Mellow Bravo
Mellow Bravo
Small Stone

Mellow Bravo is the redheaded stepchild of the Small Stone roster, the outcast whose self-titled second album came attached with the following statement from the label: This is NOT stoner rock. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be scared or excited; it’s like going to a steakhouse and being told I wouldn’t be served a bleeding slab of meat. I mean, I love steak, but the unknown alternative could be just as satiating. So, what is Mellow Bravo if not a stoner rock band? Well, they’re dark blues foragers, hard rock hucksters, a sextet of rum running rock n’ roll pirates from Boston adept at seizing all kinds of loot in some very deep waters. They’re Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Black Mountain, Thee Hypnotics, Beasts of Bourbon, Zen Guerrilla, and Slash all at once, if you can imagine it, and tear through ragged harp (“Sad Sam”), aggressive riffing (“Ridin”), cowboy ballad (“Senorita”), temperamental slide (“Love Hammer”), and back porch folk (“Prairie Dog”) with all the sizzle and strut of rock gods going home to roost. The depth of sound and soul found on Mellow Bravo must truly be heard because it contains so many undefinable elements, but basically this is the kind of  guitar driven gusto that plays well from campfires to stadiums and any dive bar in between. And that’s saying nothing of the band’s ace in the hole, organist/vocalist Jess Collins, who adds all the smoke to this star-tickling fire. So, it turns out I was supposed to be excited. I am.

Listen to “Sad Sam” from Mellow Bravo!

I prefer to review albums the year they are released in order not to appear dated, but sometimes albums find their way to me the following calendar year. I respect the effort (and, in some cases, money) bands put into sending me their music for review, so the least I can do is give them some blog time. Here’s a quick run through some music that was released in 2011, because it’s never too late…

Nordic Nomadic
Worldwide Skyline
Tee Pee

When Chad Ross of Toronto psychedelic rockers Quest for Fire decides to go solo, he does so as Nordic Nomadic, and his output (2007′s self-titled album and this one), while softly bathed in psychedelic waters, is not drenched in the kind of fuzz that soaks Quest for Fire’s body of work. Instead, Ross reverts, like a mystic on a mountaintop, to the natural order of things, his dreamy folk dictated by delicate finger picking that dances over haunting drone, distant distortion, and deep bass, his voice a spiritual messenger sent to soothe your soul.

Listen to “Growin’ Horns” from Worldwide Skyline!

Chest
MMXI EP
Self-Released

Roman numerals? Check. Skull wearing a crown? Check. Band name so good I can’t believe it’s never been taken? Check again. Yeah, I did all sorts of book cover judging with this four-song EP, making a barrel full o’ assumptions that the substance was going to match the style, and sure enough, it does. Chest’s MMXI EP is some bad-ass, bottomed out business, a feast of Finnish doom served at a rotting roundtable where the ghosts of Galahad and Gawain are scrounging up the sludgy scraps. It’s a thing of beauty when the eyes and ears work together, isn’t it?

Listen to “Seed of Chaos” from MMXI!

Palo Verde
Zero Hour
Phratry Records

Lauren K. Newman (drums) and Terrica Kleinknecht (guitar) originally began life as Stickitin, an experimental double drum duo (!), but must’ve decided that they could make a lot more sludgy noise if one of ‘em picked up a guitar, and thus Palo Verde was born. These Portland, Oregon (there it is again!) DIY females are as back-to-basic as they come, recording and self-releasing their own albums over the years out of their home studio, and have gigged in a million and one bands you and I have never heard of, a devotion no doubt laced with small traces of insanity. Which is why we get something like the unrehearsed four-song, 45 minute Zero Hour, completely unlikable in the best way possible, an unbearably raw, amplified beat down powered by corrosive, dying batteries. Apparently Palo Verde are best experienced live, but this album is certainly making an impression.

Listen to Zero Hour here!

Bring the Knife
Bring the Knife
Thrashachusetts Records

Bring the Knife is a Boston metal band whose self-titled debut 7″ fuses Anthrax thrash with C.O.C. crossover, tosses in a whole bunch of Wylde-esque squealing harmonics (courtesy of ex Glamorous Stuntcock axe wielder Pattie the Gimp), and delivers a barroom mosh madness that ought to have people betting on hardcore elbow thrusts like basketball games. Released on singer Duncan Wilder Johnson’s own Thrashachusetts Records label, Bring the Knife contains all kinds of treacherous bite, specifically Johnson’s socially conscious verbal attacks on “At the End of Days” and “I Walk Through Flames Every Hour to Feel Free” and the B-movie brain punch of “Werewolf Fuckdown” and “Viking Skull Thrust”.

Listen to “Werewolf Fuckdown” from Bring the Knife!

Wino & Conny Ochs
Heavy Kingdom
Exile On Mainstream

Yes, another Wino album. Although, to be fair, I think the world would stop spinning if Scott Weinrich laid his guitar down, so the fact that he’s back again so quickly after 2010′s solo acoustic album, Adrift, and 2011′s self-titled Premonition 13 album is good news for the doom master’s legions and anyone who prefers our planet to remain on its axis. This particular collaboration with German singer/songwriter Conny Ochs, who released his own solo acoustic album, Raw Love Songs, last year, took form when Ochs spent time on the road with Wino during the Adrift tour, and the result of their union is Heavy Kingdom, a deeply dark folk record that rings with the quiet impetus of candlelit tales in dusty chambers. Backed by nothing more than the pure power of the voices and guitars of Wino and Ochs, Heavy Kingdom shows surprising range in its raw soul, the iron fist of Wino fitting wonderfully and seamlessly into Ochs’ troubadour grip. Hand in hand they explore mystic wilds and cowboy plains, often times straddling the divide, but always striving to drag a song’s natural beauty out of the stirring shadows from which it is borne, especially on vivid stand-outs “Vulture By the Vines,” “Traces of Blood,” “Here Comes the Siren,” “Labour of Love,” and the title track. Despite its low tide of energy, Heavy Kingdom offers just enough intense arrangements and electric fragments to pull you along. Oh, and it seems one album wasn’t enough for this duo, so keep a look out for Wino and Ochs together again on the Latitudes session Labour of Love.

Listen to “Heavy Kingdom” from Heavy Kingdom!