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Naughty Mouse, Staring at the Sun: Close Your Eyes and See the Skies are Fallin’

Led by vocalist/guitarist Chris Schoorman, Belgian stoner rockers Naughty Mouse are all about the desert on their 2011 Fakto Records debut full-length, Staring at the Sun. The band, who seem to have undergone some lineup changes since the record’s release – Alain Vandenberghe’s guitar, keys and backing vocals and Feb Fardelli’s lap steel, guitar, banjo are consistent elements other than Schoorman himself – set themselves easily in the framework of crunchy riffs, hooky grooves and memorable lines, owing much of their sound to the Josh Homme oeuvre, be it the guitarist/vocalist’s work in Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age or as the head of the Desert Sessions series of documented jams. Songwriting across Staring at the Sun’s 13 tracks remains crisp and focused, and though Schoorman leads Naughty Mouse down familiar trails, the QOTSA vibe is both well-executed and acknowledged, so I’m inclined to think of it as something working in the band’s favor rather than against them. Probably fortunate, since the range from the 1998 Queens of the Stone Age self-titled (“Monster”) on down through Songs for the Deaf (“The Escape,” “Devil’s Mind” and “The Eternal Dead of My Soul”) accounts for much of their aesthetic breadth, but elements from European heavy rock blend in and there are interludes and instrumentals like “A Journey with Sloane” and the later “Nights of Amentia” to add personality, so Naughty Mouse aren’t exactly without other influences – they’re just not as easy to pick out of the sound or as blatantly nodded to.

In that regard, one has to admire Schoorman for owning up to where he comes from musically. Belgium is a long way from the Californian desert, and in forming Naughty Mouse, the stated mission was to pay homage to desert rock. “The Escape” shouts out “Go with the Flow” from Songs for the Deaf and “The Mute” makes half a chorus out of the lines “I’ve got a secret I cannot say/Blame all the movement to give it away” from Rated R highlight “The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret,” so it’s not like Schoorman – credited with most of the compositions here, but joined in the band by Vandenberghe, Fardelli, Alex Leroy and Joy Heyne, as well as guests Renaud Wens, Ben Derycke (who’ve both since come aboard full-time), James de Backer and others – is trying to pull a fast one on anybody listening. Rather, he seems to be speaking to an audience on the inside, winking even as he arranges backing oohs and ahhs into the hard-strummed acoustic-led stomp of “Foot Boom.” Staring at the Sun is more charming than redundant, though, and cuts like the title-track and “Recovering” are a big part of that, the former following the course-setting fuzz of opener “New Path” with one of the record’s most massive grooves and a riff that’s simply undeniable. “Recovering” similarly pulls back on the pace somewhat to maximize groove – it almost has to after the “Millionaire”-esque rush of “Devil’s Mind” – but its thickened tones are convincing and engaging nonetheless. Both “Staring at the Sun” and “Recovering” are essentially built on one riff, but Naughty Mouse use that simplicity to offset some of the more complex structures surrounding, and it both works well and shows a mindfulness of construction and flow that the rest of the album bears out.

And although one could probably nitpick at the songwriting formulas at play (nine of the 13 tracks are in the 3:30-4:30 range), Staring at the Sun puts those formulas to good use and, passing 48 minutes long, doesn’t come off as an overly cumbersome listen. It has its lags, but as closer “Why?” injects a little last-minute Fatso Jetson-style surf punk into the overall sound – plus some pretty vicious screaming – Naughty Mouse, who’ve been nothing if not straightforward communicators of their intent all along, seem to be urging those hearing the album to stay tuned, because there’s more to come and that even self-imposed rules were made to be broken. Schoorman already proves substantial in his ability to craft this material, not to mention his performances on guitar and vocals, so the hope is that he can use this well-established base as a foundation from which to veer outward on Naughty Mouse’s subsequent offerings. Doubtless the band’s overall sound is subject to some shift as a result of exchanging Leroy and Heyne for Wens (bass) and Derycke (drums) in the rhythm section, but with the core of Schoorman’s desert influences and the diversity that Fardelli and Vandenberghe (not to mention the guest performers) add to the mix, Naughty Mouse could bridge the geography gap. Staring at the Sun is fascinating for how the job it does as it hones in on the desert rock style, but perhaps even more importantly, it’s a collection of well-composed and catchy songs that speak well for what Naughty Mouse could do next time around.

Naughty Mouse’s website

Fakto Records

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One Response to “Naughty Mouse, Staring at the Sun: Close Your Eyes and See the Skies are Fallin’”

  1. Milk K. Harvey says:

    ’bout time for a full album stream, and what an album! Guys will surely tighten their screws for a next time. Nothign wrong with the Homme worship.

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