The Best Indie Songs of 2015 - Benjamin Booker

Benjamin Booker's Wicked Waters (Mar’15) is a winner in the name game for both the singer and the song. And the video features cops shooting at the singer before he walks into a bar and picks up a guitar from the band playing and joins in. Choice. Hailing from New Orleans and blending modern rock with a liberal dosing of blues, his self-titled debut album Benjamin Booker (Aug’14) minded Clash magazine of The White Stripes, The Strokes and Kings of Leon. London In Stereo called Wicked Waters, "rambunctuous and seething."

 

Benjamin Booker is a blues/garage/punk rock musician and his heroes are Los Angeles cowboy punk band The Gun Club and his main influences T. Rex and Blind Willie Johnson. Benjamin Booker's music is best described as, "...a well mixed cocktail of punk, folk and New Orlean's blues". Wicked Waters carries a tale from despair to revelation like the sheriff's galloping horse in a black and white western. I don’t know if the blues can be jiggy but Wicked Waters sure as shit is. Jiggy as fuck. With organs like a Doors wigout, ‘can I get an amen’ gospel vocals from the preachers favorite hell-fire sermon and a garage band rock out at the end, the Manchester Evening News called Benjamin Booker, "...powerful and soulful...a voice in a million" and Wicked Waters, “...bouncy and infectious.” It is. As infectious as a frat boys communal wank mitt. Wicked Waters is one of the best indie songs of 2015.
 

“Well my heart is feeling empty
Well my legs are feeling weak
Well my heads sore from yesterday
Well I stumble when I speak.”

 

Shit you need to know:

His music has been compared to Jack White, The Black Keys, The Strokes, Led Zeppellin and Chuck Berry.

Spin magazine thought the long player Benjamin Booker was "...a contender for rock record of the year."

Clash magazine called Benjamin Booker, “...an electrifying introduction to the future of the blues” and Wicked Waters “riotous,” while DIY magazine said Wicked Waters is "ferocious" and "blistering. "

Benjamin Booker is label mates with Alabama Shakes and has toured with Alabama Shakes and his album was produced by Andrija Tokic who did the same for Alabama Shakes.  

Benjamin Booker was on fluffer duties for Jack White's 2014 national tour.

Other cracking Benjamin Booker tracks are Have You Seen My Son? and Violent Shiver - (all minute and a half of it!)

 

 

Slippery seconds should, must and will, go to Alabama rock band Alabama Shakes today and their massive 2012 hit Hold On.

“Bless my heart, bless my soul,
Didn't think I'd make it to 22 years old”