Chicago's Cash Audio has virtually seen everything and been almost everywhere. They've traversed the country, playing in every chicken shack, on every flatbed and in every stale theater there is to play. They've had equipment stolen from behind their backs. They've had tire blow-outs doing 80 on the interstate. They've even had to change their name from Cash Money due to some bullshit lawsuit from some half-assed, no talent rap label. RAP!?? They've been dogged and abused by promoters and bartenders in too many gin mills to mention. State troopers know them by their first names.
And then, of course, there's the good times...
You could say that Cash Audio has been living the blues. Granted, the modern-day bl ues. But that doesn't mean Cash Audio is a blues band. They're aren't up on stage belting out some watered down version of "Sweet Home Chicago" or cock-and-bull rave up of "Caldonia." Get it straight, Cash Audio is not a blues band. This IS, though, 100 percent American Rock and Roll. And where did Rock and Roll come out of? Exactly. It must be said, though, if you like the blues, you'll probably like Cash Audio. Then again, if you like shoving your hand in a blender, you'll probably like Cash Audio as well.
Stem their reductionist and irreverent take on traditional rock and roll through a punk rock, "anything goes" attitude, and you've got a feel for the Cash Audio's aural clenched fist-to-the-head.
Cash Audio is John Humphrey and Scott Giampino, a two-piece guitar and drums duo that makes more racket and coherent full sound than any other duo you've heard. plus, these boys, refreshingly, know how to play their instruments. They are not here to look good in magazines dammit! "The Orange Sessions" is a brand new 8-song* offering recorded in Chicago using, as usual to Cash Audio, an all analog recording style. Their unique sound comes from their retro roots - growing up with Zeppelin and the Stones, putting that background through a punk rock set of eyes and ears, and throwing conventionality out the flippin' window.
* 10" includes 7 new tracks
* CD includes extra track, interview and original Letter to Stax 2x7" - (OR001)
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THE ORANGE SESSIONS / PRESS
CMJ New Music Report (Mar 5, 2001 Issue #704)
B.B. King said that the blues doesn't have to mean that you were out in the field all day picking cotton; it could mean coming home to find another guy's Cadillac in your driveway. For Cash Audio, maybe it means having your original name heisted by a certain clockin'-dollars hip-hop crew. Which isn't to say that The Orange Sessions finds the ineffable duo of guitarist John Humphrey and drummer Scott Giampino settling down into 12-bar traditionalism or a hipster deconstruction thereof. This tough, gritty sound is just where they're at, in place and time. It's a Chicago sound that's recognizable even to those of us who haven't gotten any closer to Maxwell Street than the moving sidewalk between connections at O'Hare. The sound is also patient and solidly muscular, in that family-man-you-don't-want-to-fuck-with way. Humphrey sings when it occurs to him, but mostly lets the guitar do the talking. Giampino, likewise, doesn't feel the need to fill up the space where a bass player might be, so that in between the pounding and tube-amp serrations, there's plenty of room to rock.
- Scott Frampton | CMJ New Music Report
LETTER TO STAX / PRESS
Billboard 10.2.99
"How refreshing: A slice of instrumental rock 'n' roll made by a pair of he-men from the windy city who sound like they could eat Backstreet Boys for breakfast and still have room for 98 (degrees). Cash Money's heartfelt homage "Letter to Stax" sounds like Stevie Ray Vaughan on a bender, while the slinky "Space is The Place" is the ideal accompaniment to a Sunday-afternoon shot and a beer. Handsome guitarist John Humphrey and hard-case stickman Scott Giampino also wring the daylights out of two classics: Freddie King's "Hideaway" and Link Wray's "Rumble". The deluxe double 7-inch vinyl set (is) in a suavely annotated gatefold sleeve." buy it here!
Magnet #41
Cash Money continues to embrace minimalism as a means to generate blues-rock pandemonium. With its trademark hollow-bodied guitar and stripped-down drumkit in full effect, Chicago's dynamic duo -- guitarist john Humphrey and drummer Scott Giampino -- tears through four instrumentals on this double single. Humphrey's junkyard-dog growl is conspicuous by its absence, but instrumental fireworks adequately compensate for the loss. Songs by Freddie King and Link Wray ("Hide Away" and "Rumble", respectively) get the dirty blues workout, while two Cash Money originals inject more than a little slow-burn soul into the raucous mix.
Rolling Stone #814 | 6.14.99 | Page 36
This is the article that lead the lawyers and attorneys to take a look at the Cash Money moniker, eventually leading to a cease and desist order handed to the band making them discontinue use of the name Cash Money. Hence the NEW name - CASH AUDIO.
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