There’s nothing quite like a quality shot of sweaty, ballsy, groove-heavy, riff-laden rock music to get the blood pumping. Problem is, these days finding new doses to arouse the senses are few and far between.
It’s a fact that makes news of an impending album release from Los Angeles-based strutting cocks Buckcherry a mega event.
Guitarist and founding member Keith Nelson is mighty proud about quintet’s forthcoming longplayer - their seventh - aptly titled Rock ’n’ Roll.
Containing 10 fresh tracks, it will be released on August 21.
Nelson says it was written while on the road and recorded in just a short couple of weeks at his Bastard Ranch studio in the Hollywood Hills.
‘‘We were touring a lot last year and had a few short breaks from the tour and gathered together some ideas and then we got home and put it together,’’ he said.
The album follows last year’s F**k EP, which contained six tracks each containing the expletive in the title, and the Confessions album, which was in many ways a concept album.
Nelson says Rock ’n’ Roll was about getting back to having fun.
‘‘We made the Confessions record with a really kind of strict idea of what that record was going to be about before we even wrote a song and then we made the F**k record as almost a reaction to that,’’ he said. ‘‘It was like instead of being so serious, we’re just going to have some fun with this and with this one, I think we’re in a place where we just wanted to be a rock n roll band and make a rock n roll record with no limits and no boundaries.’’
As he had with the previous EP, Nelson served as producer for the new album.
‘‘My co-producer on the Confessions record really wasn’t around a whole lot, so it kind of left me holding the bag and after going through that experience, which was a massive undertaking, I felt confident I could do it myself.’’
Nelson, together with singer, Josh Todd, serve as the main writers for Buckcherry. Fellow members, Stevie D. (guitar), Xavier Muriel (drums) and Kelly LeMieux (bass), add their touches during the recording process.
‘‘It’s so important because we’re a band,’’ Nelson said of the collaboration. ‘‘We all have the freedom to play with things and throw ideas around. It’s the whole atmosphere I really like and I’m so grateful that I’m in a band.’’
Lead single from Rock ’n’ Roll, Bring It On Back has already been incorporated into the band’s live set.
‘‘It’s gotten a great reaction,’’ said Nelson. ‘‘We always change our set list. We’re always trying something different.’’
Nelson said that radio play was still an important vehicle for the band, even with the new avenues for promotion available via electronic media.
‘‘It’s still important especially for a touring band,’’ he said. ‘‘The regional awareness of your band and having product, something for people to get excited about in the lead up to a tour, is very important to a rock ’n’ roll band.’’
Rock ’n’ Roll is the first full-length album that will be released under the band’s label F-Bomb Records.
‘‘Freedom is a huge part of it and really understanding how all of the other pieces fit together when it comes to putting out a record,’’ Nelson said of the DIY approach.
‘‘There’s a lot more to it than writing songs and we are getting a giant education in the way the whole thing works. The biggest thing is knowing what you’re good at and knowing when someone else is better and keeping your ego out of the way.’’
This year marks 10 years for this line-up of the band. Nelson and Todd are the sole founding members of the group from their 1999 debut release, which included the hit single Lit Up.
The band went on hiatus soon after the release of its second album — 2001’s Timebomb — and didn’t return for the third release until 2006. The return saw the band release its biggest crossover hit, Crazy Bitch.
Nelson said this second incarnation of the band had gone from strength to strength.
‘‘Our attitude is still really the same,’’ he said. ‘‘All we wanted to do from the outset was just be in a rock ’n’ roll band, write good songs and continue to evolve as musicians and songwriters and I think that if you look across our records you can see that. I think that our records have been very honestly crafted and made in a way that we feel we would want to buy it if we weren’t making them.
‘‘We don’t go for backing tracks, there’s nobody behind the curtain. It’s basically the essence of all the bands we have always loved, whether it’s the Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin, Rage Against The Machine, AC/DC, The Rolling Stones ... I could go on and on. What you’re hearing every night is five guys on stage going for it and it’s a very honest approach to it. The fans are smart, you can’t bullshit the fans.’’
Nelson says the Buckcherry following has certainly grown in recent years and he cited social media as a plus in getting a widespread message out with ease.
‘‘I don’t mind it, there’s a lot of artists that complain about it,’’ he said of the internet. ‘‘My only downside to any of that stuff is when people start treating what we do as something that should just be given away for free because I think it has a value, but we’ve reached way more people than we ever had. Our fan base has grown exponentially in the last 10 years.
‘‘Our international fanbase has been growing and we’ve been to Australia more in the last couple of years than we had done for a number of years before that and the fans have been so awesome to us and they’ve embraced us and it’s growing and it feels really good.’’
Buckcherry recently had the chance for a close encounter with two of their diehard fans, thanks to American comedian Daniel Tosh and his television show Tosh.O, in which videos sourced from the internet are lampooned.
Tosh runs a segment called the ’’Web Redemption’’ in which the subject of the video is offered the chance to redeem themselves.
One such couple were filmed on their wedding day, the bride making her way down the aisle singing the sexually charged lyrics to Buckcherry’s Crazy Bitch. Her brother could be seen in the video physically covering his son’s ears during the impromptu performance.
For the taping, Tosh invited Buckcherry to be part of the redemption.
‘‘That was really funny,’’ Nelson laughed. ‘‘We got wind of that video early on and we just watched it explode and go viral on the internet. We thought it was really funny and then we actually got a call from Tosh saying they were going to do that. Daniel and his people were so incredibly awesome to us and it was fun. Those fans had been to a couple of our shows. We got to meet them and hang out with them. It was a really good day for us.’’
