Maybe it’s the image in my head of Kansas flatland stretching to the horizon and then some, but there’s something isolated about the widely varied tracks on the self-titled, self-released full-length debut from The Midnight Ghost Train. As though, despite the amount of low-key touring the band has done, they still can’t escape their nestled-in geography. This is not necessarily a bad thing, particularly as the band — a duo on the record who since have added bassist Will Shumate and relocated from their original home in Buffalo, NY — incorporates lonely and blues-laden acoustics with their densely-packed furry riffage.

The Midnight Ghost Train is led by guitarist/vocalist Steve Moss (he plays bass on the record too). Brandon Burghart handles the drums here since joining following the excellent The Johnny Boy EP, and there are a slew of guests throughout. The dramatic “Desert Red” is made all the more so by violin and cello contributions, and former drummer Jake Levin sings a gruff lead vocal on “Mustache.” Levin is one of three guest vocalists — Joseph Hester shows up on “Desert Red” and Edward Jackson adds backup for “They’re Burying Me Alive” — and although it would be easy to read this as a lack of confidence on the part of Moss as a singer, the vibe The Midnight Ghost Train gives off isn’t so much that as it is simply wanting to change things up. Moss shows himself capable of handling Fallon-esque throaty preaching on “The Swell” and a more subdued, near Cisneros-style on “River Silt.” No perceivable insecurity there.

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Another export from the fertile Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) scene, the four piece Little Big Horn got together in 2006 and have been rocking Kyuss-meets-Sabbath stoner doom ever since. Vocalist/guitarist Neff affects a decent and somewhat more Texan John Garcia, and though the production of the three songs on their MySpace is somewhat less than ideal, it’s still pretty easy to get a handle on what they’re doing. For heads who’ve been around for a while, there probably won’t be much in the way of surprises, but sometimes you want a band you can just pop on and groove out to without worrying about how much they’re changing the world. I do, anyway.

And to that end, Little Big Horn do just fine. The double guitar of Neff and lead six-stringer Kulmacz (which I’ve been pronouncing as “Cool-Mac-Z,” as though he was a one-man ’90s hip-hop act) riff like the pros do it, while bassist Stu gets down with some Geezerisms — see “Mountain of Pills” — and drummer Landon ups the groove of any given part. There badly needs to be a label picking up these bands. Brainticket can’t do it all on their own, people.

Here’s how easy life is: I said to myself this morning (afternoon) when I woke up, “Hmm, I haven’t done an On the Radar in a while, I think I’ll put one up.” Less than 15 minutes later, I found Little Big Horn via Orthodox Fuzz‘s profile and was good to go. Like Kin of Ettins, they’re a genuine resource when it comes to DFW curiosities. But what an age we live in where at any given moment a hard rocking act like Little Big Horn is only a few clicks away, waiting for anyone who wants to come looking. Astounding.

They’ve apparently got an EP in the works (don’t we all?), or maybe the tracks posted are from it, I don’t really know, but either way, they’re bound to pop up again sooner or later, and in the meantime, radar: they’re on it. Score another one for Dallas.

This and the number one still to come feel pretty obvious to me, but I guess it’s a lot easier to say that from this side of the keyboard. Los Natas‘ Nuevo Orden de la Libertad on Small Stone was my number one of the first half of the year, and my appreciation for it hasn’t diminished at all with the additional time. If anything, the Argentinian freedom rockers’ fifth album (not counting numerous other collections, the Toba Trance series, etc.) has gained esteem over the course of the last few months. In the context of the year’s releases, this, the number one and the number three are pretty much interchangeable in my mind, but when you way in all the factors, Nuevo Orden de la Libertad was the penultimate combination of quality, listenability and pure rock enjoyment.

I did a search on this site for Los Natas, and came up with more hits than I care to count, most of which can be boiled down to the simple phrase, “Los Natas kick ass.” From the review, to the interview with guitarist/vocalist Sergio Chotsourian and the sundry other nerd-outs, that’s what it all comes down to. As someone who spent the better part of 2008 popping on the band’s first album, 1999’s Delmar (Man’s Ruin), each morning on his way to work, I found Nuevo Orden de la Libertad to be more streamlined than its predecessor, 2006’s El Hombre de Montaña (also Small Stone), but still carrying the banner of creative jamming freedom for which the band’s work throughout releases like München Sessions has made them known.

They’ve transcended any simple genre tag, moved well beyond the Kyuss influence that typified their earliest work, and become a powerful and influential force all their own. Nuevo Orden de la Libertad was more than just a combination of killer songs; the cohesion and drive behind it became evident in every playback, and with each listen, the deceptive complexity of tracks like “Ganar Perder” and “Noviembre” showed themselves to excellently balance rich fullness of sound and raw intensity. More than some of the albums on this list, I know that Nuevo Orden de la Libertad is a record to which I’ll be returning over the years to come, and that’s exactly why it is where it is on the top 10 of 2009. Now if only we could get them to tour the US…

Because of its lighthearted approach and riffy goodtime vibes it would be easy to gloss over Droids Attack’s third full-length, Must Destroy (Crustacean Records), as a kind of joke release. Song titles like “The Great Wall of ‘Gina,” “Astro Glider,” “The Unforgiven 4” and “Koko Beware,” while hilarious, support the position. But there’s more to the Madison, Wisconsin trio than goofy lyrics and a robot mascot (although, in many cases, that would probably be enough). They seriously rock.

Guitarist/vocalist Brad Van would seem to be leading the charge, and while one can pick out influences from Melvins to Helmet to High on Fire in his playing, never so specifically as to make the songs redundant. At the same time, they never reach so far beyond the stoner milieu as to be unfamiliar, which winds up adding to the accessibility of Must Destroy. In a way, the party atmosphere is a big part of what helps distinguish Droids Attack, but if one were to experience the album without the artwork, titles or any other context, the music would still stand up. The rhythm section of bassist Nate Bush and drummer Tony Brungraber is a big part of why. Not only do they keep up with Van’s riffing, but they add flavor and personality to the songs. Brungraber’s drums could have stood to be a little higher in the final mix, but even from hearing them as they are, it’s clear the complexity of his playing is an essential element to making these songs work.

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According to StonerRock.com, Portland, Maine rockers Sun Gods in Exile are doing the weekend-warrior thing next month, heading to Massachusetts and Brooklyn. Yes, all reports indicate it’s going to be a guitar-slinging beery good time. As if you had to ask. Here’s the story:

Portland, Maine’s Sun Gods in Exile are heading out on a weekend of rock. The dates are as follows:

January 15: Northampton, MA – Elevens, with Black Pyramid, Might Could (Erik Larson’s new project), and Hotblack
January 16: Brooklyn, NY – Trash Bar, with The Brought Low, Mighty High, Cult 45 (ex-Lamont)

This will be in support of Black Light, White Lines, released on Small Stone Records in 2009. The band will also be releasing a split 7” with Stone Axe, due soon on Hydrophonic Records.

Sun Gods in Exile will also be appearing at the Small Stone Records SxSW Day Party in Austin, Texas, and will be taking a small tour of the mighty UK in April.

I’m hitting the road in about an hour — holiday travels — but I wanted to take a quick second and wish everyone a happy Xmas and say I hope you get some time off work, school or whathaveyou, and a chance to relax and the rest of it. The music industry at large shuts down next week, but I’ll be here. We’ll finish up the top 10 of the year and maybe talk about some shows and other stuff to wind down 2009. Meantime, be safe, be well, be merry. Enjoy Victor Griffin and Place of Skulls doing “Silver Cord Breaks” from With Vision — one of the best traditional doom records of the decade.

Cheers.

By now I don’t even remember how long the wait was for Pine/Cross Dover from the time it was announced to its release, but the sixth album from Masters of Reality — finally out in Europe through Brownhouse/Mascot and available Stateside as an import — was worth it. I’ve raved before about the genius of main songwriter Chris Goss, and with the two part Pine/Cross Dover, his increasingly quirky style was fully at play. The outcome was a group of memorable, rich songs whose quality showed itself over time.

I included “Testify to Love” in the end of year podcast, but really that could just as easily have been “Always,” “Up in It” or any number of other tracks from the record. Goss‘ prowess as a pop constructionist and performer made each of these songs an experiment in personality, and the reason Pine/Cross Dover worked so well was that each of the personalities flowed into the next. I know they’re not the highest profile band in the world, and I’m not sure if in this long run this will overthrow 2001’s Deep in the Hole‘s sentimental appeal, but for 2009, Pine/Cross Dover was absolutely one of the best, and more or less a constant in my player.

Sometimes you’re just so happy an album has come out that it informs the way you hear the songs. There was probably some of that at work, but it doesn’t matter. For the cult following Masters of Reality have built over the two-plus decades the band has been together, Pine/Cross Dover is an exciting glimpse at where the band and Goss are today. The way I see it, this is a hard one to beat.

Ah, it’s that raucous heavy metal the kids love so damn much, all full of party riffs, references to black metal, d-beat crossover thrash, piss, vinegar, etc. My but they do rock.

When Southern Lord shows an interest, so does this site, and since they saw fit to pick up the four-song Razor to Oblivion EP from Seattle pentaband Black Breath, I figure it’s bound to be worth a look see. I’ll say this: it’s the first release I’ve heard in a long time with a “go!” on it.

That comes on “Fatal Error,” the second of the four cuts on Razor to Oblivion following the title track’s quick introduction to what kind of nonsense and zany misadventures Black Breath are getting themselves into these days. “Fatal Error” also has the aforementioned black metal part, but “Razor to Oblivion” was pretty much straightforward crossover, and for the most part, “Beneath the Crust” and “Murder” follow suit. All four songs are short enough that the EP is over in just under 15 minutes.

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