As if Left Lane Cruiser wasn't capable of stirring up a loud and dirty enough version of the blues, the group invited James Leg of Black Diamond Heavies along for the fun. Since LLC dusts it up with slide guitar (Frederick “Joe” Evans IV) and drums (Brenn Beck), adding keyboard demon Leg and his brand of feral soul to the mix makes for an exhilarating, combustible ride. Both duos grind out the muddiest, most menacing kind of blues, and on Painkillers LLC gives a tip of the trucker hat to its inspirations. The group starts off, in fact, with Junior Kimbrough’s “Sad Days Lonely Nights,” with Leg’s organ (and voice) laying a ragged howl over Evans’ unhinged, swamp-blues slide guitar. It's a thrilling, unholy alliance. From the gale-force power of Hound Dog Taylor’s “She’s Gone” to the darkly terrifying tones of Willie Dixon’s “Little Red Rooster” and the piano-inflected boogie of Robert Johnson’s “Ramblin’ on My Mind,” Painkillers offers up the kind of messy good times that only happen in the morning's wee hours, deceptively delivered in a tidy, tiny package of 10 songs. Credit the raw, raging harmonica to Detroit’s Harmonica Shah.