Radio Moscow Brain Cycles and Self-titled albums out on CD and LP
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Listen to I Just Don’t Know
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check for tour dates here
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CD Brain Cycles
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LP Pink Vinyl Ltd. to 500
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LP green vinyl
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Out Of Print
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LP Radio Moscow
LP Orange Vinyl Ltd. to 500 |
CD Radio Moscow
s/t jewel case |
LP Radio Moscow
LP Blue Vinyl – last copies |
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T-SHIRT
Logo first album |
T-SHIRT – last shirts
Radio Moscow |
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Full color Brain Cycles art
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Green & red logo on black
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PRESS
Radio Moscow – photo by Patrick Boissel
With a powerful, crunching Sabbath-style chords and fiery solos that earn the right to be called Hendrixian, Iowa power trio Radio Moscow plants its flag firmly in the territory where psychedelic rock, cranked-up blues, and metal meet. The sound is unabashedly retro (specifically, FM radio from around 1973), so it’s easy to see how it caught the ear of The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, who produced its 2007 self-titled debut. Like the Keys, Radio Moscow updates an old-school style with pure passion and a refreshing lack of irony. On a break from the band’s current tour, which brings it to the Turf Club Thursday, July 30, guitarist and frontman Parker Griggs talked with The A.V. Club about working with Auerbach and self-producing the new Brain Cycles. – Christopher Bahn / The ONION (A.V. Club – Minneapolis) If the opening squall of Parker Griggs’ paint-stripper lead guitar on opening cut "I Just Don’t Know" doesn’t tell you something significant about the shit that passes for high-rotation-programmed-within-a-centimetre-of-its-sad-existence commercial radio these days, go to the back of the class. You were off playing ABBA records in the home economics kitchen when the teacher broke out the sacrament and gave the rest of the class the lesson in Hendrix 101. Major Fail. "Broke Down" Rolling Stone’s Smoking Section pick Call it blues rock, call it psychedelic, call it hard-grooved stoner rock. Call it whatever the hell you want, as long as you just call it ROCK. Iowa-based Radio Moscow’s second album, Brain Cycles, crashed onto my horizon a couple of weeks ago and shows no indication of departing any time soon. Discovered by Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, their sound bears unquestionable similarities. But whereas The Black Keys play a noisy, stripped-down two-man blues rock, Radio Moscow is something else entirely — the rebirth of the power trio. – Pajiba With the ability to create intense, raw and gritty guitar riffs that make up a changing landscape of sludgy blues and full-fledged blues rock, power trio Radio Moscow arrive at each gig ready to blast sound waves hinting of past rock and roll glories into the ears of nearby listeners. – Onmilwaukee.com interview with Parker Griggs Radio Moscow is a blues-rock band with some heavy psychedelic influences. They’re carved from the same stone as Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and the Allman Brothers. Subtle as a punch in the face, their musicianship is without question; guitar solos run amok as drums fly at you in all directions, while Parker Griggs bemoans about womanly woes and many other of life’s common ills. It’s not original in the least, but sure as hell sounds good. These boys from Iowa know what they are doing, and Brain Cycles is sure to cause all but the most jaded blues rock fan to drop his head in awe and cry out “goddamn” at least once. This isn’t Wolfmother-style emulation of a classic rock sound – this is the real deal. – Esdmusic When we first discovered Radio Moscow, we were all immediately floored by the guitarplaying of Parker Griggs. For those unfamiliar with the story, Parker went to a Black Keys show and handed a demo to Dan Auerbach. Auerbach loved it and subsequently produced the Radio Moscow debut. While their eponymous debut is excellent (#29 in the HearYa top 50 of 2007), it has a rough feel to it. Parker played most of the parts on the album himself and it came across as a one man project. In contrast, on Brain Cycles, Radio Moscow is a much more cohesive band. After listening to the album a few times, there are three things that really make this a more complete and balanced effort: 1. Parker’s vocals. On the first album, the vocals sometimes seemed as if they were just filling room between blistering guitar solos. Griggs is a guitar prodigy so it works, but on Brain Cycles, Parker is more confident as a front man and has some swagger. A couple of my favorites include "Broke Down" that has a Sabbath inspired riff and "No Good Woman," complete with 90 second drum solo by Parker (it actually kind of works). Radio Moscow is growing up, but they don’t abandon their blues-psychedelic sound that is sure to fuel bong circles in smoky dorm rooms all over college campuses. – Woody /Hear Ya This second album is Radio Moscow really coming alive. If their 2007 self titled debut lacked that spark, then they more than made up for it here with Brain Cycles. This second album is right there in that spot that bands like Groundhogs or Cream took you to, those acid drenched stoner blues of Hendrix, Ten Years After or early Fleetwood Mac. No musical revolution going down here then, no, just righteous real deal old school psychedelic blue rock – sometimes, when things are done this well then that’s more than enough, revolutions aren’t always needed. – Organ magazine Brought to you by Russia’s international radio broadcasting service – by way of Iowa, admittedly – Radio Moscow does for Blue Cheer what the Black Keys do for 21st century blues: stomps it. Sophomore disc Brain Cycles pulses with Parker Griggs’ best Hendrix, while bassist Zach Anderson’s monolithic fuzz mashes beats with drummer Cory Berry. Live is where the touring trio melts brains, bicycles, you name it. – Raoul Hernandez / Austin Chronicle While Radio Moscow doesn’t venture off the beaten path on Brain Cycles, the Iowa band’s second album, the material within is performed much more confidently this time around. Brain Cycles could pass for some long-lost heavy blues workout from the late ’60s or early ’70s, with layers of gargantuan Marshall-powered guitar tones flowing through wah-wahs and fuzz units as the rhythm section jams with indefatigable purpose over acres of six-string wailing. If Cream and Blue Cheer had a baby, it would sound an awful lot like Radio Moscow, and if historical accuracy were the sole criteria, Brain Cycles would be some sort of masterpiece — plenty of bands reach into the past for influence, but few have done so with such un-self-conscious ease as this band. Parker Griggs is an impressive guitarist and drummer, capturing a vintage style on both instruments that sounds less like imitation than an alchemical transformation into some band playing Iowa’s equivalent of the Grande Ballroom in 1970, while bassist Zach Anderson has just the right low-end feel for the material. – Mark Deming / All Music Guide Griggs and bass-player Zach Anderson play in the classic power-trio, blues-rock style, and prove to be fairly versatile and playful players. Griggs’ guitar playing takes the spotlight and is magnificent, both in melody and sound. It screams, noodles, cries, and echoes all over the place. The guy’s got some serious skills, not just in his playing, but in getting the right sound out of his effects. The rhythm section is agile and loud throughout, laying a thunderous and propulsive bed, jerky and smooth in equal doses. Anderson’s bass flexes just the right amount of muscle, and follows the guitar, drums, or its own path in equal doses. Griggs’ drumming is capably aggressive and jazzy in the typical hard rock Ginger Rogers-aping style, which of course is a blast to listen to. The singing and lyrics are pretty typical and work more as a structural piece than as any sort of expression or communication. It’s typical blues fare, with ruminations about breaking down, holding on, not knowing, not understanding, and getting tired of shit, told from the first person. I’m about 100% positive that I’m not the only sucker out there for some vintage psychedelia. Radio Moscow is the type of down-home bred band we all imagine. You know, the no name town (Story City, Iowa), the direct influences (Peter Green, Nuggets compilations, really any psychedelic guitar god), and the boy prodigy (insert Parker Griggs). But make no mistake, these boys are the real deal, and the proof is coming on their upcoming album, Brain Cycles, releasing April 14th. Having the backing of the Black Keys and Alive records, the band has recently been able to find themselves in a perfect position to stone minds all around the country and have a little fun in the process. But hear, hear! Don’t come into this with a nasty attitude against psychedelic music, because if you do, then a band like Radio Moscow will never be for you. But if you want to sit back and let the wah-wahs and blues-driven guitar solos blow your mind, do yourself a favor, and check out the new single Broke Down. – John Bohannon / PopMatters Transmitting infectious old skool rock vibes, Radio Moscow completely owns rock’n’roll in 2009. The massive power and forward-thinking drive of progressive rock. The dirty, romanticized blue feelings of blues rock’s lament. The acidic and addictive fluorescence of psychedelic rock. The regeneration of the rock’n’roll myth that garage rock brings. All the toughness and coolness of the electric guitar-based hard rock. The dope and awesome pounding beating of stoner rock. All can be found in the dirty album-formed rock bible that is Brain Cycles. – Lemur blog These cats are awesome. They are a young and energetic band that took hold of the crowd and raged a mighty set. It was a massive, heavy, hard-rock, psychedelic blues groove that sounded like a late 60s or early 70s band (Cream, Jimi Hendrix, Blue Cheer, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, etc.) but they also had a sound all of their own. – Waylon Hatchet (live review)
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Who would have thought that two white dudes from Iowa would produce the best psychedelic blues-rock record of the new millennium? Brain Cycles is packed to the brim with juicy, Hendrix-style electric guitar riffs backed by vocalist Parker Griggs’ powerful vocals in a musical concoction that recalls a louder, more rebellious time in rock and roll history. Who needs all of that touchy-feely indie rock when you’ve got truly rockin’ bands like Radio Moscow putting out albums like this? Not me. – The 412 by ShowClix Brain Cycles reminds me a great deal of other behemoths from back in the day including Cream, Blue Cheer, and the Groundhogs. Front man and guitarist Parker Griggs comes from a school of thought in which fuzz and wah are kings and the guitars are loud. Its a good thing too, because this young man has massive chops and an ear for the way rock and roll songs should be written. Chalk another one up in Griggs’ column for his percussive work on the album, playing all of the drum parts himself. This leads me to the question, what can’t he play? No kidding, there are hundreds of artists out there that would kill to have drum sounds like this, part Mitch Mitchell, part Carmine Appice. On the low end of things, Zach Anderson’s bass lines are prime, tasteful, and in the pocket, perfectly complementing the guitar and drum work at hand. Brain Cycles is all about the driving riffs and psychedelic swells that will make the brain swim, swirl with an Are You Experienced? production quality. In fact I would almost require it to ingest Brain Cycles via a great pair of headphones. Radio Moscow is a heavy-jam powerhouse, with many of the tracks clocking in at 4- and 5-minutes, and the studio-effect heavy “No Good Woman” stretching to over eight, including a (flashback alert!) minute-thirty drum solo. Griggs serves as the band’s vocalist, singing through processing that sounds like a Mellotron, but the lyrics mostly serve to keep the guitar solos from running over one another. It’s best to approach the band as an instrumental combo, with the scattered vocals as texture. The singer who could actually front this torrent of sound (rather than stand by and occasionally lob lyrics into the quieter parts) would just end up distracting from the group’s tight, gutsy interplay of guitar, bass and drums. The tight, heavy riffs bring to mind early UK prog-rock and metal bands like King Crimson, Arthur Brown’s Kingdom Come and Black Sabbath, but generally without the lengthy excursions into jazz-styled jamming. Available on both CD and vinyl (but sadly not reel-to-reel tape), this should really be heard at maximum volume through classic 1970s speakers such as Altec Voice of the Theater A7s and a suitable cloud of smoke. – Hyperbolium Electric Decadence : interview with Parker Griggs for The Waster. – The Waster Amidst the Pitchfork-friendly indie bands that crowd the lineup of nearly every SXSW showcase, Iowa’s Radio Moscow were a refreshingly unpretentious change of pace: a power trio that cranked out Hendrix/Cream-inspired blues-rock jams. – Metromix NYC It’s been just a year since Radio Moscow released their Dan Auerbach-produced debut, and in that time RM brain trust Parker Griggs toured for a full year, expanding the wah-wahs, the howls and willingness to go deeper into the psychedelic terrain. Like Peter Green fronting the Flower Travellin’ Band, Radio Moscow’s second album Brain Cycles is as full of blues, soul and psych experimentation as Richie Havens’ set at Woodstock. Today RCRD LBL previews "No Jane," a five minute mind-bending epic of shouts, growls, extreme shredding and the kind of drumming that would’ve made mud-covered hippies freak the fuck out. Grab these two and let your brain ride the wave, man. This is a new Moscow wind, fresh-air. This album crushes you a little bit harder than the previous self-titled. What you did not get from the previous one, completes you here. Not so different from his previous one, but living on the same planet, Radio Moscow gave another step going up to trade his mark on the blues, psychedelic 70′s sound. – Heavy Comet The guys of Radio Moscow have a lot going for them. The blues-rock group shows off some impressive ballsy riffs that resemble funked up Jimmy Page and are sometimes on the verge of becoming Hendrixean. The drums, which usually reside comfortably in the background, make their presence known in “No Good Woman” during an over two-minute long drum solo that turns tribal for a few moments before calling the guitars back in for a suitably shred-happy finish. Sure, blues-rock bands ripping off Zeppelin are a dime-a-dozen, but the most fascinating thing about Brain Cycles is that frontman Parker Griggs single-handedly performs all guitar, drums, and vocals on the album. Griggs’ vocals are soulful and tastefully gritty, similar to contemporary blues outfit Black Keys. The only sounds on the album not created by Griggs come from bassist Zach Anderson who meshes perfectly with Griggs on tracks like “City Lights” and who holds down the rhythm as Griggs takes off on soaring leads as on the aforementioned “No Good Woman” and album-closing “No Jane.” – Blare Consequence Of Sound interview with Parker Griggs Think Sabbath riffs, a sturdy rhythm section and the holy power of the wah-wah pedal. There are a couple of times when The Black Keys come to mind (coincidentally the band was discovered by Dan Auerbach). “Black Boot” for instance comes with a nice blues stomp. Other than that these dudes sound like Cream on meth. It says “best played very high” on the back of the album… I’ll leave it to you whether that means turning the volume all the way up or listening to “Brain Cycles” with bong placed firmly in hand. I don’t doubt for a second though that both will make this album rock even harder! – PunkRock Theory If you’ve ever had a Jimi Hendrix poster on your wall, or simply have an affection for swaggering blues with that vintage wah-wah guitar sound, you need to hear this album. – Covert Curiosity Rock Times review (France) | French interview with Parker Griggs | Musica Rock review (Spain) | Album Rock review (France) | Blouson Noir review (France) | Planet Gong review (France) | Infos Jeunes (France) | Hell Yeah (Spain) | Radio Moscow may hail from the endless plains of Iowa, but something tells me these youngsters aren’t growing maize. “Brain Cycles,” the band’s sophomore recording displays the kind of heavy psychedelic, blues jams their parents or possibly their parents’ parents would have smoked grass and jammed out to in the late 60s or early 70s. At a mere twenty-three-years old, guitarist/vocalist Parker Griggs is the oldest member of the band, so these guy’s only connection to the early years of heavy blues jam would be through recordings. However, Radio Moscow does not sound like a Johnny-come-lately to this scene. Radio Moscow is primarily the creation of Parker Griggs. Griggs handles guitar, vocals, drums and percussion, and does it with exceptional skill. Zach Anderson provides groovin’ bass lines. Each track on “Brain Cycles” features mellow Griggs mellow vocals, heavy-yet-bluesy riffs, jazzy drum fills and hazy psychedelics. – Metal Mayhem Singer/vocalist Parker Griggs displayed serious chops, pulling off the type of guitar work Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton (Cream) patented. His Orange amp produced the right sound for making blues-based, heavy jam music. Radio Moscow’s forthcoming album, Brain Cycles lists Griggs as playing everything except the organ and drums, but he obviously recruited other players for their live set. The drummer used for the day’s performance didn’t seem out of place. His jazzy fills were in line with the Keith Moon type drum work on the album. A Korg organ player completed the group’s live lineup. – High Times Doobie Awards SXSW / Blistering These guys are guitar driven rock blues from a lowly road of somewhere I’m not sure where but who gives fuck, they sound great on each and every song. This music should be played on 11 at all times. – Music Filter When we came across Radio Moscow we literally took a step back in time. This trio produces such a rare and vintage sound that sticks with you from the start. This is the rebirth of Hendrix, sprinkled with Zeppelin feel, Morrison vocals, and if you can believe a little Crows soul. – The Killer Fleas
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Alive Naturalsound Home Page | Radio Moscow debut here | Radio Moscow MySpace | Media contact | Official site
