Garage-rock duos began popping up all over the place after The White Stripes struck gold, and that was over a decade ago. To find that it's still going on is maybe no surprise, the ability to create decent music with as few people as possible must be a draw to budding musicians wanting to cut down on fuel costs, van sizes and splitting the cash four or five ways. Chicago's The Go Down are a bit different though (and not just because they're both left-handed, something they seem to take pride in pointing out), if you're thinking Stripes/Black Keys/Blood Red Shoes etc., then you're kinda close, but this pair vary that sound just a little.
The snappy guitar/drums rock is still here in songs like 'Another Day' or 'They'll Never Know', but The Get Down also have a love of more exotic sounds from around the world, the jungle shot on the cover is perhaps a reference to this. When you think of "world" music being mixed with western sounds it's generally time to dig out your Yeasayer and Vampire Weekend references and maybe give 'Graceland' a mention. 'The Go Down' is nothing like any of them. At their core is a garage-rock band, and of course garage grew out of blues influences and early recordings by Afro-Americans, many of which would include tribal-style beats. So these are nothing new, they're ingrained in popular music, from the delta bluesmen to The Velvet Underground to The White Stripes.
For the most part 'The Go Down' follows suit, but different guitar styles from around the globe are a mild influence to the riffs of 'The Street' and 'The Mountain'. There are raw guitar lines and primal beats that may leave some to consider them copyists (for example, the mid-section of 'Go Down' is a little bit 'Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground'), yet when they really push their sound it becomes their own. 'Manifest' heads slightly off course, even the lyrics go "where we're going, I don't know now" and is a definite highlight; they bring their own blues update in 'Recession Blues' with its great riff. They really break the format on 'Shining Light' and the appropriately titled 'Dance', and it's on these occasions that The Go Down really hit on something. If they take their own advice and "take a chance" on pursuing this route on future releases they could end up going places.
The Go Down's website
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