Rick Shaffer has dropped the grittiest, edgiest album of his career. Rites & Stories is Shaffer's thirteenth full-length, saturated with the vibe of a 3-way argument among Waits, Morrison, and Iggy Pop. Part Punk, part 120 Minutes-era Alternative, Rites & Stories smells of gasoline and cigarettes, tastes black-coffee bitter, and radiates a searing mid-summer desert heat. Close your eyes, listen, and you'll see a highway mirage rising from the scalding asphalt.

On my first listen, the word "sharp" kept coming to mind. Then I read in Shaffer's bio "a dense cutting edge of angular songs, fragmented guitars, atmospheric passages." That's exactly it! No sonic surface gets cleaned and polished throughout Rites & Stories. Flangers, slides, and reverb unite to forge guitar tones that cut into your ears. When the vocals aren't purposely distorted, there's still a straining--Shaffer offering every ounce of his being as he guts out the verses of "Pleasure."

Shaffer says of the track that it's "an Iggy Pop 'The Idiot' inspired rocker, with great hooks and atmospheric guitar work--a dark rocker existing in a postmodern form...a 70’s manifesto, but pushes further strong rhythmic undercurrents that sound enthralling. A menacing swagger delivered with aggressive precision." A video is in the works--keep an eye out for it. We'll share it as soon as it sees the light of day

As a whole, Rites & Stories is at-once a late-80s Midnight Oil tinge melded with the ambient/echo-y overtones of 60s Surf. Thick reverb, booming toms, bright heavy cymbals, and layers of guitar washing down over it all. It's an album you need to wear in order to appreciate. Listen intently. Let it seep into your soul and you'll begin to experience it, taste it. Hell, you may even start to smell the sweat and attitude that when into its creation.

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Author: Adam Bailey

Adam is a regular contributor for established press release distribution website Release-News.com. He writes on a wide range of topics including music.