Product Description Straight ahead clean rock 'n' roll from the Indiana based roots rock trio known as "Doug Cowen and The Basics." Grabbing rock 'n' roll by the roots, the Basics original songs prove that the great old formulas can still make great new music. Check them out right here on Amazon. Review It's a rare thing when a band's name sums them up perfectly. In the case of Mishawaka, Indiana's The Basics, it's damn near perfect. The trio of Doug Cowen, Ben Hajaj, and Charley Neises plays unadulterated, uncomplicated pop-rock, hearkening back to artists like Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, or The Smithereens. Basics indeed. The difficulty with this is that so few bands who play this style do it well; it's really hard to rise above the morass of three-chord mediocrity. The Basics, on the other hand, do an excellent job of being more than three chords and a cloud of dust; their style may be basic, but don't sell their skill short. On their first CD, Bitter/Sweet, The Basics are already showing a studied effortlessness that a lot of bands take years to reach, or never reach at all. Bitter/Sweet is, to steal a phrase, only rock and roll, but I like it. The musicianship of the three members is competent without being unbalanced; they trade time in the musical forefront, blending perfectly to form an almost flawless wall of sound. While I hate falling back on comparisons, the Smithereens example is appropriate; certain parts of Bitter/Sweet, especially "In A Crowded Room" and "What If And What Is," remind me of the first time I heard "Behind The Wall Of Sleep." These guys make plain ol' rock and roll sound polished and smooth without sacrificing the essential simplicity of the songs. Other exceptional tracks include the driving, powerful "Does The Bottle Burn?"; the acoustic-laced "So Lame" with its hints of the Troggs and the Who; the driving tom-tom and distorted background vocals on "Every Day Rain"; and the cheery roots swing of "Little Fool." My favorite track, however, has to be the haunting "City Of The Dead/Long Way To Hell," which takes every "Last Kiss" cliché in rock history and actually makes them scary. Tres cool. Bitter/Sweet is one of the most solid debut albums I've ever seen, and these Hoosiers are worth watching -- and purchasing for yourself. --Duke Egbert, The Daily Vault, September 23, 2003Bitter/Sweet is a smart collection of tuneful originals that have the mature sound of seasoned musicians who know what they want to say with their music. Moreover, the band -- Cowen on guitar, Charley Neises on bass and Ben Hahaj on drums -- recorded the album at their own No Barn Studios for a fraction of the cost and none of the compromises a professional studio would have imposed on them. The songs on "Bitter/Sweet" range in style from the pulse-quickening power-pop melodicism of "In a Crowded Room" and "Ignore the Daylight" to the raging, rough-edged rock of "Bittersweet Road" and "Does the Bottle Burn?" The hurt at the heart of the understated "So Lame" smolders with a dark heat that flares up on the chorus, while the keening "Baby Bleu" evokes wide-open optimism in the face of past disappointment. "I think we've finally come to a point where we sound like ourselves," Cowen says. "I sing more now like myself than I ever have. It's definitely me." The Basics may have named their record company Nineteen/82 Records as a homage to its beginnings, but just as definitely, the band is operating in 2003. "It's great being in this day and age," Cowen says. "A couple of weeks ago, I got a sale from somebody in Canada, somebody in Connecticut and somebody in England. It's a worldwide market. Maybe they were scrolling on CD Baby, or maybe they heard it on a radio station near them." Plus, in August, the band signed a licensing representation agreement with Summer Salt/EMI, a company based in Burbank, Calif., that places songs in movies and on television programs. "If this had happened to me 15 or 20 years ago, I would have been jumping up and down," Cowen says of the Summer Salt/EMI agreement. As it is, he says a moment or two later, "I am now." --Andrew S. HughesDoug Cowen has dropped the names of both Tom Petty and The Beatles when describing the music of his band, The Basics, who hail from South Bend, Indiana, but their name should give you a very big clue about the style of rock and roll they play. To my ears The Basics debut CD, Bitter/Sweet doesn't sound at all like The Beatles but they do possess Lennon and McCartney's ability to write catchy melodic pop hooks that draw you immediately into their music. The band's guitar oriented arrangements make them sound like a very accomplished 60s garage rock band. This is meant as a huge compliment! The trio features Cowen, who composes most of the music, on vocals. He also plays lead guitar on most tracks along with some harmonica and keyboards. Bassist Charley Neises writes most of the lyrics and helps out with the music. Ben Hahaj provides a solid backbeat on drums and percussion. Occasional studio musicians sit in to augment a few of the tracks but the three band mates have no trouble playing winning rock and roll all on their own. The Basics reel you in right away with the first track "In a Crowded Room." The song's cross-generational appeal was immediately apparent because both kids in their late teens, and adults old enough to remember actually seeing The Beatles on "The Ed Sullivan Show," were taken in with its catchy tune and arrangement. "Crowded Room" could have easily gone Top Ten in 1966. The fun continues with the harder rocking "Bittersweet Road." "Does The Bottle Burn?" with great lyrics by Cowen and Neises, symbolically uses an empty liquor bottle to represent a woman who just ended a romance with a now lonely and broken-hearted protagonist. The guitar jam free-for-all that takes the track home is a highlight of the disc. Less edgy tunes such as the ballad "What If and What Is" and "Every Day Rain" with its slight psychedelic feel show off the band's diversity without betraying their basic nature. They fit right in with the harder edged songs. Modern commercial radio seldom responds to new bands playing 60s and 70s style roots rock these days. This may severely limit their audience and makes The Basics musical mavericks, reactionaries bucking the system. Their promotional material advertises the fact there is no cursing anywhere on the disc, which all by itself is an anomaly in modern popular music. Isn't it a shame a band actually has to advertise that fact? If you are looking for great, new, straight ahead, clean rock and roll, The Basics are for you. --Charlie Ricci About the Artist It was a recording project in 1982 that brought Cowen together with drummer Ben Hahaj, lead guitarist Randy Simpson, and bassist Charley Neises. Their self-financed 45 rpm single "Girls Come Out" gave the young band brief local exposure and caught the attention of RCA and Geffen records. They played many of the top area venues, and once opened for legendary blues singer John Lee Hooker. Reunited in 1999 after sixteen years apart, The Basics still play the basic rock and roll that brought them together in the early 1980s. A typical night will find the band showcasing their own original compositions while mixing in their favorite cover tunes from the last five decades. During their years apart, the Basics went their separate ways, but all stayed in the Michiana area. Cowen recorded several solo CDs and he scored a regional hit with "Easy Love" in 1988. He was a founding member of The Benders, and his original compositions are a featured part of every Basics show. Hahaj briefly operated a recording studio called "Red Barn Productions", raced cars and later became a the owner of Priority Computers, Inc. Neises published a book about the Beatles titled "The Beatles Reader" and he currently works as a proofreader. Simpson is no longer with the band. Years ago, we used to do "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits, says Neises. We had no idea that wed eventually become those guys in that song, working all week and then getting up on the weekends to do the thing we love. See more