Gideon Smith and The Dixie Damned
30 Weight
Small Stone

With one of the most recognizable voices in all of heavy music, the swamp wizard himself, Gideon Smith, returns to howl at the moon with 30 Weight, another album of psychedelic motorcycle blues that has me (and no doubt others of my ilk who have also previously written about The Dixie Damned’s Southern boogie doom) tripping over myself trying to come up with a fresh way to sell the North Carolina band’s super-charmed snake oil. Just like previous full-lengths, 2004′s Southern Gentlemen and 2008′s South Side of the Moon, 30 Weight mixes the spiritual fire-eating of The Cult and the steely-eyed machismo of Circus of Power (see, I’m doing it already) for a deadly concoction of outlaw riffs and acid groove where songs like “Feel Alive” and “Shining Star” are this album’s “Whiskey Devil” and “Shimmering Rain,” respectively. That would also make the song “South” quite self-explanatory, as well. However, Gideon manages to add a few new ingredients to his brew this time around, like a female back-up singer on “Ride With Me” and a couple of covers, including a slow cooked version of Saint Vitus’ “I Bleed Black” and G.G. Allin’s “When I Die,” a poignantly raw country and western song in which Gideon strips it all down, even his voice. While GS&TDD fans will find a familiar comfort in 30 Weight‘s cattle skull savagery, the inexperienced can start here and work their way back down the dusty highway the band has forged without feeling like they’ve arrived late to the midnight ritual dance.

Listen to “Black Fire” from 30 Weight!

Denizen
Whispering Wild Stories
Self-released

Whispering Wild Stories is the third album from French noisemakers Denizen, who thrive on a rare mix of cowboy freedom and back alley boorishness, meaning they roll out endless amounts of dusty and rowdy stoner riffs but shove ‘em in your face with some hardcore attitude instead of letting you bake in ‘em. While Whispering Wild Stories doesn’t quite contain the brilliant animosity of Cursed, the toothless tomfoolery of Maylene, or the Norwegian death roll of Kvelertak, Denizen are able to harnesses the same kind of bloody-lipped urgency of each of ‘em in some way and throw their own wine-drunk, hot rod funk into it as well. Despite the fact this album is self-released, they still managed to snag Nick Zampiello again to master it at New Alliance East in the good ol’ U.S. of A., which no doubt helped shape its eight-song landscape into the motor-driven sewer-fucker it is. Add some sweet cover art by J. Issac and a cover of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love” and you’ve got an album that’s truly très bien!

Listen to “Casino Royale” from Whispering Wild Stories!

Suede Brothers
The Night
Bad Breaker Records

In the hierarchy of rock n’ roll fabrics, suede probably ranks just above corduroy and just under whatever that neon shit was that David Lee Roth used to stuff his junk into. I mean, suede’s not completely awful, but it’s certainly no denim or flesh, and it definitely pales in comparison to its much cooler cousin, leather. However, what this Cleveland trio (who, despite their name, are not triplets with a wardrobe shtick, although that could be quite awesome) lacks in texture knowledge, they make up for in name-dropping sound. On their third album, The Night, the brothers suede open themselves up for all sorts of comparisons, each one of ‘em a salute to to the way they mix n’ mash the electricity and fuzz of notable hard power heroes. Basically, there’s not one song on The Night that doesn’t play on the sexy black of Year Long Disaster, the cosmic wail of Wolfmother, the barefoot groove of The Parlor Mob, and the dusty punch of Hermano, and the band delivers each one of them in bold, cross-eyed fashion. And for good measure, dig the sleazy spit of Danko Jones on my fave of the bunch, “Too Late.” Familiar, sure, but an awfully solid album nonetheless.

Listen to “Too Late” from The Night!