The Benjees – ‘Alright Alright Alright’ (album stream) (premiere)

If a band has a reputation as an off-the-charts great live act, they’d sure as hell better make that feeling translate on their studio recordings. If the 13 songs on Alright Alright Alright are any indication, Brooklyn band the Benjees have that part of their music nailed down, but good. A frenetic mix of punk, funk, disco, soul, blues, and hip hop, this debut album goes out of its way to make you like it, and it’s admittedly unavoidable. If that isn’t enough, this sucker was recorded in only two days, which shows you just how tight the band is.

The recording process was fast and to the point,” the band say in a collective statement. “Much like New York and most of our songs. We knew what we wanted to do, we just had to get it done in as few takes as possible. There is a raw quality to the album because we literally couldn’t afford to perfect every lick and drum fill. We just didn’t have the time or the money, which is one in the same when you’re recording. We’d make jokes about how many dollars you spend in the bathroom as the band waited in the recording booth, $10 sh*ts, $4 piss breaks…

“We wanted Alright Alright Alright to sound and feel like a party in some sense. But the whole party not just the good part, hangover and all. The good and bad decisions, regrets and all that. A little mini rollercoaster ride that takes place over 40 minutes. We really wanted to capture our live sound and bottle it into the studio tracks, which is harder than it seems because the energy isn’t the same at all in the recording room versus on stage with people watching.

“We recorded on a full moon at Virtue and Vice Studios. There is something eerie and dynamic about a full moon and I think it played a factor one way or the other. Plus, there was the shooting of the two Brooklyn cops near our studio that night, and the riots down south and in major cities for Michael Brown and all the others that were still happening… so it was a strange feeling in the air and we were huddled away in this studio trying to make an album. It put perspective on it in a way.”

Alright Alright Alright will be released 14 July.