Formed in San Francisco late 2003, The Famous are an indie-rock/americana act whose moods range from squalling and raucous to heartfelt and sparse - all bound by a common thread of emotional intensity and arresting showmanship.
Girded by the raw s [+]Formed in San Francisco late 2003, The Famous are an indie-rock/americana act whose moods range from squalling and raucous to heartfelt and sparse - all bound by a common thread of emotional intensity and arresting showmanship.
Girded by the raw sounds of '50s-era country, but imbued with the spirit of The Pixies and other post-punk pioneers, The Famous forge powerful tunes that combine the intense desperation of X, the sincere melancholy of Hank Williams Sr. and the interstellar psychobilly of the Reverend Horton Heat.
Part carnival barker, part honky-tonk crooner, vocalist Laurence Scott demands your attention with an unmistakable smoky growl straight from the heart of his native Texas. With notebooks full of abstract expressionism and wordplay, given life through an inspired and unbridled stage presence, Laurence thinks in lyrics and lives for performance.
While Van Halen and Led Zeppelin boiled in his teenage blood, guitarist Victor Barclay spit and swore an eternal hatred for country music - that is until a good buddy turned him onto Johnny Cash's Live at Folsom Prison. Soon after, Vic spent years in the woodshed soaking up the roots of country and rockabilly giants such as Scotty Moore, Jimmy Bryant and Roy Buchanan. On stage, Vic's deadpan one-liners provide the perfect foil for Laurence's manic No Depression.
Backed by longtime collaborator Chris Fruhauf on the drums and native Texan G.D. Hensley (ex- Diesel Boy) on the bass, the Famous are spreading the gospel with their incendiary live show to music lovers across the Bay Area and beyond. Their debut album Light, Sweet Crude, is an unapologetically diverse collection of 13 songs recorded at their own studio and mixed by Aaron Prellwitz (Death Cab For Cutie, Red House Painters) at Tiny Telephone.
REVIEWS
"The Famous plays no-frills country music of the Bakersfield Sound variety (that is, the old-fashioned Buck Owens style, a genre now known as "classic country") mixed up with some good old indie rock... practically everyone who's listened to the band's cheese-free, slightly punkified hillbilly jangle thinks it's the greatest."
-- SF Weekly, December 13, 2004
***** pure love for "The Famous"...
...whom I just heard for the first time last week. AMAZING alt.country/psychobi
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