I think I finally figured out what I like so darn much about We are Here, the six-song debut from Brooklyn heavy plodders Blackout. It often happens early into a stoner rock band’s career that they have one riff to rule them all. There’s one song that everyone in their scene knows them for and at least for a while, that’s their hit. With Blackout, almost every riff is that riff, so by the time you get around to the end of side B and the we’ll-just-go-right-over-these-skulls march of “Seven,” the scale of judgment is completely thrown off. I’m not saying it’s revolutionary — the three-piece seem purposefully bent on not fucking with what the Melvins got right the first time around — just that, while formative, it’s done remarkably well.

The vinyl edition of We are Here arrives, with a download card, pressed on 180g wax, but rather than the pressing info (one can only imagine it’s limited to some number or other), the highlight of the album is the crushing weight of it. There’s an almost garage sense of dirty echo to Christian Gordy‘s guitar, Justin Sherrell‘s bass and Taryn Waldman‘s drums, and that gives the recording, which was helmed by Rob Laasko and mastered by Kyle Spence of Harvey Milk, a raw feel, but it lacks nothing for heft in part because of that space created in the audio and how well the three-piece fills it with nodding, unashamedly heavy groove, at least partially derived from Sleep, but already en route to an individual push.

Part of the reason I say that comes down to Gordy‘s vocals, which have a compressed effect on them on each of the tracks. In another context, this might get redundant, but as We are Here doesn’t overstay its welcome and as so much more of the focus to songs like “Indian” and the side A closer “Smoker” is on the riffs, the compression gives the songs just a touch of something to distinguish them, just something to make them weird, and both in theory and in the actual finished product of the album, the effect is to make Blackout stand out. They’re not trying too hard to be unique, they’re not trying too hard to fit into a genre. They’re being themselves and writing songs, and what came out of that on their debut is all the stronger for it.

Things get pretty blown out as “Seven” heads toward its inevitable collapse and the needle makes its return, but in the context of the heft thrown around on “Amnesia” and the ensuing creeper progression in “Smoker” — which, the more I hear the record the more it replaces “Seven” as my pick of the bunch — it works, and if it’s an added level of quirk in line the vocals and garage stomp, that’s fine too. Included with the record and download is an insert with the lyrics on one side and Blackout‘s should-be-iconic band photo on the other, so any way you want to look at it, We are Here is as complete a document of the band’s arrival as one could ask.

Blackout, We are Here (2013)

Blackout on Thee Facebooks

Blackout on Bandcamp

They called the album We are Here, and who could argue? There they are. Marking their arrival by means of their self-released debut full-length on Oct. 25, Blackout — who hail from a small town on the Eastern Seaboard called Brooklyn (I think that’s how it’s spelled) — show up with big riffs, big stomp, and underpinnings of quirk that give their unabashed tonal weight a sense that’s both lighthearted in not taking itself too seriously and a huge part of what makes the album overall so effective. Copping influence from stoner heavyweights like the Melvins and Sleep — easy comparisons to make, but true all the same — Blackout might read on the surface like Riffy Brand X, but there’s more to We are Here than sonic redundancies and tonal largesse.

Not to understate the tonal largesse — both guitarist/vocalist Christian Gordy and bassist Justin Sherrell (also drums in Bezoar) proffer much viscosity in line with the swing of Taryn Waldman‘s drums — but with the weirdo compression on Gordy‘s vocals throughout the album, subtle melody and boogie of a song like “Seven,” as much as they’re setting up beach chairs in the pool of distortion they’ve crafted, Blackout haven’t neglected to give an individual spin to otherwise familiar elements. Rounding out with the heavy-hoofed march of “Seven,” We are Here gives the impression that Blackout are interested in and working at coming into their own sound-wise. Fortunately for all parties involved save perhaps eardrums, they save room for a noisy freakout at the end.

The early cut “Amnesia” may be short at 3:19 compared to some of what surrounds it, but the rush the trio creates across that span rings out like the echoes off a holy mountain, and it’s clear that whatever one might recognize in their approach, Blackout couple their unabashed stonerly crunch with idiosyncratic purpose. We are Here is an easy record to dig for the already converted, but its greatest strength lies in off-kilter moments like “Smoker” and “Indian,” which show this personality and burgeoning affinity for strangeness but never fail to serve the song and the album overall, striking a balance of indulgence and accessibility that’s a lot harder to nail than it might seem.

It’s a good ‘un, and both times I’ve had the chance to see Blackout live (reviews here and here), they’ve impressed, so I’m thrilled today to be hosting the premiere of “Amnesia” in advance of the release of We are Here later this month. Please find it on the player below and please enjoy:

[mp3player width=480 height=150 config=fmp_jw_widget_config.xml playlist=blackout-amnesia.xml]

Blackout‘s We are Here will be available on Oct. 25. More info and music at the links below.

Blackout on Thee Facebooks

Blackout on Bandcamp

I’ve happened into the path of Brooklyn trio Blackout on two separate occasions (reviews here and here) and both times come out of it glad to have done so. The three-piece unveiled a sonic largesse with their We are Here demo/sampler earlier this year, and today word came down the PR wire that they’ll follow it up with a full-length of the same name. If you haven’t yet had occasion to get introduced, dig into the marching Melvins groove of “Seven” below — it closed the demo and will close the album as well — prepare to be won over.

Not sure if this is going to be the final album art, but here’s the info anyway:

BLACKOUT: NYC Psychedelic Doom Trio To Release New Full-Length

NYC psychedelic doom trio, BLACKOUT, is pleased to announce the release of their We Are Here debut! Recorded at Vacation Island Studio with engineer/producer Rob Laakso (Diamond Nights, Swirlies, Kurt Vile), We Are Here offers up six gristly hymns of bottom heavy, head-throbbing, red-eyed awesomeness. Appropriately described as “thick, riff-led heavy psych that blends Sleep’s stoner heyday and classic Melvins stomp with a touch of Rob Crow’s vocal compression in Goblin Cock,” by The Obelisk who further commends their “riffy stoner traditionalism,” BLACKOUT is in it to win it and will undoubtedly be knocking on your door like a hairy, black clad Jehovah’s Witness who wants to smoke you out and listen to Sabbath records.

Comments the band in a collective statement: “We are really excited to get this record out. We’re not a methodical band and our biggest hope was that the record sounded like us in the jam room… heavy, slow, and drunk. So that’s exactly what we did… drank lots of beer and let Rob do his thing. The whole session was pretty blurry but we’re psyched with the results.”

We Are Here Track Listing:
1. Indian
2. Amnesia
3. Smoker
4. Columbus
5. Anchor
6. Seven

With food, beer and America at the forefront, it only makes sense guitar player/vocalist Christian Gordy and drummer Taryn Waldman would meet at Gordy’s 2011 July 4th cookout in the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. Waldman, a former Hooter’s waitress turned big time commercial film editor, and Gordy, a one-legged bartender/artist/BBQ enthusiast were an oddball couple for NY’s heavily-styled metal scene. The duo began rapidly banging out monolithic snail-paced riffs that could party as much as they could crush. BLACKOUT – referring to blackout drunk, the absence of light, or a mobster hit on an entire family – was the only appropriate title for the band.

With a three-song demo recorded at the now defunct Headgear Studios in the bag, Waldman set out on the task of stalking and acquiring drum wizard Justin Sherrel for the bass position. The sound filled out and quickly grew like Chuck Berry’s mustache. Now with Sherrel’s nitty-gritty, rhythm-heavy mud beneath an electrical tide of riffs and explosions, the mighty river of sludge was primed to lurch forward.

We Are Here will be released independently on October 25, 2013. Live shows and preorder details to be announced in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.

http://www.facebook.com/blackoutnyc
http://www.blackout666.bandcamp.com

Blackout, We are Here sampler