Over a decade-and-a-half after they dropped their first album,
Nashville Pussy have hardly changed a bit -- they're still dedicated to conjuring up the sound of a biker gang that has come to take away your daughters, feed them a hellbroth of drugs, and get in their pants before convincing them to work the merch table at their next show. Guitarist, vocalist, and frontman Blaine Cartwright still sounds like he's waiting to be typecast as a Harley-riding degenerate on a lost episode of The Dukes of Hazard, and lead guitarist Ruyter Suys continues to lay out riffs that recall a shotgun wedding between
AC/DC and
Motörhead, but fixed up with a Southern accent. Some bands just are what they are and aren't about to change for anyone, and
Nashville Pussy is clearly one such band. 2014's
Up the Dosage confirms they haven't lost their appetite for hard, dirty, greasy rock & roll and several varieties of sensory excess (mostly sex and drugs, though gluttony and playing too loud make the list, too). Suys overdubs a few keyboard parts that pass for polish in this context, but ultimately
Up the Dosage is the same sort of jams this band has been kicking out since
Let Them Eat Pussy in 1998, and though their chops have increased by a notch or two, this is a classic example of a "folks who like this sort of thing will like this" album. If you've ever dug
Nashville Pussy's turn-it-to-ten hell ride,
Up the Dosage will be your cup of Rebel Yell, and if you want to hear 13 songs that sound big, dirty, and loud with lyrics that could be taken from watching a three-day marathon of Intervention, well, just take a hit of this, and please at least think about wearing your helmet. ~ Mark Deming