Hogjaw

Hogjaw It’s hard to tell at first whether Hogjaw’s hard-rocking brawls-and-drawls style is a tribute to the great Southern rock bands of the ’70s (ZZ Top, The Outlaws, Lynyrd Skynyrd) or a hilarious parody of them. Take the lyrics to “4-Lo:” “City life just ain’t for me / ’Nother weekend gonna set me free / I pay my bills just in time / While parts and booze take my last dime.” I mean, that’s got to be a joke, right? Maybe not. Here’s the thing: Hogjaw seem too good, too authentic, and too dedicated to the swamp-rock sound to possibly be joking. Never mind that their songs bear titles like “This Whiskey,” “Two Guns,” and “El Camino” and that the vocalist, JonBoat Jones, has the voice of Blackfoot frontman Rickey Medlocke, with axwork like Skynyrd managed at their pre-plane crash peak. In fact, Hogjaw sounds a lot like the band that the modern-day bastardization of the Skynyrd lineup is trying to be. If this is just a gag, it’s sonic equivalent of Borat or Brüno, and that makes Hogjaw worth seeing either way. — Brian Bardwell