Stonerider

StoneRider arrives with whip-ass grooves and balls-out-rock-n'-roll for anyone who has ever thrown back a brew to Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix or AC/DC or lit a spliff chilling out to Lynyrd Skynyrd or even Pink Floyd.

"Everything has changed for us since writing our first album as kids and getting a record deal, but at the same time, things haven't changed," explains vocalist and guitarist Matt Tanner of the Atlanta-bred outfit. "We're just as hungry as we've always been. We have a better focus on where we're going. We've learned a lot."

And the band's fierce but grooving debut album is the evidence of that learning experience, putting everything they have grown up living, breathing, and believing about rock music into the proverbial pot.

The album was written collaboratively, with the four former members of Southern rock band "Fight Paris" -- Tanner, Warren, drummer Jason Krutzky and bass player Champ Champagne - sitting in a room together jamming and working off of each other. Whereas Fight Paris was fast and thrashy, StoneRider slows things down a bit and lets the songs groove, even dabbling with mid-tempo ballads. "This record is heavy in an entirely new kind of way," says Champ. "You feel the heavy as opposed to hearing the heavy."

StoneRider works hard, while playing loose and powerfully, to chase after that goal on tracks like "Back from the Dead" (which to the band is a voice for rock n' roll), the driving and Hendrix-esque "Uncanny(breakout)," the band life documentation of "Juice Man," the fast and upbeat "Rush Hour," and the Southern Rock leaning "Bad Lovin'(Never Felt so Good)."

And now, after their long journey, the four Atlantans are hungry to get back on the road and show their new face to the world, teaching the lessons of Page/Plant and Scott/Young everywhere they go, partying, having a good time, and showing the world their Southern hospitality.

World: Get ready for StoneRider to run up your tab.