Indie Dock Music Blog

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The Myth Pool - In It Together (single)              DAPS - Down wit dat (cold killa) (single)              Martin Lloyd Howard - Highland Mist (single)              Syna Awel - Acoustic Live Session (video)              Daye Jack - Preacherman and The Praise Team (album)              Evil Jake - Be My Ex-Girlfriend (album)                         
Joe Rian – Think Yer In Luv
Joe Rian has been serving Chicago's music scene from behind the bar as much as from behind the microphone, and "Think Yer In Luv" plays like a man who has finally stepped out from behind the taps to claim the spotlight for himself. Given his history—pulling pints and clearing tables at Buddy Guy's Legends and The Moosehead while cutting his teeth with The Additives—it makes sense that the record sounds less like a studio confection and more like something poured straight from the tap: full-bodied, a little foamy at the edges, and built to be enjoyed in company.

This time out, Rian trades the tavern-rock lean of his earlier work for something rowdier. "Think Yer In Luv" is an uptempo, rock 'n' roll-flavoured blues cut, and it swaggers accordingly—less porch-light confession, more Saturday-night declaration shouted across a crowded room. The riff struts rather than ambles, the rhythm section pushes instead of lopes, and the whole thing carries the unmistakable charge of a band that knows it's finally allowed to turn the amps up.


Credit for the record's polish belongs partly to Gavin Lurssen, whose mastering has previously lent shine to Tom Waits and the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, and his fingerprints show. The mix has room to breathe without losing its grit—guitars still sound like they were recorded in a room with character, not scrubbed clean in some antiseptic booth. It's the sound of a craftsman letting a rough gem stay rough where it counts.


Lyrically, Rian keeps faith with the plainspoken sincerity that made "Midwest Boy" such a quietly effective hit two years prior—a single that climbed to #2 on the Alt Country charts and earned him attention from AmericanaUK, Relix, and WGN. Here, the subject is falling for someone against your better judgment, and Rian sings it the way he seems to do everything: without pretense, without a safety net of irony, fully committed to the bit.


What elevates the release beyond the song itself is the accompanying video, which Rian reportedly hand-drew, cut, and shot frame by frame over a single summer, using nothing more sophisticated than watercolor paper, a fistful of markers, and a borrowed camera. In an industry addicted to CGI polish and outsourced production, that kind of stubborn, homemade craftsmanship reads as a statement of intent. The wobble and imperfection of stop-motion suits the song's loose-limbed charm perfectly—both feel handmade, both feel like the work of someone unwilling to let anyone else touch the finished product.


Following the Switchyard Sessions and years spent building The A.M. Drinkers into a genuinely formidable live outfit, "Think Yer In Luv" feels like a culmination rather than a departure—an artist finally comfortable enough in his own skin to turn the volume up and let the joy show. As a lead single for the forthcoming album of the same name, it does exactly what a lead single should: it makes the wait for October 2nd feel considerably longer than it actually is.