The Who, Little Feat, Faces, The Blues Project, Pacific Gas and Electric, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Ronnie Wood, Blue Cheer, James Gang, Steppenwolf, Stones, and Ride The Blinds. I've decided to place Ride The Blinds, on my shortlist, alongside such luminaries. This band is amazing beyond words. Their two albums are big testaments that Rock N Roll never really died. I mean real Rock N Roll. Not the Wolfmother aping Sabbath sort of situation. Honest Hooks, Honest Blues, Honest Sweat - with alot of Bottom. Ride the Blinds are a trio from San Francisco. Listening to their music you'd think you were transported back to a "Bill Graham Presents" concert in the late 60's - early 70's. They draw from their influences without bleeding them dry. They seemlessly put their own thumbprint on the dying art of "The Rock Band". I was lucky enough to get a taste of this band a few years back at a tiny club in Hollywood. I've been hooked since. They've also invited a small group of friends to a special holiday show tommorow night in L.A. I'm again, lucky enough to be part of this night. Discover this band immediately.
- ACID BIRD (Link)
Modern rock
can get lost in a maze of effects like clunky synthesizers and ill-programmed
drum beats. Luckily, classic Southern rock purists like San Francisco's Ride
the Blinds balance the headiness with ripping guitar solos, bluesy bass lines,
and John-Bonham-channeled drum smashing. The band's second album Start Running,
released earlier this year, is a welcome return to good-time rock 'n' roll.
- Kathleen Richards, East Bay Express
It was over a year ago at the Lava Lounge that I got smacked in the face with Ride the Blinds.. or as I first thought of them, Ride the Fucking Blinds.. sorry youngsters and mothers, you don't like my reviews but it is how I feel and not of your concern...
Now that the disclaimer is out of the way, I planned on writing this review ages ago, after they had made the trek down to LA a few times to play more shows, and the best yet in my book was at the House of Blues, and not just because they rocked the wine glasses off the upstairs loungebar, and not because the moment they announced that they had CD's up front, it turned into a myspace-style feeding frenzie.. but because I still knew without a doubt, yet was reminded of it once again, at how much these guys seriously kick ass. I can't escape comparing them to the classics, they are timeless in a rock that will someday become classic rock to our kids, a band that we'll see in the fame halls one day, a band that we'll pay $80 a seat for our 50 year old asses to sit and hear like old times.
Cherish these days of smoky hollywood dives where you can still brush shoulders and bump uglies with these guys. I've never before seen a crowd turn the way that they had at the Lava Lounge, i think the 3rd time I saw them play there, when a lineup of 4 decent local bands all dawning their mass of friendsters- yet suddenly they all transformed to Ride the Blinds fans and were screaming and throwing their damn panties on stage begging for One More Song. And to think that these guys must be geniuses to toss out Shine On as the encore, omfg.. to put it lightly.
It was sitting in the Anacrime Hilton at 4am, waiting for 6 to roll around so I can slap my suit back back on and hit the office, mayde 12 cans of bud deep, one of em passed out like a beatnick with his head safely under the table- touche' that's how I felt. But it was this night that I felt like a rockstar //not groupie// but roadie who doesn't carry shit. Like a moment in Almost Famous, I'da followed them around on the bus across the damn country to hear more, blogging along the way like an intern, missing all the deadlines and almost losing the coverspot to get their review out.
Well shit guys, here it is over a year later, the review that itches at the
back of my mind every time I slap that CD back in the car. Once I tried listening
to work, I had to stop, I was actually rocken out and getting work done? wtf..
back to the deck, where whether it be a night of preparing to party, fighting
off the nasty 405 traffic whilst beating the bloody hell out of my steering
wheel, or simply in one of those grey drab nights and in need of a pickmeup,
this music is relentless and doesn't give way for any emotion other than L-I-V-E-N.
I can't be mad or sad for two seconds, even though you'd think so with some
blues and only one last match to go around, but nothing left to light.
If a three
page review can't convince you to pick up this album and note down their next
gig in your little black book, then scroll back up and download one of their
songs, you might just be convinced. My beatprosebastard of a way of a review
can't even do this band justice. Trust me.
- Rattlesnake Johnny,
F1ND Magazine
(Link)
Though you'll swear you've
heard many parts of Ride the Blinds' self-titled debut among the works of
Led Zeppelin, the Black Crowes, and the Stones, you'll commend the band rather
than condemn them. Lead singer Chris Guthridge's voice and guitar work make
sweet nostalgia together, and the rhythm duo of Bill Cramer and Nick Cramer
remind you that people used to dance to rock music. Critics claim Ride the
Blinds make the old new again, but there's nothing particularly new in their
music. It's more that they convey an intangible quality of contemporaneity
in their performance that makes them more than just victims of the retro generation.
They're not simply finding salvation through the golden riffs of rock 'n'
roll's heyday; they're coming to this musical destiny from their own road.
Fittingly, their songs project the image of a two-lane highway running through
rural America on a romanticized trip through middle-of-nowhere blues clubs
in a rusty old tour bus, without a care beyond a bottle of whiskey and a six-string.
The live sound of Ride the Blinds begs for these songs to be witnessed in
person. Looking more suited for computer programming than rocking their asses
off, Ride the Blinds infuse their tracks with a surprisingly animated charisma.
Songs like "Wind Up Clock," with Nick Cramer's four-minute drum
solo, and "Grace Alley," with its instantly catchy hook, are quickly
becoming favorites at their concerts. If you enjoy classic rock in any of
its forms, Ride the Blinds will not disappoint. Ride the Blinds play Sat/19,
Last Day Saloon, S.F.
- Keith Axline, San Francisco Bay Guardian