Grubstake

"Named for an arcane mining term, Grubstake have been hammering out mud–caked guitar–drum blues for about a decade now. Patrick McHugh led the band in Boston for much of that time before returning to his old stomping grounds in Philly and nabbing drummer/engineer Steve Bozzone to make a fifth album, Make An Animal Noise. It’s another gritty, ground–down outing, with McHugh hollering about TV dinners and other mundane miseries on 'Delaware' and trafficking heavily in spite on 'Sophisticated Whore.' Most garage–rock duos putter out when they cease to mix things up musically, but McHugh’s been around long enough to know when to throw a wrench into the works." (Doug Wallen, Philadelphia Weekly)
- Doug Wallen

Dynamite & Other Inventions
(Nine Mile)

Boston’s "purveyors of gutbucket swamp blues" have some new designs for third LP. For old fans, the crotchety, diseased blues of 1999’s out of print Farm Use and 2001’s Ghosts of Arkadelphia reappear on such tunes as "Alligator Blues", where even an accordion sounds mean and scab-red. But Dynamite goes easier on the hard stuff and indulges their equally diseased folk-blues side. Pat McHugh is one of those naturally weird people who makes everything seem psychotic and strange (like on "Meteor Shower", as he tries to distinguish between meteor and satellite, or when he starts feeling like an alligator) as he plumbs 70-year-old riffs from the Mississippi Delta and inverts them into something dark and disturbing. Maybe he made the same bargain with the devil as Robert Johnson. But we find the dark side tempting, don’t we?
-Jack Rabid - Jack Rabid

"Bluesy indie rock fused folk with haunting harmonies drive the sound of this Philadelphia duo. Their sound is a little bit Black Keys, a little bit Black Crowes, with a Guided By Voices twist. We've been playing rough cuts and live recordings of some of these songs for a long time on Y-Rock, and the finished product took a while but was well worth the wait, these songs have been polished and perfected. RATING: 4 of 5" Jake Rabid/Y-Rock on XPN - Jake Rabid

"We really like Grubstake, based on their fine CD The Bestest, with its great cover of Neil Young's "Albuquerque" and some original deconstructionist blues." - Michael Harrinton ("7 Days")

"While many journalists have heralded The Black Keys and The White Stripes as the coming of “blues for the 21st Century” or “nu” blues my vote is cast for Grubstakes as the bearers of that title. This is NOT for traditional blues fans but for the adventurous listener looking to see where the blues will go in this century and who will take it there. Willie Dixon once staked his claim by declaring “I Am The Blues.” With The Bestest, in the year 2007, Patrick McHugh and his band stake that very same, valid claim." - Sterling Koch

GRUBSTAKE
The Bestest [Nine Mile]
4.5 headphones (stars)
[Fans of the White Stripes, Howlin' Wolf, and T. Rex take note.]

Boston's sludgiest rock two-piece has celebrated its recent relocation to Philly with a series of re-recordings, lifting some of the finest songs from its past three CDs and reworking them in sonically gussied-up versions that occasionally - horror of horrors! - can even be called pretty. Shocking stuff from songwriter Pat McHugh, whose ear for a pretty melody like that of "Meteor Shower" is appreciated less often than his knack for making his guitar sound like it's being amped through speakers filled with rich, loamy mud. The newly beefed-up versions always chug along with a delightfully glammy crunch, and even a decidedly sinister tune like "Whispering Blues" comes off feeling like something you could take home to Mom and give her only the mildest case of the creeps. There's still plenty of bluesy snarl in McHugh's sweetened and often double-tracked vocals - "Lost at Sea" kicks your ass across the room - but the hit of the set is the amazing "The Time Is Out," which sounds like what Marc Bolan would have written if he'd had the chance to be inspired by Get Behind Me Satan. Essential listening, and for the late-night partying crowd, the jam of the summer.
-Steven Hanna - Steve Hanna

Grubstake — Ghosts of Arkadelphia

Calling Boston their home, this three-piece simply named Grubstake combine the eclectic influences of the Minutemen, Los Lobos, Vic Chestnut, and the Talking Heads. The mix is dense with bizarre instrumentation of pianola, accordion, button box, glockenspiel, and samples. The dense wall of guitar fuzz and distortion back up in an almost claustrophobic way into a blues rock answer to the question of lo-fi. Sure it’s not a Robert Johnson blues album but in fact it builds on the basics of the renowned blues tradition in a way that Beck would admire.

- J-Sin

- j-sin

I have heard these guys a few times on the radio and I was thrilled to review it. They are funky/blues/experimental (but not weird per se) with some rad instrumentation (toy piano, accordion to name a few). Great tracks include: “Railroad”, “Circus Song”, and “Bimbo Akimbo”. But, my favorite song had to be the second track, “Recession Blues 2001” because I just love Pat McHugh’s voice and the song is a “nice head-bopping tune”. Considering it was recorded with an analog 8-track and their PC I am really impressed by the sound quality! My reviewing was delayed greatly by the need to keep repeating this CD…with an emphasis on track 2. Nice job guys!

—Samantha - samantha

You may not know of Grubstake. You may not have caught their opening stints for their female counterparts in stripped down blues, Mr. Airplane Man, or local troublemakers The Takers -- but chances are, you'd dig 'em. Like Andy Warhol attempting an Impresisonist portrait of Elvis, Grubstake manages to mix the humor of Ween, Richard Hell's punk snickers and the "dropout blues" of early Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band with charm, skill, and reckless abandon. Two things that Grubstake has over Warhol in this department, however, are a toy piano and an accordion. While this may cause some to label the group as being "quirky" (tantamount to instant death in "respectable" indie rock circles), their odd instrumental arrangements only seem to add a sense of originality and rustic charm in the era of manufactured (and downloaded) music. The trio, composed of Pat McHugh (guitars, vocals), Rocket 1000 (drums) and John Buczkowski (accordion, bass) share a sense of sly wit and creative tale telling that would make Col. Parker blush. Grubstak (noun): 1: supplies or funds furnished a mining prospector on promise of a share in his discoveries. 2: material assistance (as a loan) provided for launching an enterprise or for a person in difficult circumstances.

Noise: So, how would you describe your sound?

Rocket 1000: There's a trend where people don't know what to make of us. I actually take it as a compliment... (but) the fact is, it's not any weirder than any other shit that's out there.

Pat McHugh: Dropout blues... a sound that came from years of noise experimentation and home recording. The songs are more folkie than rock tunes. There's a lot of space for other instruments to come in.

John Buczkowski: Swampy blues. Traditional more than folkie.

Pat: We've found a really nice critical mass between instruments.

Rocket: Some people don't get the accordion.

Pat: It's not jarring, "Hey, lookit our accordion!"

John: I don't know know if you can tell on some of the songs if it's an accordion or an organ. (I) try not to oompah; try to make it trippy.

Pat: We were really lucky to find John and have an accordionist so willing to try unusual music. I think musicians appreciate what we do.

The recently released Ghosts of Arkadelphia on Nine Mile Records (Rocket runs the label, by the way) os Grubstake's second full-length album. There was quite a cushy period of time in between this and their last release, Farm Use. What gives?

Pat: We (he and Rocket) both have been doing what you might call home recording for a long time. I was an avid 4-tracker.

Rocket: It takes about two and a half years to do an album. We do it all ourselves... on 8 track.

Pat: You couldn't get that Grubstake sound on a 4-track. Too rich. (But) I think that the Moldy Peaches might be a 4-track band.

Rocket: They're not one of those bands that just records in really nice studios but...

Pat:...makes it sound like crap? I don't think so. I've heard a lot of bad recordings, and I think that's genuine crap.

Noise: Uh huh...

Pat (getting back to his music): We wanted this album to have the feel of a good mix tape, where anything could be up next but everything is unified by a certain sound. The sounds we've built combine elements of traditional blues and folk with minimalist punk. The Blues Brothers was definately a film that was very influential on our musical development. It made me want to play any place -- a church, Bob's Country Bunker, the middle of the street in front of a fried chicken place...

Noise: Where's the strangest place you've ever played?

Pat: We played a graduation party in Worchester.

Rocket: In the rain.

Pat: It wasn't that weird. It just sounds weird. There was a 200-pound pig named Runt there. I actually went into his lair and visited.

Noise: Where is Arkadelphia? Is that a real place?

Pat: It's kind of fairy-tale sounding, yet it's a real city in the Deep South.

Rocket: It's in Arkansas. I was driving through Arkansas on my way to Texas and saw the name of the town and thought it was cool.

Pat: The funny thing, (is)my neighbor, completely randomly, is from Arkansas, from the same side of the state as Arkadelphia. It kind of drove him crazy.

Rocket: The entire state of Arkansas is like Area 51... Arkadelphia (as a title) doesn't mean anything (though).

Pat: It sounds like Philadelphia.

Rocket: I figure that's where Grubstake's sound is -- somewhere between Philadelphia and Arkansas.

Noise: I really love "2001 Recession Blues". That's based on real events, right?

Pat: It's a very non-fictional song. It's a true story. I know a lot fo people who've suffered from that general malady.

Noise: Tell me about Nine Mile Records.

Rocket: Nine Mile Records is something i started a few years ago to put out albums by a previous band. We just stuck with it. I don't know if you can actually call it a label. I think labels are supposed to make money.

Pat: They're supposed to put out music.

Lost my job / Boss said he couldn't pay me off / Said he couldn't even lay me off / Took a long,long walk now...
- "2001 Recession Blues"

The band's music also tends to veer into psychedelia, either through instrumentation, lyrical content ("I think about brains a lot") or by having people show 16mm films on top of them while they perform, just as the Velvet Underground attempted to do in the 1960s. The difference mainly being that while the VU had the crowd-accomodating size of the Dom, Grubstake has done lots of these experiments in venues as tiny as the Druid in Inman Square.

Pat: We've been trying to show film and videos at the last few shows with our friends at Bus 27. The last few shows have had a lot of film -- 16 mm, videos... our own videos as well.

Noise: Are they projected behind you or on top of you? Or a little bit of both?

Pat: We've had an opportunity to (project it) a couple of different ways. The Druid actually has a nice projection system. I guess it's mostly for soccer... that explains why so many people walk into the wall there.

Besides being culpable for a small percentage of non-soccer related injuries at the Druid, the guys are always keeping an eye out for as many nontraditional areas to get their music heard as they can muster. From "telegrubbie" dolls to cool promo photos to (ahem) broadening their hockey-player fan base, no stone is left unturned.

John: Telegrubbie dolls!

Pat: I think in a way, our music is really good hockey soundtrack music.

John: Hockey players love it!

Rocket: I like when the hockey players come to the shows, but I have to say I think they scare some people.

Pat: We have a big hockey contigency.

Noise: Canadian or American?

John: They're buddies of mine...

Pat: He schools 'em. Let's not beat around the proverbial bush.

Rocket: He's from Canada, they're from America, therefore he schools 'em.

John (obviously embarassed): ...when they read this, my ass is grass.

Noise: There's a photo of the band where you're all wearing suits and blindfolds. It kind of reminded me of the photo of Richard Hell on the cover of Please Kill Me. It kind of evoked the same thing.

Pat: Coreen (mumbled last name) did that. She has taken lots of photographs.

Rocket: She's basically our staff photographer.

Pat: The nice thing about the photos are the integrity of them.

Presentation aside, the things that make their sound so unique (other than the accordion) may have something to do with the fact that it started as a drums and guitar duo, with the role of guitar being played by a Travis Bean (still used) through the singular sounding Sonic Chord Amplifier. Long since upgraded to a three piece, they're now watching bands that have similar instrumentation to their old ways become media darlings. Like the White Stripes, for instance, whose disc begins to play at the cafe while we're talking.

Rocket (laughing): Those motherfuckers stole our sound!

Pat: Husband and wife? Brother and sister?

Rocket: We went through that same controversy but no one bought it.

Pat:We should mention that there is a so-called original member of the band. The first Grubstake durmmer was named Cadillac Frankie Z.

Noise: He was your Pete Best!

Pat: Yeah... I knew him well for a long time. I don't know where the fuck he is now. He just disappeared.

Hopefully, no more band members will be on the backs of milk cartons any time soon. So, to sum them up quickly, : what we've got here is a three piece folk/punk/blues outfit that's as equally influenced by Howlin' Wolf as by The Voivods. There's some off-kilter instrumentation, but you may not notice that, being distracted by the films being projected on or around 'em. Bending the genres in every way, Grubstake seems dedicated to a motto that Rocket relates to me: "Confusion is good." - Amanda Nichols