Black Mastiff lays their psych rock down real smooth and casual. Heavy, mind you, but humming with all the familiarity of a strong embrace from an old friend. Pyramids, the Edmonton trio’s debut full-length, exudes a certain mature presence that commands your attention and respect without having to resort to a loud bark or nasty bite. In fact, this dog prefers to be on its back out in the sun, lord of the leisure kingdom growing fat off the groove, chewing on the freedom riffs like they’re thick, tasty bones. Of course, if the out of doors disagrees with you, Pyramids is equally effective where the lights are low, the souls are shoulder to shoulder, and the smoke rolls about you in marmalade tones.
Before we’re hit with the new Melvins full-length, Freak Puke, in June, the mega-cult stoner/doom/sludge/grunge/metal band has decided to treat us to a free download of a new five-song EP, The Bulls and the Bees. Free, you say? Yes, and I know how much you want it, so go here and get it. Now, The Bulls and the Bees features the four-man lineup we’ve grown accustomed to in recent years, with Buzz “King Buzzo” Osbourne and Dale Crover being joined by Coady Willis and Jared Warren of Big Business, but that won’t be the case with Freak Puke (that album will see the Melvins as a three-piece again, dubbed Melvins Lite, with Trevor Dunn beside Osbourne and Crover), so if you love the extra sack kick you get from Willis and Warren, be sure to click on that link. With the exception of “A Really Long Wait,” which is about three minutes of ambient seance spook, The Bulls and the Bees is busting with enormous, Buzzo-nutty riffs, whether they be of the massive and groovy (“The War on Wisdom”), punishing and drum-filled (“We Are Doomed”), weird and spacey (“Friends Before Larry”), or psychedelic and fuzzy (“National Hamster”) variety. There’s also plenty of scary but melodic vocals and it all sounds like it’s gonna plunge the Pacific Northwest into the ocean, so basically what we’ve got here is some good ol’ Melvins fare.
Check out the video for “The War on Wisdom” from The Bulls and the Bees!
The Erotics Boulevard of Choking Screams
Trash Pit Records
The Crank County Daredevils had a song on their second album, Livin’ in the Red, called “Back To Piss You Off,” a sentiment I can’t help but think about every time I hear a new Erotics album. It seems that every Erotics release aims to out-shock the one that came before it, to rile up anyone who dares take it on. From “Only Girl For Me” (a song about how dating Helen Keller would be great because she can’t see or speak) to “Date Rape (By Candlelight)” (addressing the issues rape victims face when seeking justice) to “Wrapped Around Your Neck” (the pleasure that would come from strangling an entitled, high maintenance girl), and many, many others, the Albany, New York band prides itself on putting the sleaze in sleaze rock, and perhaps they’ve finally tipped the scales on their new five-song EP, Boulevard of Choking Screams, thanks to the song “Wheelchair Fantasies of the Dumb and Retarded,” in which they make references to the short bus, rejects, and wanking off to nuns. If that makes Erotics main man Mike Trash all the more trashier, every bit the eye-lined monster that lurks in the shadows of your sickest fantasies, then all the better for him, because judging the content of his character also means taking into account the disgustingly catchy riffs that pour from his fingertips, which bite and sting as much as his words. Sure, this band might be a walking parental advisory sticker, but you’re not listening to it with your mom, and besides, it’s damn near impossible to avoid the arena-infused blues of “Hell is Where My Heart Is” or the sweet strychnine of “Another Girl Gone,” so enjoy the bad fun. Societal serial killers make strange bedfellows.
Black Mastiff
The Erotics