I-Tunes Single of the Week Review: Rivon Sons’ ‘Time and Pressure’

American blues-rock revival from Rival Sons gets an “atta boy” accolade from iTunes’ single of the week.

The title track off the Rival Sons album “Time & Pressure” picked up the spotlight from Apple and major stage play when opening for mainliner bands. Rival Sons supports Judas Priest throughout their UK tour this year and that’s after service as opener to Alice Cooper in 2010.

Drummer Mike Miley brings the track in with a cadence similar to Zeppelin’s John Bonham, one of rock n’ rolls most influential percussionist. Likewise, vocalist Jay Buchanan carries the swagger of Robert Plant. More accurately Buchanan resembles a cross between Plant and the Black Keys’ vocalist and guitarist Dan Auerbach.

“Time and Pressure” approaches the likeness of a blues-rock band that enjoyed some billboard success half a decade earlier with remarkable familiarity. Wolfmother’s lead singer Andrew Stockdale has received extensive comparisons to Plant. Rival Sons’ drum solo, which upstages Buchanan’s howls, is an obvious parallel to the irritatingly repetitious bass solo.

Although “Time and Pressure” has a more medium tempo than Wolfmother’s “Woman” it is far more sensible with their use of time and packed with energy. The single is solid from start to finish. The guitars presence is neither center stage nor a rhythm supporter. Instead it appears throughout with classic blues-rock riffs and invigoratingly appropriate distortion.

The audiences who yearn for those voices of the past may be the best demographic for Rival Sons to get exposure from. Rival Sons are a blues-rock band out of the music capitol, Los Angeles, with a sound strongly reminiscent of the Black Crowes. They have already gained comparisons to the iconic anthem bearers, The Who, which was further strengthened with the iTunes description of the Sons as a “maximum R&B quartet.”

To further the likeness of last generation’s musical brick layers is graphic designer, Storm Thorgerson. Thorgerson designed the album cover to “Time & Pressure,” as well as Led Zeppelin’s “Presence,” “In through the Out Door,” and most famously, Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”