REVIEWS AND STUFF
"Pure Country Gold is so perfectly raw, electric and unpretentious that I actually witnessed a hipster take off his thrift-store sweater and flog himself with his white belt in shame at one of their live shows."
Matt Slessler, Pabst Blue Ribbon
"The Portland two-piece outfit, Pure County Gold feed from the same hollow echo guitar sound the Oblivians brought to the nineties, as if they were lucky enough to end up with one of Ray Butts' EchoSonic amps themselves. Their building rhythms and booty-shaking breakdowns are as soul quenching as they come."
Victim of Time
"Portland's Pure Country Gold's debut album is nothing less of sensational! This 2-piece's brand of garage punk, r&b, and blooze is rock'n'roll stripped to bone with basic raw melodies, not unlike The King Khan & BBQ Show, and to-the-point guitar strumming that'd be make old pappa Chuck Berry proud. 10 killer tracks in less than 30 minutes, just perfect. My favorite album of this issue!"
Low Cut Magazine (Germany)
'At a Pure Country Gold show, you're hearing two men play songs that were originally conceived for a full R&B revue with a horn section: "We had no intention of being a two-piece," says guitarist Patrick "Petey" Foss over beers at Billy Ray's, where he met drummer Jake Welliver about five years ago. The original idea was a big band, but since they hadn't had any luck filling out the lineup after a year in the garage, Foss and Welliver went ahead and played their first show last year as a duo. It turned out there wasn't all that much to fill in. A mechanic by day, 30-year-old Welliver has big hands, big arms and a huge drum sound (downright deafening at a house show), and Foss' muddy guitar can emulate a train engine or pass out sweet, hip-swayin' leads, sometimes simultaneously.
"That's what we're all about," says Welliver, "creating dynamic musical landscapes." Then he and Foss crack up. See, PCG is on the juke at Slabtown and the B Side for a reason. "I don't much like stayin' at home," explains Welliver. Foss adds, "I like to go to a place where I can spit on the floor and be comfortable about it." And the loud, upbeat rock 'n' roll Pure Country Gold plays epitomizes just that.'
From Willamette Week best new bands issue 2007)
"What a fantastic R & B punk noise these two gentlemen create. very impressive indeed. Super stripped down and naked, explosive rock ‘n’ roll that just can’t contain itself. It’s wild, truly wild and absolutely captivating. This is so sincere and so uncontrollably real that it’s like their hearts and souls are coming through the speakers. We fight over promos when they arrive here and I fuckin nabbed this one as soon as I saw it. It jumped out at me, firstly because it’s on Empty but secondly it looked like my kind of breed of super lo-fi, raw noise that I’m just addicted to. There’s a real skill to transmitting really raw and exposed music well because if it’s not done right it can just sound empty, thin and recorded badly but PURE COUNTRY GOLD could be the definitive example of how to do it right. Like I said, this is truly wild and I’m blown away. Fan-fuckin-tastic."
No Front Teeth Webzine (UK)
"The rock and roll two piece crusade continues this time in the form of Pure Country Gold, a duo of bluesy rock and rolly punks from the Pacific Northwest that filter a sound that would fit right in on Fat Possum. Fuck bass players, PCG, like Digger and the Pussycats prove that all you need is a blood soaked guitar neck and two things to hit drums with."
Tim Scott, Screaming Bloody Mess (Australia)
"Pure Country Gold=Blistered Rock-n-Roll Combustion."
Smashin' Transistors
[REVIEW OF SHOW AT THE WHITE EAGLE SALOON] "Singer/guitarist Patrick Foss sounded more like a hyped-up Elvis Costello than ever and Welliver's drum attack was … well … overwhelmingly awesome. It all came off like just one more inspired installment in PCG's on-going story of tricked-out thunder beats and corn-fed guitar powerage; a deceptively simple (and effective) rock 'n' roll story, with more loose ends then one can count, or see. Which is the beauty of the guitar-drum arrangement—lack of constraint—and PCG is all about being beautiful."
LocalCut.com
"Good and loud and suitable for dancing"
Terminal Boredom
"Live, PCG are hard to ignore, let alone watch while standing still. Wellivers brand of go-for-broke drumming, combined with Foss blistering six-string attack, deftly obscures the fact that this band is (yet another) bass-less two-piece.Perhaps its the fact that these guys can actually play- or that their songs dont always prescribe to tried-and-true garage rock traditions- that keeps the two-piece act from seeming gimmicky or unoriginal."
PS We Hate You zine
"Pure Country Gold is altogether hi-octane and uncompromised."
Left of the Dial Magazine
"Pure Country Gold has a backbeat; you can't lose it. Fueled by mostly drums 'n' guitar, this duo plays high-speed, crunchy, foot-stompin' garage rock that pays as much homage to Chuck Berry as it does to Dead Moon."
Willamette Week
