Dead Flowers with Banditios

The Dead Flowers are rolling. Their live performances these days are mighty and intense, gritty, straight-edged rock with heavy country undertones and a healthy nod to Texas blues, and they're just getting started.

Something wild and indescribable happens when the Dead Flowers are onstage, and For You, their fan- funded (via Kickstarter), self-produced debut album, is a remarkable capturing of their tough, intensely satisfying live performances that serves up a polished, stand-alone listening experience all its own.

Solid contributions from every Dead Flowers member were deftly recorded and mixed by Jeffrey Charles Saenz at his Modern Electric Sound Recorders with enough finesse to produce a captivating record, and enough staying out of the way to avoid any studio-induced decoration that might have muddied the power and synergistic triumph of their individual performances. Very few overdubs and no instruments on the record that you don't see onstage, were conscientious choices that reveal the sophisticated musicianship and rousing, nuanced arrangements dependably delivered in their live shows.

Dead Flowers' seasoned players were assembled by lead singer and guitarist Corey Howe, who writes deceptively raw and gripping songs that slip on comfortably like the return of well-loved and long-lost friends. With a rare combination of humility, heart, and swagger Howe firmly holds center while, with a seasoned performer's know-how, generously leaving each of his compadres room to contribute inspired complements.

The album title For You reflects Dead Flowers' gratitude to their fans and an earnest attempt to deliver something both they and the band can be proud of for decades to come. Their debut signals the arrival of an outfit destined to make them favored sons of the Lone Star state.

Banditos are famously eclectic, paying tribute to a little Aretha here, a little CCR there, with a tidbit of Squirrel Nut Zippers packed around the edges. While such a myriad of influences would bury a lesser band in tuneless muck, Banditos use their disparate influences to forge a more assured identity. Though they recall a dozen bands, they sound like none so much as themselves. The instrumentation is as ambitious as it is deftly executed, mingling upright bass with kazoo and banjo while the soul-spangled howl of frontwoman Mary plays counterpoint to a deceivingly sparse guitar, drenched in a quantity of reverb and delay not often associated with "danceable." All this would mean crap if Banditos couldn't play, but these mothers can choogle. It's always the mark of a good band to be able to play the hell out of three chords and a breakdown, and Banditos shake it down like John Fogerty. Honestly, their shows are such burndowns of shimmying shins and stomping heels they should carry warnings for bone spurs