It’s been three years since we last heard from The Parlor Mob, whose debut album And You Were a Crow successfully cradled the fine line between mainstream exposure and underground appeal, a rock n’ roll record borne of barefoot ideals and mustache machismo that was part Led Zeppelin, part Black Crowes, and all radio play. But the New Jersey band has surfaced with their follow-up, Dogs, which, like its predecessor, should curry compliments from people on either side of the popularity divide. However, unlike And You Were a Crow, Dogs has a more commercially viable edge to it, a darker, heavier hard rock flavour, heard especially on the songs “How It’s Going to Be,” “Fall Back,” “The Beginning,” and the album’s first single, “Into the Sun,” complete with a pop-driven chorus. What Dogs lacks, however, is the hippie groove that packed And You Were a Crow full of dust and soul, and while “Hard Enough,” “Slip Through My Hands,” and “Holding On” capture some of that ol’ feel good vibe, it’s clear The Parlor Mob have kicked it into attack mode this time around. You know, Dogs could have a little more boogie for my buck, but now that Dirty Sweet have rode off into the hazy horizon, it’s The Parlor Mob or bust. And I’m not ready to go down just yet.
Graveyard seem to be a strange pick-up for metal label Nuclear Blast, but there were days before speed and aggression when the psychedelic blues riffs of bands like Led Zeppelin and Blue Cheer were considered heavy metal, so if you want to look at it that way, the foggy longhair tumult of the Gothenburg, Sweden quartet’s retro rock is plenty metal enough. Shaking with raw, analogous boogie-doom and acid-fried magic, Hisingen Blues, the band’s second album, is rarefied fuzzdom, a kind of electric catnip that makes bell-bottomed leaf hounds go bat-shit. Much like its self-titled predecessor, Hisingen Blues baits you into unconscious reminiscing thanks to a sound best received via vinyl’s hypnotizing spin. Although Graveyard find themselves essential players in a growing Euro-led 70s revival with bands like Witchcraft, Ghost, The Devil’s Blood, Dead Man, and Asteroid, they bypass the more flagrant ceremonial/occult vibes of some of those bands (although they’re not shy on the demonic themes) for a more straightforward rock n’ roll approach that might call to mind a candlelit version of latter-day Hellacopters. Songs like “Ain’t Fit to Live Here,” “Hisingen Blues,” “Buying Truth (Tack & Förlåt),” “Ungrateful Are the Dead,” and “RSS” are propelled by pelvic power and sorcerous solos, while songs like “No Good, Mr. Holden,” “Uncomfortably Numb,” “Longing,” and “The Siren” take a dip into murky, mystic waters, and all the while vocalist/guitarist Joakim Nilsson replies in kind with an impressive range that stretches from Plant to Pelander as the situation warrants (sometimes within the same song). I predict this one will gain a hell of a lot of traction before the year’s out, and that’s all right with me, friends, because when the weird inherit the Earth, we’ll have Graveyard to thank.
Check out the video for the title track from Hisingen Blues!
Emerging from the deep woods of Canada’s rocky west coast is Black Mountain, and not unlike the California day-glo pranksters of decades ago, they’re amped, hairy, and unpredictable, a reclusive gang armed with a mind-fuck manifesto to take you further. Black Mountain’s power and glory psych-rock is usually a strange and wonderful trip down various avenues of electric mayhem, but Wilderness Heart, their third full-length, showcases the band at their most diverse. While songs like the title track, “Old Fangs,” and “Roller Coaster” bring the Iron Butterfly-meets-Bigelf heavy organ and nightmare doom heard on 2008′s In the Future, it’s the acid-fried acoustic songs “Radiant Hearts,” “Buried By the Blues,” “The Way to Gone,” “The Space of Your Mind,” and “Sadie” that shine brightest, each one of ‘em full of stardust and soul. If that ain’t enough for ya, opener “The Hair Song” is a beautifully-crafted, Zeppelin-inspired slide shaker, while “Let Spirits Ride” is built like a hot rod, running fast on MC5 fuzz and NWOBHM riffs. There’s not one song on Wilderness Hearts that doesn’t benefit from the killer chemistry of vocal duo Stephen McBean and Amber Webber, and there’s not one song on Wilderness Heart that’s not far-out and really fucking good.
Check out two videos — “Old Fangs” and “The Hair Song” — from Wilderness Heart! Cool fact: The video for “The Hair Song” contains footage shot in and around my hometown, and my old stomping ground, Call the Office. Dig it!
The Parlor Mob
Black Mountain