A couple of months ago I was out to dinner and music became the topic of conversation. All of them grew up in the ’90s when rock was at its prime both artistically and commercially. We started to wonder where all the rock bands have gone. Our conclusion was that Foo Fighters were basically the only rock band to be culturally influential at this point.
The reality is there is still a lot of great rock music being made but you might have to dig a little more deeper than a magazine like Rolling Stone to discover it. This brings me to OutWest. They are a band that brings the goods and although the music itself isn’t covered in nostalgia the style of music sure brought me back.
“Beers Up” is a tune that just makes me feel good. There’s zero pretense here and it made me feel like partying. The song also did something to me. It made me realize that it’s been awhile since shotgunned a beer. I listened to this song three times and on my last spin I felt it would be appropriate to get a knife, make a little hole in the can and chug that thing. The band might have made one of the best drinking songs. It’s up there with the Dropkick Murphys.
But what happens after the beer? You might want to mingle and the song “You” captures that. It’s a heartfelt song with great storytelling and really impressionable melodies. “Stay My Ass At Home” is similar to “Beers Up” in that there’s a carefree vibe. Some of the lyrics while not laughing out loud funny made me grin and snicker.
The thing I loved about this music was that it felt somewhat relatable and the band wasn’t trying to lure me into some kind of insight. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. OutWest seems to say, this is who we are, this is what we are about and you’re welcome to come along for the ride.