NO DEPRESSION: ‘Pulling Up Atlantis’ offers a blend of rock and bluesy ballads with the pumping electric country numbers, almost all of which explore very contemporary and complicated relationships, often from the view of a tough, vulnerable and resilient woman who will hang in there, maybe even thrive, despite everything…”
SANTA MONICA MIRROR: “Skye’s singing is powerful but mindful of the quiet ache in the voice that can communicate as much as a howl. The twang from Reiners guitar is equally memorable…Skye & Reiners don’t file down the rough edges and their music has a whiskey wallop to it.”
BILLBOARD MAGAZINE: “Skye’s originals, such as “Gone So Long,” show a Buck Owens Bakersfield flavor, aided immensely by Reiners stellar musicianship and co-producer Eric “Roscoe” Ambel’s recognizable roots production touch…”
DAILY JOURNAL/MANASSAS, VA: “Looking more like Ani DeFranco than Dolly Parton and singing a version of Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” like twang’s going out of style tomorrow, Elena Skye puts the “alt” in Alt-Country.”
TIME OUT NEW YORK: “A damn fine honky tonk effort, and singer Elena Skye is the perfect balance between spunk and pathos that’s at the heart of country. Even the hillbilly cover of Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” is absolutely brilliant. Fans of the Bloodshot Label’s brand of ‘insurgent country’ will eat this one up.”
VILLAGE VOICE: “Live, Skye wears her heart on her sleeve and Reiners plays the hell out of his telecaster, supported by a no nonsense rhythm section.”
THE HERALD/GLASGOW, SCOTLAND: “They are The Demolition String Band and though they formed in Sinatra’s kind of town, Hoboken, New Jersey, they have a direct line to the mountain music of West Virginia. Elena Skye, alias “The Boss” and Boo Reiners, her foresworn “lean mean hillbilly machine” arrived in the Victorian Bar with Force 10 intensity. Armed with guitars, mandolin and banjo with a bass guitarist and drummer for company they had the Tron’s backroom swinging like a honky tonk the minute they hit the stage…another Big, Big, Country Festival find.
MEREDITH OCHS: “New York City boasts a fairly thriving alternative country scene — even if a fair number of its leading lights actually reside on Springsteen’s side of the Hudson. Hoboken’s Demolition String Band is one such group. DSB frontwoman Elena Skye pens convincing honky-tonk originals, such as “Gone So Long,” that will please both trad-country lovers and metro-roots rockers. Eric “Roscoe” Ambel’s production underscores the spectacular contributions of multi-instrumentalist Boo Reiners, whose deft picking is Nashville cat-worthy and whose lap steel always cries just right. This set of urbane twang is perfect for those whose hearts are in the country even though their digs are in the city.”
PULSE MAGAZINE: The core of Hoboken, N.J.’s Demolition String Band is the musical partnership between ace stringbender Boo Reiners and the petite but powerful songwriter/vocalist/mandolinist Elena Skye, who has a wig and/or hairstyle for every occasion and is an avid promoter of New York City’s underground Americana scene. With a solid rhythm section made up of Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes’ drummer Louis Appel and bassist Winston Roye, the Demolition String Band also calls in favors from rising Sacred Steel star Robert Randolph on “Garden of Love” and “Opportunity,” pedal steel pro Jon Graboff on the straight honky tonk shuffle “Gone So Long” and acclaimed singer/songwriter Robert Burke Warren, who provides a Gram Parsons-esque counterpoint vocal to Skye on “A Career of Loving You.”