Reese Van Riper Releases Grit-Soaked EP “The American Dream”

New Jersey’s high priests of swamp rock, Reese Van Riper, return with The American Dream, a five-song fever dream that drags the myth of Americana through a backwoods dive bar and leaves it bleeding on the floor. The new EP is a tongue-in-cheek, gut-punching journey through Middle America’s darkest corners — equal parts patriotic nightmare and protest hymn. Appropriately, the EP was released on July 4th.

With tracks like “The American Dream” channeling Every Time I Die through denim and paranoia, and “Alcohol and Women” playing like Waylon Jennings wrestling with his worst regrets, Van Riper delivers anthems for the overmedicated and underpaid.

At the core of the EP lies “Black and Blue,” a slow-burning eulogy for the forgotten, walking…