Red Stuff

If everything Robert Johnson knew about music was based solely on listening to soundtracks from Roger Corman biker movies, he might have sounded like Red Stuff, Milwaukee’s preeminent backwoods scuzz-surf duo. The group’s full-length debut, The Best Of Hot Rod Love, is built on minimalist gutbucket guitar riffs, clinky organ fills, and primordial rhythms that appear to have oozed slowly out of a deep, dark muck made of oil, dirt, and bathtub gin. Guitarist Tom Wanderer hosts the Thursday afternoon blues show on WMSE, and his love of obscure vinyl is evident in the record’s lovingly packaged artwork. But while the influences Wanderer and bandmate Kelly Buros draw from are discernible—think Dick Dale jamming with Jack White and Devo’s rhythm section—the final result is its own demented beast. 

Updated 06/07/2010