The Juke Joint Pimps, “Boogie the Church Down” LP

cover-juke-joint-pimps-boogie-chruchThe Juke Joint Pimps
Boogie the Church Down
(Voodoo Rhythm)

What you’ve got hear is a split album by one band. On the a-side, you’ve got the Juke Joint Pimps doing their usual two-man blues thing. The duo sounds an awful lot like the Black Keys, right down to frontman Mighty Mike sounding so much like Dan Auerbach, it’s scary. “Delta Trip” is vintage Keys, and could’ve been billed as a lost track off The Big Come Up without anyone being the wiser.

Normally, I hate bands that sound exactly like other bands, but considering the way the Black Keys have been drifting away from the raw duo they once were, and sounding more like a straight-up blues rock band, I’ll take the Juke Joint Pimps as a good thing (even considering the pile of ick that is “Boogie 65,” a completely unnecessary rewrite of John Lee Hooker’s “Boogie Chillun”).

The b-side to Boogie the Church Down is done by the Gospel Pimps, the alter-egos of Mighty Mike and T-Man. It doesn’t work quite as well. One would’ve thought they might’ve cleaned up the production a little and gotten a little more upbeat in terms of tempo to get the whole hallelujah and hosanna thing up front a bit. However, the tunes are still pretty good, and get better and better as they go on, with the last track, “The Pimps Don’t Like It,” really getting the gospel blues thing down perfectly. It rocks like a Delta bluesman backing the Staple Singers, and manages to be the album’s highlight.