THERE'S A DEFICIT of good old-fashioned American rock 'n' roll these days. Although this is the land where the genre was birthed, it seems that European countries have picked up our slack—predominantly Scandinavian ones, who have the rock on lockdown. Though it sometimes seems like most of the US has turned its back on its musical roots, there are still champions out there, fighting to keep the faith within our borders.
While stuck in LA traffic on a Friday evening, guitarist/vocalist Josh Landau of Venice Beach band the Shrine had plenty of time to discuss the rock 'n' roll path his band has chosen.
"A lot of people in America seem so jaded or spoiled," says Landau. "I can relate sometimes, but everywhere else you go in the world people really get rock 'n' roll, still. People in Europe love rock 'n' roll like America used to.
"We're not on some brand-new, innovative, state-of-the-art, electronic music buzz," he continues. "We're on a classic path of tried-and-true music that's been around forever, and has stood the test of time. We're aware of it."
On the Shrine's most recent long-player, Bless Off, and their previous one, Primitive Blast, the Venice Beach, California, trio—rounded out by bassist Court Murphy and drummer Jeff Murray—covers a lot of bases. What's most clearly evident is that their seemingly simple style of rock 'n' roll is much more multifaceted than just something with a basic blues foundation. From one record to the next, they've touched on everything from West Coast hardcore (perfect soundtrack for crunching concrete with polyurethane wheels), to throwback hard-rock grooves (good for cruising in a '76 El Camino), to neck-twisting, fist-clenching heavy-metal jammers. They've taken the sneer of Black Flag, the gallop of Iron Maiden, and the licks of Thin Lizzy and balled them together in a perfect storm with a lot of punch and a bad fucking attitude.
"Some of my favorite bands like Motörhead and the Ramones, they struck a formula and then just drilled it until the end of their lives," says Landau. "And I love that, but I think maybe we're more ADD. We like so much shit, so we're not afraid to write a slow song, or a fast song, or say this song's gonna be more complicated, or this one's gonna be more simple. We're still kinda discovering what we can do as a band. What works for us, what comes out powerful, and gets us off."
Not only is the Shrine pioneering their own flavor of rock, they're also touring the world on their own steam. They've made it through Europe several times, they've toured the US with the likes of Graveyard and Kadavar, and they've visited Japan. All of this was done with no management. They've got some label support—which includes sending their records to whatever part of the world they're touring—but when it comes to booking and handling the business side, it's all them. According to Landau, they've got their eyes set on South America next.
"We can't afford to pay somebody else, or to risk somebody who doesn't love what we're doing as much to screw it up. There's enough inspiration from reading about what our heroes did, that we're happy to bust our asses. We don't wanna risk anything. We like playing music. We're damn sure not gonna let anyone fuck us up."
