The Trainwreck Riders steer clear of both alt-country and rockabilly. This San Francisco quartet instead channels the cowpunk style of Green on Red, Rank and File, and numerous nearly forgotten contemporaries, arriving roughly twenty-five years after those acts dominated their preferred circuit. Guitars and vocals carry a pronounced country twang, yet the rhythm section supplies relentless punk propulsion that surpasses the drive achieved by Uncle Tupelo and similar groups. That same punk intensity stems directly from the members’ origins in the Bay Area hardcore community, where lead guitarist and backing vocalist Andrew Kerwin has performed since adolescence. Kerwin continues to play guitar in the enduring punk-pop outfit All Bets Off alongside his work with the Trainwreck Riders. Drawing from the initial cowpunk wave as well as subsequent country-punk fusions by the Meat Puppets and the Mekons, Kerwin, his brother Steve Kerwin on drums, and lead singer and rhythm guitarist Pete Fraudenfelder launched the band in 2003 within a loose network of Bay Area acts that favored art-gallery and nonstandard venues for performances rooted in folk and other vernacular traditions. While sharing regular San Francisco bills with the Two Gallants and comparable artists, the Trainwreck Riders completed their debut album, 2005’s Where the Neon Turns to Wood, with temporary bassist and producer Forrest Lawrence, another All Bets Off colleague. After Morgan Stickrod assumed the bass chair on a permanent basis, the group joined the regional indie imprint Alive Records and issued the accomplished Lonely Road Revival in 2006. Perch appeared three years later.
