This week marks the vinyl release of Arizona outfit Powered Wig Machine‘s sophomore full-length, Supa-Collider. Initially self-released, the LP version of Supa-Collider (review here) arrives courtesy of AZ kingpins Battleground Records, and boasts the vinyl-only bonus track “Highish Noon.” Fitting the cover artwork by Rudy Flores and bassist Joseph Rudell, the 300-copy pressing comes in translucent green with black and orange splatter, 180g housed in a gatefold with a download. And as if overseeing the release of this beast weren’t enough, Joseph Rudell and his brother, guitarist/vocalist Wayne Rudell also organized and executed the recent Borderlands Fuzz Fiesta with Wo Fat, Mos Generator, Fireball Ministry, etc., which by the accounts that I saw was a badass time.

Joined in the band by guitarist Dusty Hinkle, drummer Daniel Graves and keyboardist/guitarist Brian Gold, the Rudells stood at the helm of Supa-Collider‘s rolling grooves and bluesy feel, casting off desert-based expectation in favor of thicker tone and meatier vibing. The results were well met to say the least, and the fuzz and organ fluidity of “At the Helm of Hades” and big-stage-ready blues-jam starts and stops of “Mother Rocker” established a course for the album that was classic and accessible but also modern and based around a well-developed songwriting process. I’m not sure if “Highish Noon” was recorded at the same time as the rest of Supa-Collider or later, but it’s in line with the rest of the band’s material in being catchy as well, switching on a dime from winding heavy riffery to airy psych jamming and back again before kicking into wah-soaked layered-solo righteousness and arriving, finally, in a swaying groove that seems to be asking what would’ve happened if Clutch wrote “Dragonaut” instead of Sleep. It’s an issue worth exploring.

And it’s a lot of ground to cover in a little under five minutes, but Powered Wig Machine hold it together smoothly, which (like the rest of the album) bodes well for their third outing, for which word of intent has begun to surface. In the meantime, having just shared a stage with Uriah Heep, Powered Wig Machine will hook up with the touring Ape Machine at JR’s Bar in Sierra Vista on March 17 for a St. Patrick’s Day special with Ghetto Blaster. Info on that one is here.

I have the pleasure today of hosting “Highish Noon” for streaming in honor of the Supa-Collider vinyl release on Battleground. Please find it on the player below, followed by more info on the LP from the PR wire:

Battleground Records has confirmed the label’s impending ninth release, announcing the deluxe vinyl version of the gnarly Supa-Collider, the second full-length from fuzz/stoner rock champs, POWERED WIG MACHINE.

In March of 2014, POWERED WIG MACHINE took it to the next level with the monstrous follow-up to Bearded Goddess, delivering the fantastic jams of their sophomore album, Supa-Collider. The band’s dexterous diversity and empowering tactics shine brighter than the blazing sun which ignites their desert surroundings on the album, putting the listener on cruise control into the furthest reaches of the planet and beyond, the tunes infiltrated with a slight flux of sci-fi otherworldliness. Self-recorded by the band and mixed by Brian Gold at Primrose Studio in Sierra Vista, mastered by Chris Goosman at Baseline Audio, and bearing artwork by Joseph Rudell and Rudy Flores, PWM independently released Supa-Collider digitally and on CD last year, yet the beast has yet to be unleashed in its primal vinyl form… until now.

One year after its initial release, Battleground Records will issue Supa-Collider on high-quality wax, the record pressed on 180-gram translucent green vinyl with orange and black splatters, limited to 300 copies and housed in a deluxe gatefold package. In addition to the original seven tracks, this new edition will also include a new LP-only bonus track, “Highish Noon”, with all eight tunes available for free high-quality digital download included in the parcel.

Supa-Collider at Battleground Records

Powered Wig Machine on Thee Facebooks

Powered Wig Machine on Bandcamp

I’m not sure if I’m going to make “Should’ve Been Sooner” reviews a series or not, but I’m backed up enough on records that I probably could. Either way, after Demon Eye yesterday, it seemed only fitting to follow-up with another long-standing pile dweller, so here goes:

Arizona heavy rock four-piece Powered Wig Machine have the fuzz, they have the riffs, they have the groove, and yet there’s something about them that still seems to be working against expectation. At least the expected expectation. I’ll explain. The Sierra Vista natives make a self-recorded, self-released sophomore outing with Supa-Collider, and while its methods are familiar enough — a Clutch-style sway in closing nod-maker “Brain of Hank Pym” and a classic stoner rock toss-off lyric in “Wizard of Orgy” — for actually being near desert if not in it (Sierra Vista seems to be dry, but a mountain town), their sound is much more derived from barroom blues than laid-back Yawning Man-style jams. Supa-Collider is a quick listen at a thoroughly unpretentious seven tracks/33 minutes, the band — guitarist/vocalist Wayne Rudell, guitarist/organist/engineer Brian Gold, guitarist Dusty Hinkle, bassist/backing vocalist Joseph Rudell and drummer Daniel Graves — starting off with a showing of classic heavy rock influence in “At the Helm of Hades,” which reminds of some of the grooves Deep Purple was apt to nestle into at their peak, with Gold‘s organ moving alongside his and Wayne‘s guitars and the bluesy vocals overtop. While it’s among the most resonant of them, “At the Helm of Hades” is hardly all Supa-Collider has to offer in terms of hooks, and both the shorter, bouncing “Led Masquerade” and subsequent “Here Come the Freaks” find their moments of distinction, the latter with a shuffle in its midsection that opens up to bigger grooving toward the finish as Graves gives his crash cymbals what for before stepping back into the start-stop progression of the verse.

I’d call the straightforward, un-Kyuss-ness of Supa-Collider jarring if Powered Wig Machine weren’t so solid in their performance and if the grooves weren’t so inviting. These aren’t dudes looking to change the world, or even to fix what isn’t broken about their genre, but neither should the quality of their output be written off nor should they be considered entirely unoriginal. Wayne comes across as an able frontman and vocalist, and the interplay throughout of guitar and organ — the latter appearing here and there in a flourish, then gone to make way for a solo or some other part — gives a sense of character and arrangement to these songs beyond what would seem to be the standard, “Led Masquerade” jamming itself to a finish as a lead-in for the starts and stops of “Here Come the Freaks,” the fuzz of which is all the beefier for the complement of keys. “Wizard of Orgy” follows, its “time-traveling pervert” chorus serving notice to anyone who might’ve through Powered Wig Machine were in danger of taking themselves too seriously, and “Mother Rocker” and the title-track deliver a one-two punch of heaviness — the latter is probably the band’s most singularly Clutch-derived groove — before the 6:18 “Brain of Hank Pym” rides in like a bluesy cavalry, putting the guitars even more in the lead as the vocals follow along, and encouraging the listener to fall in and do likewise. It’s the brain of Hank Pym — aka Ant-Man — as opposed to the body of John Wilkes Booth, at least going by the construction of the chorus, but as they’ve done throughout, Powered Wig Machine bring a spin of their own to established stylistic parameters. Keeping in mind that Supa-Collider is their just their second record even though they’ve been around since 2005/2006, it’s hard to ask more of the album than it delivers.

And Supa-Collider is all the more encouraging since not only is it a capable execution, but it’s self-made. Tony Reed mastered, but Gold recorded and mixed, the latter with Joey Rudell, who also designed cover and did the layout for the four-panel digipak pressing. Being self-contained on multiple levels has its ups and downs — see also: booking shows — but according to the liner, Gold built the studio in which Supa-Collider was tracked, so to think of them becoming more comfortable in a recording space as they continue to progress in terms of their writing and aesthetic only adds to the potential they show here. What matters most, however, are the songs themselves, and Powered Wig Machine already have the songs working in their favor.

Powered Wig Machine, Supa-Collider (2014)

Powered Wig Machine on Thee Facebooks

Powered Wig Machine on Bandcamp

Arizona four-piece Powered Wig Machine will release their Supa-Collider full-length at a hometown show in Sierra Vista on March 6, and from there begin a tour that will take them around the desert lands in Arizona, over to Vegas and end at Palm Desert in California. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect scenario for a heavy band putting out a record, honestly, so kudos to Powered Wig Machine. Their Supa-Collider has been a while coming (the video below for “At the Helm of Hades” premiered last summer), which I suppose will happen when you build the studio before you record in it. All the more reason to celebrate in style.

The PR wire sends dates and info:

POWERED WIG MACHINE – SPRING 2014 SUPA-COLLIDER TOUR AND NEW ALBUM

Powered Wig Machine has set a hard release date of March 6th, 2014 for their new album Supa-Collider. In support of the new album Powered Wig Machine has announced the “Spring 2014 Supa-Collider Tour” with the following dates:

3/6 – Sierra Vista, AZ – JR’s Bar w/Throw the Goat(CA), The Bastard Sons (UK)
3/8 – Tucson, AZ – The Plush w/Mad Alchemy Liquid Light Show, The Risin Sun (Mexico), Mark Matos & OS Beaches.
3/12 – Phoenix, AZ – The Sail Inn w/Wolves of Winter, Enirva
3/13 – Las Vegas, NV – The Dive w/TBA
3/14 – Ventura, CA – Billy O’s w/TBA
3/15 – Palm Desert, CA – The Hood w/Fever Dog, The Hellions

Powered Wig Machine has put a lot of work into the Supa-Collider album including building a studio from the concrete foundation, up to the roof, along with everything inside of it. The album is now finished and off in the hands of Tony Reed (Stone Axe, Mos Generator) for mixing and mastering. The video of “At the Helm of Hades” was released last year in preparation for the Supa- Collider album release. the sci-fi video including cowboys, car chases, and wormholes can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K29E2mpWvE

https://www.facebook.com/Poweredwigmachine
http://poweredwigmachine.bandcamp.com/

Powered Wig Machine, “At the Helm of Hades” official video

I could’ve sworn I’d written about these guys before. Arizona-based rockers Powered Wig Machine have been in touch a couple times over the last two years, first with their EP, Bearded Goddess, and then about the recording of the forthcoming LP, Supa-Collider, but I can’t seem to find anything on the site, even in the unpublished drafts. There was one mention of them in a press release for Southwest Terror Fest last year, but that’s it.

Nothing like the present to make up for lost time, I guess. It helps too that the clip for “At the Helm of Hades” is a pro job all the way through, with a narrative, special effects and of course, some quality heavy rock and roll. The four-piece ride a Clutch-style groove pretty hard in the clip, but as you can see, they come out of it with plenty of personality of their own. Video and PR wire info follow. Enjoy:

Powered Wig Machine, “At the Helm of Hades” official video

POWERED WIG MACHINE RELEASE NEW MUSIC VIDEO

“At The Helm Hades” Filmed As Movie Short

Arizona borderland fuzz-slingers Powered Wig Machine have released a new music video for the song “At The Helm of Hades” off their upcoming album release “Supa-Collider.” The video, filmed in the legendary old western town of Tombstone, Az, is a high flying hat nod to 70’s car chases and sci-fi westerns. The storyboard in the video is based off the outline of the
unfinished graphic novel written by frontman Wayne Rudell. “I really wanted to do something different for this video. I wanted to make short film more than a video.” The video was edited and directed by the aspiring ASU film student Greg Scott Daniel Rubner.

The video’s production and casting were done by PWM’s bass player Joey Rudell. “To get some of the great shots we needed for the video we needed some serious help.” Nathan Nazeck with Prodigy Video was the man for the job, So we flew long-time friend of the band in from Ohio to handle all the videography. “It was awesome to watch Nathan and Greg work. The outcome of the video was more than I could have ever expected.”

So if you got a spare 5 mins and you are partial to fuzz, muscle cars, worm-holes, or westerns then “At The Helm of Hades” is sure to be right up your alley. Oh and remember the best things about videos…if you like them share the shit out of them!

http://poweredwigmachine.bandcamp.com
http://www.facebook.com/poweredwigmachine