The Parlor Mob – Bringing Back The Groove
Birds of A Black Feather
Formed in 2003 in Red Bank, New Jersey, the band’s Road Runner debut, And You Were A Crow, mixes high energy boogie-riff workouts with Led Zeppelin III- style acoustic jams. But it is not all a journey through the past: Guitarist Paul Ritchie and Dave Rosen conjure a wiry, dual ax attack, and a singer Mark Melicia’s fevered yelp is as much as the Mars Volta’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala as Robert Plan.
The Parlor Mob
New Jersey may have a fairly respectable rock and roll lineage, but for much of this decade it’s primarily been known as the home of emo i.e. New Jersey and Long Island emo acts such as Brand New, Glassjaw, Midtown, The Movielife, My Chemical Romance, Saves the Day, Senses Fail, Taking Back Sunday, and Thursday.
So what’s a band of longhairs to do? Well they definitely had to play their share of those all-ages, VFW-hall matinees. But it wasn’t so bad for them. They enjoyed going in there, playing their non-emoish stuff, rocking out, seeing these looks on on emo-vampire loving kids’ faces like, ‘What the fuck is going on right now?‘
Pushing a straightforward in your face rock sound, the Parlor Mob have become headliners. Their debut album, And You Were a Crow, shows of the bluesy, classic-rock-influenced riffs they worked so hard to home, most notably on the anthemic “Hard Times”.
Paul Ritchie uses Fender Classic Series ’72 Telecaster Deluxe and Dave Rosen is on Fender Stratocaster.
Check out “Hard Times” video below.
