HoneyTrash – Suit & Tie

HoneyTrash – Suit & Tie – EP Review

I’ve always assumed it was a show that was televised everywhere…anyone out there remember The Friendly Giant? What a nice man he was. So tall though…you had to look way, way up to even see him! I can’t be the only one…you remember…just admit it so I can carry on and get to the actual point…

Meet HoneyTrash!

Wait…you can’t find them. Sorry. That’s completely my fault. I had you looking up for the damn Friendly Giant – you’re NOT going to find this band up there in the clouds, no….

…look down….way, waaaaaaaaaaay down….

…not kidding….further still…..

Way down here in the dirt and grime of the grittiest of blues rock – you’ll uncover HoneyTrash like we did. Suit & Tie – a solid EP of completely repeatable tracks; once you find this band you’ll want to take them with you everywhere you go…just keep in mind there’ll be NOTHING you can do to clean them up.

Here’s perhaps the best thing I can say about the music of HoneyTrash…that’s to say that Blues/Rock more or less is a genre I steer fairly clear of – but this three-piece has got me HOOKED. In researching it all – I think I know why they’ve managed to do this like no other in this genre; they’re coming to us all the way from Boulder, Colorado…close to the place my very own hero Hunter S. Thompson ran for Pitkin county sheriff.

And you know what? This SOUNDS like music for an outlaw.

There is style oozing and dripping from every moment of this EP. While bands like The Black Keys continually remind you of what’s already been done, or even worse – themselves (yet again) by becoming stuck in their one-note groove – HoneyTrash is taking that framework and building a slow-burning fire inside it.

Sierra Ramirez…what style! What a voice! What a way to USE it! A voice with all kinds of personality and the lyrics to match – perfect fit for the guitar from Ric Miller and bass of Scott Hill, this is a combo that works tightly together like a well-oiled-machine that exists only to make vicious-dirty-sexy blues rock. Her transformations are incredible – listen to “Hey You” and you’ll swear in the opening verse you might even be listening to the great Robert Plant himself. That’s right – SHE sounds like HE does – amazing!

And both fit so well to their music that YES, they deserved all-caps there…

What a track though, and what a way to end off a fantastic debut EP; “Hey You” is as awesome as this genre, or any genre can provide – it’s a song from focused artists at the height of their comfort & creativity, recorded with maximum style & flair. Everything about this track screams cool to me – and while my natural grunge instincts would have me run the other way from anything cool….

THERE’S…….SO MUCH…..DIRT….SWEET…..MERICIFUL DIRT….on this EP that I’d much rather embrace it.

They truly all stand out to me – I just think in particular they gave the last breath of everything they had into that final track, raising its status just slightly for me when all is said and done. You’ll find this low-down, outlaw, blues-groove recipe on the others for sure. “Hooray” is an epic song…a huge, huge sound and atmosphere in this scorcher. Title track “Suit & Tie,” which actually leads this whole adventure off – is a song that represents this band and their skill-set very well. Ric gets his chance to explode in a ripped up and shred-nasty chorus; crisp and crunchy and overdriven to the max – love it. You get a real solid handle on Scott’s perfect-placement bass…which, let’s face it…your blues/rock bassman has got to be the GLUE, whether understated or over…gotta be THE MAN. Cause if he wasn’t THE MAN…then Ric wouldn’t be able to be THE MAN on his guitar…Sierra wouldn’t be able to be THE WOMAN and do what she does so damn well!

Fortunately for HoneyTrash – they’ve got a solid performer in Scott…bass you can lean-on…or lean-into.

We’ll be featuring “Suit & Tie” on episode 083 of SBS Live This Week, due out March 19th in the wee hours of the A.M….arguably the 18th nearly! Which means we were ALMOST on time for our own schedule! Anyway…come and check out a lyric video from HoneyTrash and learn a little more about this band through a video-review of this EP with some extra details I didn’t give you here!

In the meantime – check out this new EP and DIG into the dirt with HoneyTrash. And don’t shower afterwards…they’d probably like you better dirty too.

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