File this one under: Bands I Like Who Slipped Through the Cracks. I’d heard a few tracks from Royal Blood’s self-titled debut album two years ago on the Out of the Black EP, but kept forgetting to buy the full record. I finally found it at a Target two months ago.
It’s one of the best rock records to come along in recent memory. Royal Blood is Mike Kerr on bass and vocals and Ben Thatcher on drums. That’s right, no guitar. They bring new meaning to the term “drum and bass,” because that’s all there is (apart from vocals). It’s all bass – wonderful, cranked-up, fuzzed-out, wall-flattening bass – and drums – excellent armies of Mordor-marching, Jason Bonham-honoring, avalanche-producing drums.
“Out of the Black” was their first big hit, and rightly so, as they belt out a rocker about an angry break-up. It’s a common theme on the record. The lads are angry, lonely, and frisky, but there isn’t a damn thing they can do about it except pour it all out on this record. The follow-up to the “I’m so pissed I could kill you” anthem of “Out of the Black” is “Come On Over,” in which Kerr has dropped belief in God (“I went to church and stopped believing.”) and thus the religious dogma that held him back from engaging in naughty sinful behavior. We go from bad break-up to sinful sex in the span of two songs.
“Figure It Out” has a wicked drum groove that barely touches on pop-punk as Kerr struggles to determine why his girl won’t talk about what went wrong in their relationship (“I said I’d go, ‘cause I won’t see you later and we’re not allowed to figure it out.”). It makes sense that the next song is “You Can Be So Cruel,” which has Kerr standing outside his lady’s door thinking of her (in his stalker-like eyes) loneliness and his depression.
His lady’s continued distance from him leads to more anger on “Blood Hands.” “I’ll curse the ground where you kneel till I grow my hair to my heels. Spike your water, your wine while you waste my precious time.” Kerr’s bass work on it sounds like he’s playing two guitars at once.
Kerr tries to move on to another romantic conquest on “Little Monster,” but still borders on creepy as he sings, “I’m gonna love you no matter what you say.” and “I say run little monster before you know who I am.” The song was another big hit for them, and it couldn’t miss. Thatcher’s drums are like something from a Mad Max movie and Kerr’s bass work on it is pure stoner metal.
The subject of “Little Monster” must have taken Kerr’s advice of running away, because Kerr sings about “Shouting through your letter hole like there’s nobody home.” and referring to her as an “ice queen licking on a guillotine” in “Loose Change,” which has Thatcher putting down a groove so nasty it should be twiddling its moustache.
Kerr admits he’s screwed up everything on “Careless.” “I wish I could care less, but I’m afraid I don’t. You couldn’t care less, so I guess you won’t change your mind again.” In “Ten Tonne Skeleton,” he knows his ex-girlfriend has moved on, and now he regrets the way he screwed up his chance.
The final cut is “Better Strangers,” and Kerr realizes he has to get far away from this woman before he gets flattened again (“I’m a thousand miles from danger if I make a better stranger of you.”). He repeats the word “hollow” to echo the empty feeling in his gut, but he fills it with scorching bass work.
This easily would’ve been in my top 5 records of 2014 if I’d kept track of such things then. Royal Blood were in the process of writing a new album when they toured with Foo Fighters in 2015. I hope they release it soon.
Keep your mind open.
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The closest I came to seeing L7 in their first heyday was when they were on the 1994 when they were on the Lollapalooza tour. We got to what was then known as Deer Creek Music Center (and is now know as Klipsch Music Center) in Noblesville, Indian a bit late and we could hear L7 wrapping up their set with “Pretend We’re Dead” from the parking lot.
I wouldn’t have the chance to see them again for another 22 years. They played a sold out show at Chicago’s Metro (one of my top favorite venues in the city) on August 06, 2016, and it was definitely worth the wait.
Punk trio Radkeyopened the show with a damn fine (and prompt – 8pm sharp) set that sounded like a combination of the Damned and the Misfits. The crowd was appreciative and they got everyone geared up for more heavy rock.
Radkey
L7 came out to a packed house of punks, Gen X’ers, MILFs, DILFs, gays, straights, and at least one woman in her 70’s I saw heading up to the balcony to watch the show. They opened with “Deathwish,” and immediately proved they haven’t lost a thing since that Lollapalooza gig.
“Deathwish” – Charles Bronson would’ve been proud.
Donita Sparks belted out the “Deathwish” lyrics and everyone in the packed, hot crowd was in the band’s hands within seconds. Suzi Gardner then bellowed “Andres” and Jennifer Finch knocked out “Everglade.” They came out swinging with three hard rockers and everyone was on their heels with joy and dizziness.
“Monster” (with Dee Plakas‘ much-beloved cowbell in full effect) and “Scrap” had everyone grinning. “Fuel My Fire” had everyone jumping, and it’s easy to forget how heavy “One More Thing,” “I Need,” and “Slide” are until you hear them live.
“I Need”…more L7 shows.
There’s no mistaking “Crackpot Baby” for anything but a fist to the face, especially with Sparks singing so loud that I’m sure people in the SmartBar downstairs could hear her. Two cuts from The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum followed – “Must Have More” and the always-excellent “Drama.”
The rest of the crowd and I were happy to chant and pump our fists to “Shove,” and “Freak Magnet” was a nice lead-in to my favorite surprise of the night – Finch (rocking age 50 and a Misfits-logo bass) and crew performing her song “Shirley” (a great tune off Hungry for Stink about NHRA drag racing champ Shirley “Cha-Cha” Muldowney).
Don’t you dare pinch her ass. Suzi Gardner knocking out “Shove.”
They closed with, of course, “Shitlist,” which had everyone completely batshit by this point.
The encore was “American Society” (another great rare cut), “Pretend We’re Dead,” and the (finally!) mosh pit-inducing “Fast and Frightening” (which, if you didn’t know, has perhaps the most rock lyric of all time).
So much clit they don’t need no balls.
It was a great show with a great crowd. The Metro blasted Dee-Lite’s “Groove Is in the Heart” after the encore and nearly everyone was dancing on top of crushed plastic cups and spilled beer (myself included).
Thanks, L7, for reuniting and giving us these shows. We needed them, and I hope it won’t take me another two decades to see you again.
Keep your mind open.
[Thanks to Robert Fagan for getting me a press pass to the show, the lady working the press table at the Metro for being so helpful, and to Hannah – my +1 for the night. I’m glad to have met you and that you had a good time.]
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Ty Segall, not content to be involved in at least three bands, has joined / started a fourth – Goggs (Charles Moothart – guitar, bass, drums, Ty Segall – guitar, bass, drums, Chris Shaw – vocals). Their first album is a bonkers rock ride not unlike an old wooden roller coaster that thrills and beats you up at the same time.
“Falling In” has a great Stooges feel to it in the bass and drums and a Sham 69 (or should I say Cult, since Shaw is the ex-Cult vocalist?) feel to the vocals. “Shotgun Shooter” has bass so loud, fuzzy, and heavy that Lightning Bolt will be envious. “She Got Harder” is snotty punk, both in the instrumentation but especially in the vocals. The way Shaw belts out the lyrics while his guitar shreds and Segall destroys his kit is great.
Speaking of drums, they’re even crazier on “Smoke the Wurm.” The self-titled track starts off weird and quirky and then turns into angry goth-punk. “Assassinate the Doctor” is just as odd. It’s almost a meltdown. “Needle Trade Off,” is back to the angry post-punk with fierce bass and lyrics practically spat into the microphone. “Future Nothing” is so old school punk that it even sounds like it was recorded in 1981.
“Final Notice” adds what sounds like old video game noises to the ritualistic beats and bizarre screams and chants. It’s a weird (mostly) instrumental that goes into the closer – “Glendale Junkyard,” which hits hard and loud before fading out with snare drum taps and distorted guitar fuzz.
This is easily the most punk record I’ve heard so far this year. It’s crazy, loud, squeaky, weird, and just what you need to drown out the noise of an election year.
Keep your mind open.
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Australia’s Wolfmother return in 2016 Victorious. It’s a proper name for the album, because the band (Andrew Stockdale – guitar, bass, and vocals, Josh Freese and Joey Waronker – drums) can claim victory in the world of rock with it.
The opening riff of “The Love that You Give” instantly lets you know Wolfmother means business with this record. It’s fast and like something you’d crank as you race across the desert flats of Oz. The title track has Sabbath-like chugging as Stockdale’s vocals rise to give praise to a powerful woman snatching victory from outside forces trying to destroy her. The breakdown on this cut is outstanding and like something you’d hear blasting out of your brother’s customized van in 1978.
The heavy organ on “Baroness” is the magic touch on it, and the boot-stomping drums are an added bonus. “Pretty Peggy” is, believe it or not, a lovely ballad that has Stockdale singing to the back wall of the club. It has a bit of a psych-rock feel that I like.
“City Lights” gets back to the rock with Stockdale’s guitar practically singing backing vocals. It’s a great summer driving song. The drums and cymbals on “The Simple Life” are anything but simple, nor is Stockdale’s shredding. His riffs on it are some of my favorite of the record. “Best of a Bad Situation” has a nice pop ring to it, especially with the acoustic guitar and handclaps, and Stockdale’s vocals are light-hearted on it.
“Gypsy Caravan” is a classic cosmic rock track from the band. Stockdale’s reverbed vocals mix well with the groovy organ, fuzzed guitars, and Keith Moon-like drumming. The caravan seems to be travelling more around Saturn than through a dusty outback town. “Happy Face” has synths that remind me of ELO songs. Imagine ELO as a psych / stoner rock band and you’ll get the idea. The album ends with “Eye of the Beholder,” which is heavy enough to be about the multi-optic monster from Dungeons & Dragons. Stockdale brings some of his best “epic rock” vocals to the closer, the drums go for broke, and Stockdale’s guitar is more like a bullet train racing by you.
Victorious is a nice return for Wolfmother. They are currently on tour, and I recommend you see them. They pull no punches on stage and leave you humming their songs for days afterwards.
Keep your mind open.
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I’ve been mildly obsessed with Gary Wilson’s music since seeing him perform at Levitation Chicago earlier this year. It’s to the point where I’m probably dressing up as some variation of him for Halloween. I’ve been awaiting his new record of avant-garde lounge music, Friday Night with Gary Wilson, for months.
It starts with the brief, chaotic, and weird “A Tree Cries in the Wind.” It’s some sort of tape-looped fever dream of a car crashing through a swanky bowling alley lounge and then into the recording studio next door. It moves into “I Want to Hold Your Hand Tonight,” which gets us back to familiar Gary Wilson material – A guy just wants the chance to treat his lady (the ever-mysterious Linda, in this case) right. “Every night is Friday night,” Wilson sings as he lays down peppy electric organ grooves. Every night can be Friday night with Wilson’s music if you open yourself up to it.
Wilson tells Linda “I’m Going to Take You to a Thousand Dreams,” including flying to the moon, walking through the park, and making sweet love to the sound of a rather hot guitar solo. “You’re the Coolest Girl Tonight” isn’t about a girl who’s cool as in Miles Davis / Fonzie / Joe Cool-type of cool. It’s about a girl who’s cold to everyone around her, but Wilson can’t resist her beauty and the chance to thaw out this fine lady and show her a good time.
Gary Wilson’s Fridays aren’t always smooth, however. “Sick Trip on Friday Night” has him too timid to talk to Linda, even though he knows he’s the right guy for her. He goes through it every weekend. The quirky synths on it bounce like the thoughts and dreams in his head.
“Yeah, let’s swing,” says Wilson at the beginning of “We’ll Dance into the Stars.” Dancing on the moon and through the galaxy is a common theme on the record, and this groovy lounge cut is perfect for a slow dance (or an all-skate) aboard your favorite starcruiser.
Wilson’s obsession with Linda continues on “Like a Scene from a Movie Long Gone.” It even starts with the lyric, “Gary loves Linda.” Wilson sings about himself in the third person and then in the first, so you’re never sure how much of his songs are fantasies and how much is something that really happened to him. The song has some of his best electric piano work on the record.
“The Mermaid Song” is about a dream in which a mermaid sings for Wilson from the ocean, possibly luring him to either the love of his life or his doom. Wilson drops Linda, Cindy, and Cheryl’s names, but is any of them the mermaid, or is the mermaid a composite of all of them? Wilson’s synth work on it is outstanding. Beck wishes he had grooves this good.
The drums on “Soon I’ll Be Kissing Sandy” almost sound reversed, but the song is too playful to be weird. “Linda” returns after that, with some nice strings accompanying her. Wilson name checks his band (the Blind Dates) in it, and even one of his best hits, “Linda Wants to Be Alone,” in it. The groove on this is so sick that it needs antibiotics.
Even a song with such a blue title as “You Made Me Feel My Misery” can’t avoid Wilson’s ultra-lounge grooves. Wilson pines for a lost love, even though the relationship was miserable. “I Thought of You Last Night” is a weird mix of crowd noise, ambient piano, drunk synths, and something a bit nightmarish. It quickly fades into “I’ll Make You My Dream Girl,” which makes me wonder about Wilson’s obsession with the girl mentioned in the song.
The album ends with “Sometimes I Cry Late at Night,” an instrumental that showcases what a damn good pianist Wilson is. His skills are easy to miss in many of his songs as you listen to his quirky lyrics or dance to his lounge grooves, but Wilson is a fine jazz player who can put it down with the best of them.
You could spend your Friday night watching bad TV and eating those leftover chicken wings, or you could spend it with Gary Wilson, the Blind Dates, Linda, Sandy, Cheryl, Cindy, and a bunch of other fine ladies. I know what I’d pick.
Keep your mind open.
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Members of the psychedelic pop group Pink Floyd. From left to right, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Syd Barrett and Rick Wright. (Photo by Keystone Features/Getty Images)
Start your Christmas wish list now because Pink Floyd is set to release The Early Years 1965-1972 this November – a 27-disc box set covering not only albums like Atom Heart Mother and Ummagumma, but also rare BBC sessions, unreleased studio sessions, remastered singles, unreleased video, and over seven hours alone of unreleased live audio tracks.
They also plan to release a two-disc (and far more affordable) set called The Early Years – Cre/ation. This stuff is gold if you’re a fan of Pink Floyd, classic rock, prog rock, or psychedelic rock.
Keep your mind open.
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Montreal psych-rockers Elephant Stoneare set to drop their latest album, Ship of Fools. You can order a digital download of it for only 8 bucks and a lot of other neat stuff through the PledgeMusic campaign for the record. That digital download, by the way, is an early release, so you’ll get it before most of the general public.
Other fun goodies include the album on CD, cassette, and vinyl, exclusive T-shirts, signed CDs and albums, Indian cooking and sitar lessons with Rishi Dhir, a signed vinyl test pressing of the album, and even the first sitar Dhir owned.
You also get to download four tracks from the album right away – “Manipulator,” “Where I’m Going,” “Andromeda,” and “The Devil’s Shelter” (all of which are excellent) – when you make any purchase.
Keep your mind open.
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7th Level Music: Is this your first time in Fort Wayne?
Jarrett Dougherty (drums): Yeah.
7LM: You’ve got one more gig to go before the end of the tour. How’s it been?
Mike Abbatte (bass): Pretty good.
Marissa Paternoster (vocals, guitar): Smooth.
JD: Yeah, it’s been pretty easy. We did three weeks, and then the two weeks off, and then this is the end of another two weeks after that. We went down to Florida and then back up the coast over the three weeks, so the drives were really easy, and then we just went through Canada for a few days, and then Michigan, Wisconsin, and Chicago, and now we’re here. It’s all been pretty easy.
7LM: If you can get to the Warhol Museum there, it’s amazing.
MP: We got a tour of it the last time we were there from…Andy’s nephew?
7LM: Oh, right on.
JD: Yeah, Donald Warholia.
MA: Warhola.
JD: Warhola.
MP: It was awesome. There was so much stuff to look at, it was overwhelming.
7LM: Weren’t you in Australia earlier this year, or maybe last fall?
JD: We’re going for the first time. It’s at the end of our summer, so it’s the end of their winter.
7LM: You get there in time for the good weather, then.
JD: Yeah, they said it’ll be a little cold when we first get there, but by the end of the trip spring will be kicking in.
7LM: I imagine that’s hard to change your logistics of planning for packing and moving all your gear.
MA: I have not thought about packing.
MP: Yeah, I haven’t thought about it.
MA: This is the first I’m thinking about it.
7LM: Oh, I’m sorry to plant that seed of panic in your head.
JD: Mainly the panic’s been about how long the plane ride is to get there. Marissa doesn’t really like planes, Mike doesn’t like that he has trouble fitting in the seats, and then I just get really bored, but that’s not nearly as bad as compared to what they’re going through…but at the same time I don’t want to be bored.
MA: I’m a giant so I’ll end up sitting like this (turns sideways in the driver’s seat of the van).
MP: And I’m crazy, so I’ll be having a nervous breakdown.
7LM: Have there been any countries where you were surprised to discover how popular you are? Have you ever heard from fans from some place where you never imagined we’d get played there?
MA: Florida.
MP: (laughing) I wish it was another country.
JD: Well, yeah, other than Miami, already for the Australia stuff, it’s pretty amazing. We’ve already been getting all these e-mails from people who are like, “I can’t believe you guys are coming here.” We’ve done a number of tours in Europe, and there we have really good experiences and a lot of the shows are really good, but it’s a lot of promoters who are just good at having people that come out to shows regardless if they know the bands or not because the promoter’s like, “Everybody should show up for this one.” But, already for Australia it seems like there are people who are excited about us getting there. We did a bunch of interviews the other day for Australian things, and people were like, “Oh, yeah, I saw your band at South by Southwest one time. I’ve been waiting for you guys to get here for years.”
7LM: That’s fantastic.
JD: Yeah, so that’s pretty exciting already. I feel like the number of people who said they were excited about our band is equal to all the people in Europe who know who we are.
7LM: I was wondering about your songwriting process. Grooves first or lyrics first? Or does it depend on the song?
JD: Always grooves first. Yeah, for sure.
(Marissa and Mike bump fists.)
JD: Occasionally, Marissa will come in with a song that’s pretty formed already, lyrically. For the songs we’re working on coming up, eventually it will be a new album, but we’re just writing the songs right now, Mike brought in a song like that as well. But the vast majority of stuff is us getting together and just playing music together.
7LM: One of the things I love so much about the stuff you guys play is how you’ll sometimes go from a song that’s quiet and just heartbreaking and then you’ll make this right turn and it’s like a punch in the gut and you’re hitting so hard and knocking walls down. I wondered if there were songs on the new record or ones you can think of where you came in thinking, “Okay, this is going to be kind of a mellow heartbreaker,” but then one of you thought, “You know what? This just needs to be like a kick in the junk, or vice versa.”
MA: (laughing) With the new stuff that we’re currently writing, it all has just come together naturally.
MP: Yeah.
MA: There hasn’t been a song where we went into it thinking one thing and then it turned out completely different – that I can think of.
JD: The one I can think of that most dramatically represents that is on Ugly. The song is “Expire.” When Marissa first made a demo of that, it had this very…
MP: (chuckling) It was like a merengue.
JD: Yeah, it had a very arpeggiated Latin acoustic guitar feel, and then it turned into something entirely different by the time we were done.
MP: (laughing) That’s probably a good thing.
MA: I don’t remember that at all. “Hopeless” (from RoseMountain)had a bit more of an Americana vibe to it and then we took that and made it more straight-ahead. We turned it into like a Weezer song.
JD: We had a couple ideas about that one, too, that included thinking about the beginning of Stop Making Sense. David Byrne comes out to do “Psycho Killer” with just the boom box and that idea stuck in my head, that you could do a song in that fashion. So when we were working out “Hopeless,” I was thinking about playing very robotically, like a drum machine. We even tried to drop a drum machine in on that first part of that track to see if it would work, but we couldn’t get one work that mixed with the vibes of the instruments. So we left the drums, but I was trying to play like a drum machine.
7LM: Nice. I know on Chalk Tape you three basically wrote the stuff out on a chalkboard and kind of went with “First thought, best thought,” kind of thing?
JD: Absolutely.
7LM: Did any of that carry over into Rose Mountain at all on any of the tracks?
MP: Chalk Tape was like a vacation away from overthinking things, and then we revisited overthinking everything when we got to Rose Mountain – which is not something we necessarily dislike doing, I think.
MA: Wait, Chalk Tape was before Rose Mountain?
Everyone else: Yeah.
(Laughter fills the van.)
MP: Because Ugly was such a big project and there were so many songs, and we demoed everything five thousand times. We demoed songs at different speeds. We like doing stuff like that.
MA: It’s true.
MP: I mean, I do. It’s fun for me. So Chalk Tape was like a little bit break from that and we threw caution to the wind and just had fun. Demoing stuff is fun for me. With Rose Mountain we definitely were very focused on melodies and songwriting and analyzing our demos and getting rid of things that we were like, “This is extraneous, and that’s unnecessary. It doesn’t benefit the song in any way.”
7LM: What are your favorite misheard lyrics? Do you have any that just crack you up?
MA: We have a couple.
MP: One I can’t say.
7LM: No, you can say it.
JD: About our band?(Looking at Marissa) You like those misheard lyrics about the Fall Out Boy video.
MP: Yeah, it’s just “don-don-don-loora-loora.”
MA: Yeah, it’s like “Ooo-lee-ooo-rah.”
JD: We watch that video a lot because they attempt to animate what they think these nonsense words mean and it’s really, really good.
MP: Misheard lyrics from other songs?
7LM: Or from yours.
MP: There’s this one song we have called “Pretty Okay,” and I say, “You make me feel so enlightened,” and our friends in a posthumous band called Full of Fancy thought I said, “You make me feel like Steve Martin,” which I think is a better lyric.
MA: The next line is “A lady found God in her purse,” and another friend of ours said it sounded like “A lady found God in her puss.”
MP: It’s a little risqué.
JD: We didn’t say it! They just thought we said it.
MA: I just said it. It just came out of my mouth.
MP: I think Full of Fancy did that, too. It was always them.
MA: No, it was probably (producer Steve) Albini.
7LM: It wouldn’t surprise me. Are there any bands that have inspired you that you fans might be surprised by?
MA: (no hesitation) Fall Out Boy. We love Fall Out Boy.
MP: (laughing) Yeah, we love Fall Out Boy.
JP: Just the one album, though.
MP: I celebrate two albums.
JD: I mean, collectively, we like the one album.
MP: Yeah, that’s true.
JD: I love a lot of hip hop. I don’t know if people think that’s weird, but it definitely doesn’t seem like it’s attached to Screaming Females. In high school I listened to a lot of world music and jazz and stuff, but I think a lot of that comes out in my playing, and I think people who are familiar with music like Fela Kuti and Gangstarr, could hear that I play drums more like what those artists think of rhythms like instead a punk band.
7LM: Are there any bands you’ve played with on this tour that you think your fans should hear more of?
MP: The first night of tour we played with two of the coolest bands I’d seen in a long time.
MA: Chipped Nails. They were cool as hell.
MP: Chipped Nails from Montreal. It was like their second show ever. They were so good, I wanted them to play forever. They played for, like, ten minutes.
JD: They played this really hypnotically repetitive, slightly funky groovin’ music that was completely atonal and nonsensical, and it was amazing.
MP: They were really good.
7LM: I’m all over that.
MP: They don’t have any Internet presence yet.
MA: They have no music. It was their second show.
JD: Everybody in the crowd, their jaws dropped like, “I don’t know what I’m witnessing.” They were bopping their heads. It was the grooviest show of all time.
MA: We did a couple shows with our friends in this band called Vacation who are really, really good.
JD: Yeah, they’re from Ohio.
7LM: I’ve heard of them somewhere.
JD: Yeah, they’re on Don Giovanni, which is the same label that has been putting out stuff for a long time. They’re from Cincinnati and Columbus and have been playing shows for years and years.
7LM: I go to Columbus a lot, so that’s probably where I heard of them.
JD: Okay, it’s a cool venue there. Our friend, Evan, who plays in Vacation is usually working the door. So, if you ever end up there, you’ll probably meet Evan.
7LM: Finally, I thought this would be fun to ask you – Who are your favorite scream queens?
MA: What?
7LM: Your favorite Hollywood scream queens.
MA: What’s that?
7LM: Horror movie stars. Screaming females, literally.
JD: Jamie Lee Curtis from Halloween is the classic.
7LM: Oh yeah, of course.
MA: I don’t do movies. I can’t sit still that long.
JD: (looking at Marissa) Green Room?
MA: Maeby from Arrested Development? I don’t even know what her name is.
MP: Yeah, me either (Alia Shawkat). I’m not much of a movie buff. I don’t know too much. I like Hellraiser, that’s a movie I enjoy. There’s two female characters in there. I don’t know either of their names. The woman who’s seducing the men and bringing them to the guy’s room so he can reanimate them. She’s cool. I don’t know what her name is (Julia – played by Claire Higgins), but I like her style. She’s ruthless. She doesn’t give a good damn. Yeah, I think that might be my favorite horror movie. I haven’t seen the others, but I do really like the first Hellraiser.
7LM: Once I was at a horror movie convention and saw Doug Bradley, who plays Pinhead, and Robert England, who plays Freddy Krueger having lunch together.
JP: Whoa!
MP: My girlfriend at the time really wanted to get into the franchise, and I think we got up to the third one and I was like, “I can’t watch these, they’re so bad.”
7LM: They get progressively worse.
MP: The first one’s so cool, and the second one was okay, and by the third one I was like, “What’s happening?” But my friend, Mark Bronzino, who plays in this metal band called Iron Reagan, he was like, “Yo, Marissa, Hellraiser 14 is pretty good, you should go see it.” And I was like, “I’m not gonna see it.”
7LM: Well, they’re remaking it.
MP: The first one?
JD: The fourteenth one.
7LM: They probably are.
MP: I don’t know, apparently it’s pretty good.
7LM: Thanks again. Is there anything you want fans to look up, or anything you want to plug?
JD: Screamingfemales.com is the easiest place to find our real tour dates, because now there are tour date aggregators out there all over the Internet that put up tour dates from five years ago. That’s the best place to find information about us, but we’re pretty easy to get in touch with. You can literally e-mail us and one of us will probably answer you.
Dunsmuir are a metal supergroup consisting of Vinny Appice of Black Sabbath (drums), Dave Bone of The Company Band (guitar), Brad Davis of Fu Manchu (bass), and Neil Fallon of Clutch (vocals). That should be all you need to know to buy their self-titled debut, but if not then knowing that the record is a concept album about a group of shipwreck survivors who struggle to stay alive against natural and supernatural forces should seal the deal. Again, what more do you need?
“Hung on the Rocks” begins the story of our doomed crew, and Bone’s guitar work cooks from the opening riff. Fallon sings, “When you’re hung on the rocks, do you stand by your captain or run ashore with the natives?” It seems a fitting lyric for someone frustrated with bumbling workplace management as well as someone freaking out as the ship goes down and “the chaplain is content to dance.”
“Our Only Master” (which, according to Fallon, is science) reminds us why Appice is one of the best metal drummers out there. Davis has a blast keeping up with him and Bone’s licks venture on the edge of stoner metal. The breakdown on it is fantastic. “The Bats (Are Hungry Tonight)” is great chugging metal, with Fallon’s vocals echoing off the back wall and Davis’ bass line charging through it.
“What Manner of Bliss” has some of Davis’ best bass work, and Bone sounds like he’s playing for an audience on the moon. Appice’s beats are simple but heavy. He doesn’t need to put in a lot of fancy fills because he doesn’t need them. He hits heavy and conveys power like the master of his craft that he is. “Deceiver” has our shipwrecked survivors lost in the supernatural as Fallon sings about the secrets of the universe and how such knowledge might be a terrible curse.
The survivors are off the deep end by the time we reach “…and Madness,” which has Bone apparently playing while someone sets his guitar on fire (judging by how hot the riffs are). Only Neil Fallon can sing a song like “Orb of Empire,” with lyrics of royal intrigue, magic, and dark societies. His vocal style is a perfect match to the band’s sledgehammering instrumentation. It’s the best metal song I’ve heard so far this year.
I love how “Church of the Tooth” starts out with slick and heavy stuff that sounds like, yes, Black Sabbath, and then Neil Fallon starts singing about iguanas, tortoises, crabs, and dark things at the bottom of the ocean. The band sinks into the Marianas Trench with a great finish of doom-metal sludge.
The remaining survivors are at the breaking point when we reach “The Gate,” as Fallon sings that his mind is about “to implode.” “Crawling Chaos” has Fallon reaching deep down for guttural vocals about the Old Ones and terrible things best left behind the veil that separates this world from a much darker one. The band plays like they’re trying to hold back or cause a volcanic eruption. I’m not sure which.
Dunsmuir is everything you want in a metal supergroup record. Again, the lineup alone should make you buy it. The two-ton weight heaviness of it is an added bonus.
Keep your mind open.
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Pixies‘ new album, Head Carrier, is due out September 30, 2016. You can pre-order it and a lot of fun extras through their PledgeMusic page for the album. You can order it on CD, LP, or digital download, of course, but why not add a T-shirt, limited posters, and artwork book, too?
People are already buzzing about the first single, “Um Chagga Lagga,” (which is great punk-fuzz) and how one song on the album is about the band’s former bass player, Kim Deal, sung by their new bass player, Paz Lenchantin.
Don’t miss out on fun stuff offered by a band who can do whatever they want whenever they want it.
Keep your mind open.
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