2018 may have been one of the weirdest years ever but hey, at least the music has been pretty good. One of the year’s highlights came from New Hampshire band Rick Rude a couple of months back when they released this little ray of sonic sunshine. Just so you’re prepared, Slow Cooker is not the visceral, hardcore punk blast hinted at by the wail of feedback that kicks off the track. In fact it’s a quirkily upbeat, indie-rock treat, with erratic, intertwining guitar lines, a hyperactive bassline and a gorgeously confident, folky vocal. It’s full of a breezy optimism that’s as welcome as it is out of step with the contemporary world.
Rick Rude have been playing their sweet grungy melodies since 2012. Taking their name from ‘Ravishing’ Rick Rude, a favourite WWF star of theirs from back in Hulk Hogan’s heyday, they started as a three-piece with a trombonist before evolving into their present form and adding more structure and song writing form to their weekend jam sessions. Their second album Verb for Dreaming was released last November and Slow Cooker is the lead single from it.
In their own words, Rick Rude is:
“a four-membered creature whose tattered robe, four-string guitar, and sand-filled shoes are surrounded by a haze of sweet smoke and empty beer cans, thrashes about with a charismatic enthusiasm matched only by its lethargic demeanor, speaking fluently in the cryptic languages of dreams, love, and ennui. It inhabits a dark cave on the mountainside of truth, carefully furnished with dismantled electronics, books on meditation, and warped records of Guided By Voices, Built to Spill, and Cheap Trick. A nocturnal creature, Rick Rude feasts on mystical fungi, boredom, mushy guitar riffs, and the delicacy of the human soul.”
So music, love and the nourishment of the soul; sounds like they’ve got their priorities in order. And as the bizarre snippet of history that was 2018 gets slowly smoked down to its filter and we prepare to spark up 2019 with a mixture of optimism and dread, we could all do a lot worse than following their lead.
Rick Rude’s discography, including Slow Cooker and Verb for Dreaming is available in various formats from Exploding in Sound and Bandcamp.
