Utopia - Utopia Not to be confused with the Todd Rundgren led band of the same name, Utopia were a heavy blues rock band in the vein of Cactus or Buffalo and heavily influenced in the Paul Butterfield tradition. Headed up by the twin guitar attack
of Frank Krajinbrink and Harry Brender A. Brandis, the record takes on the tradition of turning blues riffs into hard rock burners and does it rather well. Though its certainly overshadowed by some of the bigger names of their time, the band brought a US flair to the British Blues model that became ubiquitous in the early 70's. This S/T album it a bit more rare in its original form, with many of the songs ending up re-recorded for a sophomore album. Growl that's more widely available but not as raw. Akarma put out a book-style CD issue of this a while back and that can still be found around if you're lucky, but its widely distributed in digital form these days. For those looking to round out their hard 70's blues collections, this makes a nice addition and will hotbox the best El Caminos alongside those Foghat tracks. Also amusingly the band included a drummer named Danny McBride. Sadly, it is not the actor (as he would have been a child when this was recorded) but coincidence struck me as funny anyhow. Download: [MP3] Utopia - Walking Blues Support the artist, buy it HERE