst tyranny and oppressive forces? If nothing else, BOTTLE UP AND GO are paying homage to blues, embodying its particular expression in the face of darkness.
This is more than just the blues, its depression.
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