House of Broken Promises
Using the Useless
Small Stone

It’s hard to pick and choose between any of John Garcia’s bands, but I really love Unida, and they should’ve been BIG. Queens of the Stone Age big, really, if we’re talking post-Kyuss success. But that’s rock n’ roll for you, a what-could-have-been and then some script played out by a new band every day. Garcia turned out all right though (as he always does), but how have the other urban coyotes (Arthur Seay, Miguel Cancino, and Eddie Plascencia) in Unida coped? Well, just fine, thank you very much. They crossed the great divide and came out the other side as House of Broken Promises, a mean, green, brawling rawk machine.

Their debut, Using the Useless, is pure vindication in volume, and while I’ve always had my issues with the forgettable sound of hard rock bands, there have been a few that stayed with me (Fireball Ministry, L.O.Freq, and Brand New Sin to name a few), and HBP has that potential (despite the bad name), especially with the heavy desert groove of songs like “Obey the Snake” and “Walk on By.” Otherwise it’s all boss biker metal and the angry riffs on Using the Useless are shoved down your throat like raw road kill in a bloody fist. So open wide, taste the pain, and try not to choke.

Listen to “Walk On By” from Using the Useless.

Buy Using the Useless at Small Stone.

Check out the new video for “The Hurt (Paid My Dues)”!