SINGLE REVIEW by Bodie Plecas for Morning Paper "The Steps new single hits the top floor As I've lamented many times, the Brits seem to discover the great American bands long before we do at home. The Strokes, White Stripes, Orson – all examples of US bands that had huge success across the pond before finding an equal audience in the land of their birth. Add another band to that list. Austin's rocking combo The Steps have released a single in Britain to be followed by a short tour in support. Impossiblymore

SINGLE REVIEW by Bodie Plecas for Morning Paper "The Steps new single hits the top floor As I've lamented many times, the Brits seem to discover the great American bands long before we do at home. The Strokes, White Stripes, Orson - all examples of US bands that had huge success across the pond before finding an equal audience in the land of their birth. Add another band to that list. Austin's rocking combo The Steps have released a single in Britain to be followed by a short tour in support. Impossibly young (in their late teens) for the level of competence and maturity of their sound, The Steps draw on a collection of influences from a wide time span to create a new and fresh sound. Listen closely and you can hear tinges of the aforementioned Strokes, a dollop of the Stooges, some Stones, Beatles - clearly a band with a hell of a good record collection. But that's only where it starts. The combination of these listening tastes in the hands of the band (William Thompson on guitar and vocals, cousin Sam Thompson on lead guitar, Stephen Ross on bass, and Z Lynch on some thundering Texas drums) is wholly original. Lead track on the single, "Outlaw", rides a sinewy guitar line, through the verse before being hurled headlong into the chorus. Thompson's raspy, emotive vocals claw across the top propelled by the rhythm section's hard charge forward. The Stoogey riff that drives second song "Cold Floors" is less similar to the actual Stooges sound than married to the propulsive primal urge of the originals intent. When the call and response chorus line "Oh, yeah" kicks in it brings a pop sensibility the Stooges lacked. Even more pronounced is the slowed down blues-break thump of the bridge that sounds like a reconfigured Beatles "I Want You" on a sex date with the White Stripes. The overall sound is a muscular offensive mounted on the shoulders of what has come before. William Thompson's vocals particularly give the band a stiff shot of originality - winding their way around the melody line much like Sam Thompson does in his complementary lead guitar breaks. The Steps have built a solid and rabidly enthusiastic following in Austin by all accounts. And judging by this first single, Britain should be soon to follow. The Brits can tell a great band when they hear one."