Like everyone else I've been hooked on the live music show since momma took us to our first venue. Mine was the Beach Boys at the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I was 5. It was the ‘70s in southern California. It’s what ya did. Fast forward 17 years  and a lifetime of live addiction, it was natural for me to seek the best I could find on the east coast.
    I first saw LCC at Coins on a miserable November night where everyone was hiding out in their caves but me. My first impression was "well they got the name right". Bunch a grungy dudes from Delaware that look like they haven't showered in days wouldn't hesitate to beat you down if the word "Lynryd" was to come out of your mouth.
    Pretty boy over here kept his distance, bellied up to the bar and waited to hear what all the noise about these guys was. For the next couple hours I watched these four hooligans give 120% of everything they had to the luckiest 12 people in town
    It's just simple blues based Rock and Roll twisted up with the all the angst the four broke as joke, slower lower boys had in 'em and it was almost all original. My most favorite word to pair up with loud and live.
    It was my first winter in OC 19 years ago and after months of swimming in a sea of island style musicians I was stoked that there was a local band trying to claw their way through the breakers and show everybody what happens when you grow up here. Your equipment is crap but your heart is huge.
    The core of LCC originally was the Rolig brothers. Tyler (bass) and Ryan (vox/guitar) Shortly after, the ever wild and grizzly Billy Todd came along to show off the true reason to own a Fender Strat.
    There's been a transient flow of drummers through the years but they've finally got a lock with Brandon Luckett (formerly of Lennex). A native himself, he culminates all the hard driving rhythms Ryan and Billy shape while still keeping the backbone in place with Tyler.
    I can't remember which one of these boys I was doing last call shots with exclaiming "where is everybody?? You guys kick a$$!!"  But I do remember the mention of Peppers Tavern, OC's favorite 5 star dive and a great place to catch the underground scene if OC ever had one to offer.
    The answer came a couple weeks later when I got to see the boys in true form and in a place they belong. I like to call it J Franks basement at Denny O's house. The place was packed. Ryan out did himself on the sound system as usual and the basement walls crumbled a little bit that night.
    These days the boys of LCC are hard at work on a new CD. Officially their fourth but unofficially the first that they are ready to take as far as they can. They've begun a journey back and forth to Nashville to record with Jamie Johnson and Butch Walker. Butch Walker, if you didn't know, is one of the biggest unsung heroes in the music business of the day. A musician’s musician, he has written more songs for more bands than any man alive and understands the musical universe better than most of the fools he sells them to.
    I sat with Billy at Burley Oak after his shift slinging the fine brews to poke around for some details into the future of Lower Class Citizens and got his laid back "is what it is" version:  The civil war era studio in Nashville is going unnamed for now as is the new CD while still in its infancy.  
    One interesting fact about the studio itself is that most of the equipment belonged and was well used by Waylon Jennings. Mostly all analog equipment with the recording medium being 2-inch tape.  This is all probably mumbo jumbo to you as it was to me. Instead of asking Billy to explain I decided to just nod, smile and google it later.
    Two-inch tape is an old school way of saying "doing it the right way". There's a huge debate on sound quality of analog versus digital but one thing is not up for debate:  analog offers a character or body to the recording that digital loses. Kinda like a favorite pair of shoes.
    Well folks, I hope you enjoyed me rambling on and paying homage to some native men who have really earned the respect of many in our community. Check'em out on Facebook or just keep an eye out for their bills posted around town. Their guerilla tactics in advertising are a sure sign of the face melting you will surely receive at a live show. The next one is for the Dew Tour on August 17th with Chainsaw Riot and The Phantom Limbs at Peppers on 16th and the boards.