If you missed vol. 1 of “On the Radar: The Polish Scene,” it’s right here.

One listen to the live version of “Mighty Sasquatch,” which Warsaw four-piece Satellite Beaver have posted on their MySpace, and Kyuss becomes an immediate reference point. This holds up throughout the other two tracks, “Nitro Steam Engine” and the cleverly titled “OD’n’D,” though the vocals on the middle of the three songs more brings to mind a Queens of the Stone Age track with Nick Oliveri singing lead. Vocalist guitarist Simon the Beaver (all band members’ names end with “the Beaver“) comes across pretty roughly here, but one imagines the case to be different on studio recordings as it so often is.

Satellite Beaver and Broken Betty, as well as several of the other acts we’ll be looking at as this series on the Polish stoner scene unfolds, are still developing their sound, still deciding what sonic elements they want to bring to the table in terms of where to take their songs and just how they want to manifest their interpretations of the inviolable riff. For now, Satellite Beaver — rounded out by guitarist/backing vocalist Tom the Beaver, bassist Doman the Beaver and drummer Mad the Beaver — offer these three live songs as a demonstration of what they’re trying to accomplish, and particularly on “OD’n’D,” they succeed where many more established acts don’t in making the conventions of the stoner genre the basis from which they form their own style, rather than the style itself.

But of course, it’s early. Any ground-floor types out there, I hope you’re paying attention to this stuff, because in about five years’ time, when some of these bands will have broken up, traded members and hopefully all come out in possession of heightened musical awareness for the trials they’ve endured, Poland is going to be an epicenter of kickass rock and roll. If they can keep up the energy and not get mired in the kind of bullshit that drags down so many other quality acts, I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Satellite Beaver grew into one of the scene’s strongest outfits.

Tags: Poland, Satellite Beaver, Unsigned bands, Warsaw

This entry was posted on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 1:12 pm and is filed under On the Radar. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.