BrownBoot

by C.D. Di Guardia.

BrownBoot - “Iron & Ledson”

Some acts try so hard to sound like a party that they forget to invite the listener. This is absolutely not the case with BrownBoot or their "Iron & Ledson." No sirree, Rodrigo Van Stoli and company start the party, invite you in, and shove a red cup full of something boozy into your hand. The party that is "Iron & Ledson" goes on all around us, spinning almost out of control if we didn't feel perfectly at home in the track.

BrownBoot's party isn't just a bash for no reason - there is a story behind this track and Van Stoli weaves the tale like that time uncle Ronnie James Dio told us all about the Lady of The Lake. Except the Lady Of The Lake probably never met "a dirty old man with too many hands," and there were a lot less shotguns involved in Arthurian legend. Shotguns and all, "Iron & Ledson" sounds like a story of young, wild love, and BrownBoot's performance lets us know there are no finer storytellers for this particular piece. Van Stoli and Jordan Valentine trade sections, with Valentine more often than not bringing the chorus around with her strong and sure voice.

This track's ability to tell a story while rocking as hard as it does it what sets it apart. While the vocals are clearly the focal point, the rest of the song holds its own as well. A burly guitar track is a strong part of the arrangement, continually flexing its muscles and staying wordless yet not mute, commanding its own side of the mix like Slash used to when Axl (and not Fergie) was on the other side. The song concludes with a vocal standoff, where the note is held out to superhuman lengths, a perfect (if that is possible) swan song for this song. "Iron & Ledson" leaves us satisfied yet always up for more, and that is exactly the point. - Boston Band Crush

Brownboot is a bit of a curiosity on the Boston original’s scene. A lot of their music sounds like it was recorded during the classic rock era of the 1970s. That they’ve received some notice by returning to the past instead of cranking out something new and different is oddly appealing. Their debut CD Here’s The Thing will rock your speakers off their shelves.

Brownboot is singer Rodrigo van Stoli, singer Jordan Valentine, bass player James Vincent, guitarist Matt Sullivan, keyboardist Joe Kowalski, and drummer Jason Baldock.

Opening song “Shame” sounds a bit like 1970s bands like Kiss, Sweet, and Alice Cooper. The beat is rocking, straightforward, cruising down the highway music. It even has a very hip, likable organ riff running all the way through it. The vocals have that bombastic, rebellious, anthem quality; the band is singing like there is no tomorrow. A lead guitar comes in and ignites the song into wider sonic soundscapes. “Shame” reaches a mellow space when the organ and some light symbol work carry the final verse from this rocker, elements that pleasantly hearken band to an earlier time in rock.

The vocal harmonies on “Bandido” have the swagger of something Bad Company would have recorded back in their day. Lead singer, van Stoli, is edgy and driven, reminding a little bit of a circus barker with his over the top attitude. Anybody over 40 will listen to this song once and think they’ve heard it many times over. It’s not cliché. It’s just steeped in musical motifs from the past and that gives this whole thing a quality of being a blast out of the past.

There is nothing dull or weak in Brownboot’s music. If you’re looking for something new and different, you’ll be sadly disappointed with this band. But, if you like your rock and roll raw, with a lot of hard-charging instrumentation and a lot swagger in the vocalist you will likely enjoy them. You’ll like them even more if you like female singers with raw, raspy, powerhouse vocals like sex bomb Jordan Valentine

“Fade Out” begins with a nifty bass guitar riffs that forms the song’s backbone and keeps it rocking hard. Cascading organ notes remind a bit of Deep Purple while the vocals remind of Sweet. When the guitar and the rhythm section lock into a groove, look out. This band is tight and focused and they know how to put in layered vocals to make their songs loom larger in the listener’s imagination.

Brownboot’s mellow piano song, “Mae Stay” featured a very smooth, wide lead vocal. Two singers trading places at the microphone give the tune an extra layering of color and tone. It reminds of Meatloaf when he was doing his more thoughtful and reflective crooning and interacting with his female guest singer.

Brownboot gets comedic in their song “I Can’t Wait (To Get Away)” as the verse goes “I can’t wait to get away from this douche bag, from this douche bag.” The language may sound a little bit into the punk rock forum, but the term has become widely adopted when someone is talking about an unpleasant person. Handclapping and singing after the band stops playing is a technique put to good use, as Brownboot’s humorous lyric gets even funnier during this portion of the song. Throw in a sprightly electric keyboard and knobby bass and you have a heavy dose of danceable, finger-snapping fun.

Drums go into overtime on “Iron & Ledson” and the tune becomes an aggressive barroom hangin‘, highway cruising masterpiece. Tough guy rhythms crisscross with a lead guitar that penetrates the groove like a stab wound. The two singers work together in a way that contributes to a larger presence, something that looms in the imagination with undeniable stature.

“Spacepipe” commands the attention with heavy, bopping organ chords and a rhythm section that locks into the keyboards for something that reminds briefly of the 1980s. The lead guitar takes over here and pays out a lot of coolness. The guitar returns later and is even more impressive in its icy cold phrasing. A girl singer is needed here and Jordan Valentine is the epitome of woman rock gravitas. She carries her notes with a heft, huge presence in the music.

There are a lot of fun things to like on Brownboot’s debut CD. Don’t be a douche bag. Go buy it. - Bill Copeland Music News

Douchebag. Love it or hate it — there is no better word to describe some people. Douchebags come in unlimited varieties — political, sports, work, and more. But the one that truly stands out these days is the social-media douchebag. It’s the guy who comes up and asks, “Are you following me?” Now, whenever you deal with one of those people, there’s a new theme song, courtesy of BROWNBOOT’S “I Can't Wait (To Get Away).” In true Boston-rock style, the band featuring Rodrigo Van Stoli and Jordan Valentine initially came together as a one-off project for Brendan Boogie’s Black Crowes’ Cover-Up at Lizard Lounge in the summer of 2009. Fast-forward two years, and the self-described “rock ’n’ roll stupor group” have just celebrated the release of debut album Here’s The Thing. Don’t be a douchebag — grab the “I Can’t Wait (To Get Away)” MP3 down below.

- Boston Phoenix

Douchebag. Love it or hate it — there is no better word to describe some people. Douchebags come in unlimited varieties — political, sports, work, and more. But the one that truly stands out these days is the social-media douchebag. It’s the guy who comes up and asks, “Are you following me?” Now, whenever you deal with one of those people, there’s a new theme song, courtesy of BROWNBOOT’S “I Can't Wait (To Get Away).” In true Boston-rock style, the band featuring Rodrigo Van Stoli and Jordan Valentine initially came together as a one-off project for Brendan Boogie’s Black Crowes’ Cover-Up at Lizard Lounge in the summer of 2009. Fast-forward two years, and the self-described “rock ’n’ roll stupor group” have just celebrated the release of debut album Here’s The Thing. Don’t be a douchebag — grab the “I Can’t Wait (To Get Away)” MP3 down below.

- Boston Phoenix

March 30, 2011 by PETER LEGASEY

Maybe you haven’t caught Brownboot in concert yet, but your eardrums have likely taken a beating from one of its members at some point. The six members of Boston’s newest “stupor-group” (as they describe themselves) have been making frightful rackets around town for over a decade. Even if you don’t get out to many shows, you may have spotted guitarist and co-frontman Rodrigo van Stoli amongst the hundred-or-so singers in Bang Camaro when they performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live two years ago.

His new group may not be as numerous, but van Stoli is determined to make sure Brownboot is just as belligerent and over-the-top. And like Bang Camaro, Brownboot has reached back to the golden age of hard rock for inspiration.If you pick up a copy of their debut EP, Here’s The Thing, you’ll find that their old-school aesthetic goes far beyond a few Thin Lizzy riffs and some leather pants.

“We recorded everything directly to tape,” van Stoli says, proudly.

“When you hear guitar on an album from the ‘60s or ‘70s, that sound was hitting the tape and pretty much fucking with magnets. There was nothing fake about it. When people record with pro-tools, there’s no physical phenomenon happening other than a hard drive taking info and putting it somewhere.”

Of course, there’s a reason why most bands record onto computers and not tape reels these days. Beyond the seductive nuisance of Auto-Tune, digital recording allows you to cut and paste and punch in and out until everything sounds proficient, even if the band doesn’t actually have the chops to replicate it in a live setting. Overdubs can be done on tape, but as van Stoli explains, once a tape saturates overnight, the sound changes.

“You can’t just go in and change one part the next day,” he says. “You have to redo the whole thing live, or just live with it.”

Thanks to this uncompromising attitude, what you hear on the album is what Brownboot shows up and plays. Like their rock n’ roll forefathers, the only overdubs allowed were for guitar solos and some vocals. Most songs were done in two takes and sent to press, warts and all.

Fortunately, Brownboot had the personnel to ensure that those warts were minimal, and that the record is more diverse than what you might expect from a group that was thrown together to play a Black Crowes tribute in late 2009. Jordan Valentine, who splits vocal duties with Von Stoli, is the lead pipes of Jordan Valentine & The Sunday Saints, Boston’s premier female-fronted delta blues ensemble. Keyboardist Joe Kowalski has played on numerous ambient music projects and teaches music synthesis at Berklee. In many ways, the lineup is a “who’s who” of veterans from some of the city’s hardest rock acts, including drummer Jason Baldock (formerly of Eddie Japan), lead shredder Matt Sullivan (Cocked n’ Loaded, Ultrasonic Rock Orchestra) and bassist Jim Zavadoski (Snowleapards, The Damn Personals).

“I didn’t want to just bring in the songs and impose my ideas on people; everybody put their two cents in,” van Stoli says. “No one was a side musician, and it made the record a million percent better. It was all pretty organic. We just couldn’t get enough of each other as people and as musicians.” - Weekly Dig