Los Duggans

Is it possible to take American roots music (country blues, folk, union organizing songs) and add a contemporary rock element for an evolutionary punch, yet still remain true to the original intent and intense passions? The answer was no until the formation of L.A.s own Los Duggans...

Robert Larson, KUCI - Robert Larson, KUCI

Does for and to traditional country what the Gun Club did for and to orthodox blues: respectfully violates it with kamikaze punk attitudinalizing. Banjo, mandolin and sibling backwater instruments reassure familiarity, while demolition six-strings and gravelly, strangled throatings render distinctiveness.

Recommended Tracks
"Tigris River Blues,"
"Heaven Bound"

losduggans.com

****

Review by DC Larson
Rockabilly Magazine Issue 42 July/Aug 2008 - DC Larson

Los Duggans reinterpret classic pre-war country blues and Appalachian music as badass, electrified punk-rock metal. Distorted guitars mesh with clawhammer banjo; gut-bucket bass complements a modern drum kit. Influences include Dock Boggs, Mississippi John Hurt, Megadeth, Ralph Stanley, Slayer, Skip James, CCR, Captain Beefheart and the first four Metallica albums. The Los Angeles band also heartily endorses working-class rights and independent music: two things that inform its latest hell-raiser of an album "Calvary." - Lawrence.com

Los Duggans
Calvary
***

A debut album self-described as "LA Death Folk" shouldn't contain all cover songs (save two tracks). Then again, these finger-picking throwdowns shouldn't be so raucously toe-tapping. Packed with punk attitude, abundant banjos, nasal vocals, tongue-in-cheek lyrics and vaguely dark religious overtones, this brief collection is nearly as hilarious as it is thoroughly terrifying.

by Julie Seabaugh - Las Vegas Weekly - Julie Seabaugh

...Next up was Los Duggans. They fuck'n rocked. This four piece ripped into a blistering set with their own brand of whiskey-fueled bluegrass, meets thrash. Immediately you could see that they had a sense of humor by their crude homemade instruments. They also managed to play these instruments in a way that brought out sounds you would not expect. Their set featured throat singing, and songs about the nightmare in Iraq. Lead singer, Whiskey, slung a broomhandle bass. It was constructed of a steel washbasin, string, and yes, a broomhandle. It was struck with a mallet with duct tape on the end. He styled a grey garden glove for "super" grip on the handle.
Banjo player, Skillet also played steel guitar and brought out as he stated a "Mississippi saxaphone. Their lyrics were focused on the plight of the workin' man. Never, had I heard banjo sound so sweet. Guitarist, "da Moose" donned a Slayer jersey, and his hair draped over his face like a latino Slash. His guitar sound was reminiscent of ZZ Top. He flailed himself around, and played with feedback throughout the set. Drummer, Capt. Moonlight was timely and very energetic. They played songs from their new album Calvary. The crowd got it. They upstaged all upcoming acts in my opinion...

John Doe
Saturday, 8/25/07
Safari Sam's

Lone
Los Duggans
Dead Rock West
John Doe

by Antoine Perkins
Reviewer Magazine

Read Full Article Here:
http://www.reviewermagazine.com/ - Antoine Perkins

...So there I was, trapped between two sets, starving. The opening act, Los Duggan - a barrage of melodic cussing, growling and grunting - were a brilliantly funny mélange of hillbilly metal. A drummer, a guitarist (on steel and banjo), a lead singer called, 'Whisky' on washtub bass and a fellow that looked like he'd taken leave of 'Korn' and decided to join a bluegrass band, bringing his Flying V with him...

"Boob Scotch" by V - BrooWaha Nation

Read the whole article here: <a href="http://www.broowaha.com/article.php?id=2298">http://www.broowaha.com/article.php?id=2298</a> - V

Los Duggans
Calvary
Self-Released

Though performing traditional country tunes, Los Duggans' twangy rock is more Creedence Clearwater Revival than Garth Brooks. They mix banjo with electric guitar to produce a high-octane style that's almost punk rock, like Gas Huffer, whose lead singer Los Duggans' is reminiscent of. Dylan Duggan has a somewhat fresh, rough sound, though sometimes his edginess gets a little obnoxious. The album is brief and lacks diversity, with no long jam sessions. But "Tigris River Blues" is a hard rock instrumental where drummer Adriel Duggan really goes off, and one guitarist plays snake charmer tunes and the other plays heavy riffs in the background. Los Duggans are the perfect recipe for a bar concert — add bottled beer, chicken wire and enjoy the fun.

Ky Junkins
Synthesis Weekly
http://www.synthesis.net - Ky Junkins

Los Duggans
"Calvary"

De nieuwe genres die de laatste tijd het daglicht zien door het inventief mengen van verschillende bestaande stijlen zijn talrijk. Dat soms die combinaties die op papier met mekaar lijken te vechten toch verrassend mooie resultaten opleveren is des te aangenamer, het vernieuwt en verjongt de muziek alleen maar des te meer. Neem nu bijvoorbeeld de stilaan dood gewaande genres als folk en bluegrass. Het aantal groepjes dat tegenwoordig experimenteert met deze dingen te vermengen met rock 'n'roll, rockabilly en zelfs punk, is bijna ontelbaar. Neem nu bijvoorbeeld weer deze "Los Duggans": een beetje blues, een beetje folk, een beetje bluesgrass en een hele hoop rock 'n' roll, en dit even laten marineren en kruiden met een portie lef en je hebt hun sound, die ze zelf "Death Folk" noemen. Want ja, dat was ik nog vergeten, er zit ook nog een snuifje heavy metal bij. Raar geluid! Grunchy gitaren broederlijk naast een banjo, maar geloof me, het werkt. Neem nu bijvoorbeeld "Preachin Blues", de openingsong van dit kleinood, een Mississippi Delta blues tot na een halve minuut de heavy metal gitaar er bijkomt en zanger Dylan Wilkerson met zijn John Fogerty vocals de boel openscheurt, knap begin.Van de tien songs op deze (korte) cd zijn er zeven "traditionals" en voor drie songs werd zelf getekend. Meer "roots" kan je al bijna niet hebben, als 70 % van je songmateriaal traditioneel materiaal is. "Pretty Polly" een folktraditional, die begint met een banjotokkel en waarbij langzaam de distorted gitaren erbij komen terwijl de zanger zijn longen uit zijn lijf zingt is inderdaad niet anders te beschrijven als Death Folk. "Good Morning Blues" met een "gutbucket" bas en mondharmonica heeft evenveel power dan om 't even welke Legendary Shack Shakers song en in "The Cuckoo" is de combinatie zelfs nog wat weirder, flamenco ritmes en metal namelijk, maar ook dit werkt bij deze heren wonderwel. "Heaven Bound" en "Calvary" zetten de reeks mooi verder, banjos, wastobbe bas, heavy gitaren en ruige zang, heel op 't eind zelfs nog wat Tuvaanse keelzang van bassist Peter "Whiskey" Sheffer. Geslaagde CD van deze band uit Echo Park, Calfornia, die met hun "Death Folk" weer een nieuwe tak aan de rootsboom laten groeien.
(RON) - Rootstime.be

Heil Dinosaur!

By Ron Garmon

In The King's Name: Somewhere in the fog of booze, I retain vague memory of having chugged a quart or two at The Redwood Bar back in my days of perpetual soaking. An oblong downtown bar with a performance space against the back wall and a tiny dance floor beyond, the Lounge was a suitably red-lit and comfy (if a tad easterly) staging area last Saturday night for Kim Fowley's Hollywood Sexual Underground, thrown on this 31st anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley. There's a very definite sort of seedy-elegant Hollywood type, and exemplars were already jostling the regs out of barstool space by the time of my mid-evening arrival. Fowley, for the young and the flat-rock-hidden, is the senior Sunset Boulevardier; a total music-biz pro whose third hit record was "Alley Oop," a novelty joint about a comic-strip caveman that went to No. 1 back when Eisenhower was president. Since then, the tall and saturnine Mr. Fowley – who strikes most observers as a combination of Svengali and Vincent Price – has taken a hand in the careers of Alice Cooper, Kiss, The Runaways and Frank Zappa among many others, lending considerable talents as producer, songwriter, arranger, vocalist, promotion wizard and exploitationist. A wizened hippie named Steven T. sat folkie-as-fuck under a spotlight, complaining bitterly about having to do acoustic versions of the hard-rock songs he'd performed in Venus & the Razorblades, a Runaways knockoff that briefly flourished on the Strip at about the time of The King's demise. I was peering at the fetching array of chickage the founder of this feast hauls with him everywhere when Fowley himself appeared at my elbow. "You're the guy who doesn't approve of old men rocking out," he grinned. I pshawed it as a load of old tosh, averring to the effect I was objectively pro-geezer, cultivated hopes of reaching that blessed state myself any minute hence, and had written an obit of Isaac Hayes as would wring tears from a chunk of Strontium-90. He peered down at me with a grin, looked about at the tender young thangs assembled and intoned, "You know, a lady of mine was saying just the other night how she'd rather be an old man's darling than a young man's fool."

There's a reason women are praised as the sensible gender, and this speaks to it. Eventually, Steven T. wound down (Fowley had put him on to fetch "sensitive people") and Los Duggans took the stage. Commended as "the number one band in Fullerton," these hoedown hodads unlimbered a Captain Beefheart-style neutron barn dance, with leader David "Skillet" Duggan snarling through high-decibel cowpunk about death, horror, and yer woman leaving yer sorry ol' ass for 'nother mane, interspersed with grand old agitprop like "Which Side Are You On?" One beery patron to my left yelled "These guys are tight!" in shocked happiness. Smutrock queen The Fabulous Miss Wendy sang R.E.M.'s "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" in a single-breath rush, and Elvis impersonator The Rev. Lu$t Vegas led us in an invocation of the King's spirit at midnight. By 1 a.m., Fowley was onstage fronting a free-rock jam session, waving his walking stick and chanting:

I'm old
I'm crippled
I'm stupid
I have a nine-inch penis

in a Gorgon's voice, before breaking off abruptly to point his cane at me and yell "That's Ron Garmon of CityBeat writing down filth to print in his newspaper, next to the tits and the sex-worker ads!" I grinned and waved, happy to be at home in Babylon. - Ron Garmon