Dope rock
Bands that ape '70s rock severely depress me. For starters, the '70s probably did more good for rock music than any other decade, deversifying rock's boundaries with exciting new subgenres like punk, psych, metal and southern rock. So, for a modern band to simply just regurgitate the style and sounds of the '70s seems to fly in the face of the growth that period symbolized for rock. Take a band like The Datsuns, for example, who pen odes to Zeppelin, Bad Company and MC5. They might be a band that I would find cool if I was at their concert, had just finished drinking my weight in beer and was unlikely to have any memory of them the following morning. But, in the sober environs of my apartment, I found no reason to give their breakthrough album a second listen. Blah. Now that their 15 minutes of fame is up, why don't they just learn the Zeppelin catalog, rename themselves Misty Mountain Hop and tour the States? I'm sure they could triple their take-home pay overnight.
There really are only a handful of modern bands that are doing anything interesting with '70s rock. The Cherry Valance, Magnolia Electric Co. and Comets on Fire—today's subject matter—come to mind. These are talented groups that either utilize exceptional songwriting or attempt to maybe not reinvent the wheel but at least improve upon its design. They've got balls, whereas other bands stuff their collective crotch with socks (or something else entirely).
Comets on Fire
Comets on Fire really love that vintage stoner rock. And when I say those words—stoner rock—please don't think of Monster Magnet. Monster Magent, White Zombie and bands of that ilk perform commercially-motivated outsider metal that for some reason the lazy music press has taken to calling stoner rock. Comets on Fire is the real deal—a dash of Japanese noise-rock, a hint of Hawkwind and Deep Purple, a dabble of Stooges, and a healthy heaping of the uncontrollable urge to fuck shit up. I hesitate to call Comets on Fire "metal" in the traditional sense of the term, but I've no reservations about calling them "heavy".
While Blue Cathedral might show the band mellowing some as they age (introducing a more prevalent role for analog keyboardist and effects-savant Noel Harmonson), there’s certainly no shortage of hell to pay on the group’s third release. Guitarist Ben Chasny (of Six Organs of Admittance) has joined the band full-time after guesting on a previous album, giving the Comets a dual six-string attack that intensifies the aural assault. But before we jump into the maelstrom, lets examine the calm eye of the storm. “Pussy Foot the Duke,” song two, introduces the band’s aforementioned textural dexterity on Cathedral. Beginning with a cascading organ riff that is soon drenched with additional similar keyboard voices, “Pussy Foot” keeps its focus largely off the fire and brimstone and on rock and roll’s introverted self. It’s the group’s most, dare I say, charming composition to date.
Coupled with the following song, “Whiskey River,” Comets on Fire deliver a jab to the ribs followed by a knee-wobbling left hook. “Whiskey River”—most definitely not a cover of the country song that Willie Nelson popularized in the ‘70s—holds nothing back. In the space of eight minutes, the listener is splattered with all the blood, guts and gore in the Comets on Fire arsenal. We begin with the kind of muscular riff one expects from a group of guys whose sole purpose is imposing tonal carnage on weaklings. Masquerading as howling celestial voices over the top of the chaos is Harmonson’s echoplex—a tape-delay device that originated about 45 years ago and creates a more natural echo effect than modern digital devices. By resembling the sound of a theremin, Harmonson uses his echoplex to produce otherworldly sounds. “Whiskey River” harnesses its frenzied tendencies at the midway point to strip the song down to its Stonesy riff, introducing an acoustic guitar into a lengthy break that eventually reaches climax with the echoplex bleeping over the top of a frenetic electric guitar solo and Tim Daly’s tenor sax. Fans of Mudhoney’s recent foray into the world of Blue Cheer-meets-Stooges blooze, Since We’ve Become Translucent, will totally dig this shit.
A bluesy, sublime intermission, appropriately titled “Organs,” gives way to the album’s second half. “The Antlers of the Midnight Sun” (mp3 available here) picks right back up where we left off, with disobedient drums being smacked around while wailing, pissed-off guitars grapple with Ethan Miller’s mucous-flinging, larynx-wrecking yelps. As the album winds down, we're treated to a pretty little psychedelic ditty before the oncoming slaughter of the record's closer, "Blue Tomb". Based on a Blue Cheer-ish riff, "Blue Tomb" assaults the amps with Sonic Youth-like bravado before giving way to the verse, in which Miller and the band channel Hendrix from beyond the grave. At eight minutes in, the intensity is turned up a notch as the echoplex drills a hole through the listener's skull before the entire song collapses in exhaustion.
Blue Cathedral breaks new ground for this fearsome fivesome, and in doing so stakes Comets on Fire’s claim as a band with as much mind as muscle. For fans of rock’s rough, psychedelic fringes, that’s a very good thing. I'm ranking this near the top of my 2004 list, just a notch below the previously discussed Dungen.
There really are only a handful of modern bands that are doing anything interesting with '70s rock. The Cherry Valance, Magnolia Electric Co. and Comets on Fire—today's subject matter—come to mind. These are talented groups that either utilize exceptional songwriting or attempt to maybe not reinvent the wheel but at least improve upon its design. They've got balls, whereas other bands stuff their collective crotch with socks (or something else entirely).
Comets on Fire
Comets on Fire really love that vintage stoner rock. And when I say those words—stoner rock—please don't think of Monster Magnet. Monster Magent, White Zombie and bands of that ilk perform commercially-motivated outsider metal that for some reason the lazy music press has taken to calling stoner rock. Comets on Fire is the real deal—a dash of Japanese noise-rock, a hint of Hawkwind and Deep Purple, a dabble of Stooges, and a healthy heaping of the uncontrollable urge to fuck shit up. I hesitate to call Comets on Fire "metal" in the traditional sense of the term, but I've no reservations about calling them "heavy".
While Blue Cathedral might show the band mellowing some as they age (introducing a more prevalent role for analog keyboardist and effects-savant Noel Harmonson), there’s certainly no shortage of hell to pay on the group’s third release. Guitarist Ben Chasny (of Six Organs of Admittance) has joined the band full-time after guesting on a previous album, giving the Comets a dual six-string attack that intensifies the aural assault. But before we jump into the maelstrom, lets examine the calm eye of the storm. “Pussy Foot the Duke,” song two, introduces the band’s aforementioned textural dexterity on Cathedral. Beginning with a cascading organ riff that is soon drenched with additional similar keyboard voices, “Pussy Foot” keeps its focus largely off the fire and brimstone and on rock and roll’s introverted self. It’s the group’s most, dare I say, charming composition to date.
Coupled with the following song, “Whiskey River,” Comets on Fire deliver a jab to the ribs followed by a knee-wobbling left hook. “Whiskey River”—most definitely not a cover of the country song that Willie Nelson popularized in the ‘70s—holds nothing back. In the space of eight minutes, the listener is splattered with all the blood, guts and gore in the Comets on Fire arsenal. We begin with the kind of muscular riff one expects from a group of guys whose sole purpose is imposing tonal carnage on weaklings. Masquerading as howling celestial voices over the top of the chaos is Harmonson’s echoplex—a tape-delay device that originated about 45 years ago and creates a more natural echo effect than modern digital devices. By resembling the sound of a theremin, Harmonson uses his echoplex to produce otherworldly sounds. “Whiskey River” harnesses its frenzied tendencies at the midway point to strip the song down to its Stonesy riff, introducing an acoustic guitar into a lengthy break that eventually reaches climax with the echoplex bleeping over the top of a frenetic electric guitar solo and Tim Daly’s tenor sax. Fans of Mudhoney’s recent foray into the world of Blue Cheer-meets-Stooges blooze, Since We’ve Become Translucent, will totally dig this shit.
A bluesy, sublime intermission, appropriately titled “Organs,” gives way to the album’s second half. “The Antlers of the Midnight Sun” (mp3 available here) picks right back up where we left off, with disobedient drums being smacked around while wailing, pissed-off guitars grapple with Ethan Miller’s mucous-flinging, larynx-wrecking yelps. As the album winds down, we're treated to a pretty little psychedelic ditty before the oncoming slaughter of the record's closer, "Blue Tomb". Based on a Blue Cheer-ish riff, "Blue Tomb" assaults the amps with Sonic Youth-like bravado before giving way to the verse, in which Miller and the band channel Hendrix from beyond the grave. At eight minutes in, the intensity is turned up a notch as the echoplex drills a hole through the listener's skull before the entire song collapses in exhaustion.
Blue Cathedral breaks new ground for this fearsome fivesome, and in doing so stakes Comets on Fire’s claim as a band with as much mind as muscle. For fans of rock’s rough, psychedelic fringes, that’s a very good thing. I'm ranking this near the top of my 2004 list, just a notch below the previously discussed Dungen.
Thank yyou for this
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Window Cleaning Hillsboro, at 6:06 AM
6:06 AMThank yyou for this