Little Barrie Let the Tape Roll and created this Pure Fuzz Boogie

Little Barrie have been around long enough to know when something is working — and “Luggin’ Hurt” started working in the room, so they just kept playing. What began as the three of them running through an arrangement turned into a seven-minute fuzz guitar boogie that now closes Side A of Gravity Freeze, their first album under the Little Barrie name since the death of drummer Virgil Howe in 2017. The video gives you a trimmed version of the track and was directed by Robert Schober, whose resume includes Metallica, Green Day, and The Killers — company that suits the track’s coiled, unhurried menace just fine.

Gravity Freeze arrives May 22 on Easy Eye Sound and represents a genuine new chapter. After Howe’s passing, Barrie Cadogan and Lewis Wharton stepped back, then found their footing again through two albums with Malcolm Catto of The Heliocentrics. Now, with drummer Tony Coote — whose instincts run through classic jazz, soul, and blues — the band sounds both familiar and refreshed. The album was tracked at Rat Salad Studios in North London with engineer and co-producer Rupert Lyddon, written and sequenced specifically for vinyl, with hooks sharper and grooves deeper than anything they’ve done before.

Worth noting: Cadogan is currently back out on the road with The Black Keys as additional guitarist for their spring US dates, which tells you something about the man’s schedule. The Little Barrie headlining run begins May 20 in Nottingham. Dates below. Pre-order Gravity Freeze while you’re at it.

Pre-order Gravity Freeze ↗

1“More Bad Miles of Road”

2“It Isn’t Soul”

3“December”

4“Luggin’ Hurt”

5“Talk It Up Like It’s Wanted”

6“Anything You Are”

7“Coralisa”

8“Wire”

9“Gravity Freeze”