"This stuff takes me back... it may be a tribute to large, hairy Brits sipping warm beer and listening to loud music in sweaty pubs with plastic furniture and nasty wallpaper, but it's also a bunch of beautiful, unpretentious songs sounding better here than perhaps they did in pub rock's heyday." Steve Goulding |
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Happy Doing What We're Doing Articles and Reviews |
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Once a Badass by Frank Kogan "At least for the duration of the song, I was a badass," she says of her sharp rendition of Eddie and the Hot Rods' "All I Need Is Money." This is poignant, and what I'm hearing is a smart cookie who pretends there's less going on in her music than there really is. MORE >> |
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Elizabeth McQueen "Always the twang rock curveball, on their second album, Elizabeth McQueen and The Firebrands veer from their classic country and honky-tonk sound in order to give tribute to their favorite pub rock classics." |
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Elizabeth McQueen and the Firebrands by Roy Kasten It sounds like what it always was: a fleet, lithe, somewhat pissed-off pub-rock band, playing hard and loud and free enough to clear its astronomical bar tab. But by hitting the keys and revving the roots, its members boppity-bounce like they won't ever stagger back to their flats. Then, they start all over again. MORE >> |
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Review of Happy Doing What We're Doing Following the sentiments in songs like "A1 on the Jukebox" and the album's title track, McQueen doesn't aspire to rock stardom -- she just wants to get up on the stage (no matter how small it is) and have a good time. What could be wrong with that? MORE >> |
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Review
of Happy Doing What We're Doing Pop Matters The album's 13 songs play like a good night at a local bar, with McQueen's sturdy voice gliding over the Firebrands' clockwork grooves. In short, they know their stuff and have a good time showing it. McQueen and her band do enough to make the artists they salute feel suitably honored, a nifty accomplishment, indeed. MORE >> |
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Review
of Happy Doing What We're Doing by Pat Fitzgerald McQueen’s lone original, “Dirty Little Secret,” is so seductively slinky I thought it was an unreleased Nick Lowe tune. Another round, Elizabeth. I’m buying. MORE >> |
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Happy Doing What We're Doing "It's a thirteen-track shout-out to pub rock and it's deliriously entertaining. With her brainy, dark frame glasses and her white dancing shoes, McQueen turns back the clock and kicks up her heels." MORE >> |
HAPPY
DOING WHAT WE'RE DOING The supreme Texas outfit Elizabeth McQueen and the Firebrands gives us a series of tunes from the English pub rock era that highlight the very thin line between, for instance, country and late '70s Brit pop. . . MORE>> |
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Village
Voice Licks "The loosely defined Firebrands even call their music 'pub rock,' which makes the extroverted voice up front either Carlene Carter or Rosanne Cash back when they had new-wave haircuts… not alt-country: way too much blues and rhythm; no schoolmarm in the singing, despite Lisa Loeb spectacles..." MORE>> |
Best in Texas Music Magazine |
HAPPY DOING
WHAT WE'RE DOING This girl just wants to have fun, and you will too – especially if you like to dance – when you listen to Elizabeth McQueen’s new CD. MORE>> |
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HAPPY DOING WHAT WE'RE DOING
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HAPPY DOING WHAT WE'RE DOING
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HAPPY DOING WHAT WE'RE DOING If that set list sets your heart aflutter, and you typically sing along to Rockpile's "When I Write the Book" (included here), this album is just the thing for you. MORE>> |
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Texas
platters
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LISTEN UP! |
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Review of Happy
Doing What We're Doing "Elizabeth McQueen, the irrepressible Austin-via-Little-Rock-and-DC singer is nothing if not spunky, and she and her band have pub rock down cold. That’s no small feat, because there were no female pub rockers to speak of, so it’s not necessarily easy coming up with the right songs to revive." MORE>> |
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Album Review A local roots 'n' country gal takes on Pub Rock — the early/mid-'70s roots rock movement in England — and gives it what for, possibly because this town is nothing if not full of pubs that (roots) rock. MORE>> |
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Album
Review "Happy Doing What We're Doing is, on the whole, a pub rock tribute worth hearing, and--more than that--a successful album in its own right." MORE>> |
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Album
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 FreightTrainBoogie.com |
Album Review
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Album
Review On her latest album, she and her boys cover classic pub-rock tracks by Elvis Costello ("Almost Blue"), Squeeze ("Annie Get Your Gun"), Nick Lowe ("When I Write the Book" and "That's It, I Quit"), Graham Parker ("Local Girls") and others. MORE>> |
songs:illinois |
From: Craig Bonnell Just linked to your songs and new record on my blog. It should send some traffic your way, be prepared!? Thanks, |
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Album Review "Thirteen songs, nine keepers - a few of which you might have heard before - rooted in pop-rock, old-style R&B, blues, country, and jazz; not a bad average." MORE>> |
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God
Save McQueen "If you haven't caught the buzz surrounding Elizabeth McQueen, here's your chance to be on the inside track of a future big deal. With the skills, the grin and the incandescent personality, there's no speed limit on McQueen's highway to stardom, infamy or critically acclaimed integrity, whichever she happens to fancy first..." MORE>> |
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Album Review "Austin transplant Elizabeth McQueen has garnered a lot of friends and fans in the three years since she relocated there from suburban Washington, D.C., and it’s easy to see what they like. Unassuming, self-assured, and a splendid interpreter, McQueen has a little of Kirsty MacColl’s vocal appeal, particularly in the galloping “I Know I Cross His Mind” (the Paul Carrack-ish organ by David Beebe completes the impression)..." MORE>> |
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Review
of The Fresh Up Club "Every once in a while, a musician moves to Austin and knocks the town on its ear. Elizabeth McQueen is one of those. She possesses the killer combination of irrepressible energy, a sassy personality, and more talent than she's probably aware of, and it's all on display on her debut, The Fresh Up Club..." MORE>> |
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Concert
Review in St. Louis River Front Times "McQueen is a serious contender for the most honeyed voice in alt-country (watch out, Neko Case) and the Firebrands mix old-school Grand Ole Opry steel guitar licks with a healthy dose of electricity..." MORE>> |
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Review of The Fresh Up Club "To my mind, she's the best new thing to come down this Austin pike in some time, displaying class, versatility, and a distinctiveness all too rare in these parts. With a deft mix of classicism and modernity, McQueen is bound for musical greatness and possible glory. Mark my words, please..." MORE>> |
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Album Review "If success was measured by how much one appears to enjoy what they’re doing, then Austin, Texas-based singer and songwriter Elizabeth McQueen must hit a home run every time she takes the stage..." MORE>> |
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SXSW
Live Shot "What Elizabeth McQueen is doing these days is a far cry from
Patsy Cline, Connie Smith, and Kitty Wells, and certainly miles
away from the crop of Nashville angels. In a marketplace that's
saturated with traditional female country singers, that difference,
along with her charm, talent, and attitude, may be just what she
needs to really stand out..." MORE>> |
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Album Review "If pub rock had been launched in Texas instead of England, Elizabeth McQueen and the Firebrands’ "The Fresh Up Club" is what it might’ve sounded like..." MORE>> |
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Concert
Review "She is blessed with a voice that sounds like she was born in a Texas honky-tonk, with a lineage that could be traced to both Patsy Cline and Dinah Washington — think honey mixed with barbecue sauce, and you might start to get the picture. She knows how to both pick the right material to sing, and write her own soon-to-be classics, all sung in a self-assured manner and sense of framing that, if you closed your eyes, you’d swear she was a lifelong veteran of the Texas music scene..." MORE>> |
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McQueen
all the rage in Austin "She looks a little like Lisa Loeb, sounds like Carlene Carter and has the range and power of Patsy Cline… Although she can honky-tonk till the cows come home, she’s capable of whomping you upside the head with some Dinah Washington or tossing in some Elvis Costello once in a while — just to stir things up..." MORE>> |
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Album Review "Because Austin makes it hard for any artist, but especially female country singers, to develop, no matter how good they are, sticktoitiveness is as important as talent. I don't feel McQueen has reached her full potential yet, but her debut differentiates her from the pack, with a mix of rocking, twanging, and, her forte as a songwriter, jazzy torch songs..." MORE>> |
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Album Review "Elizabeth McQueen is a roots/country/rockabilly act from Austin. The heralded singer has a top-notch band, The Firebrands, behind her. This, her first CD, is a great collection of old school honky tonk heartache such as "Love Minus One" and "Lyin", modern pop country with "I Don't Wanna Stop" and "You Shouldn't Have" and plenty of Americana, as the genre has become known..." MORE>> |
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Album
Review "Elizabeth McQueen and the Firebrands sound like they're playing this music for the same reason people did in 1959-it's just one hell of a lot of fun. They even stake a claim to their own musical identity -- a neat trick when you're working in a genre that's half a century old. Right verve. Right vibe. Check it out..." MORE>> |
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Spreading
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Village Voice Picks by Chuck Eddy MORE>> |
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Concert Review by John Binder MORE>> |
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SXSW
2003 Pick by Jerry Renshaw MORE>> |
"Elizabeth McQueen is full of surprises. Few artists would
record a tribute to pub rock as their second LP…Happy Doing
What We’re Doing accurately captures the spirit of those bands,
which she brands as “roots pop.”