I remember being at Compact Disc World on Rt. 46 in Totowa (since closed, of course) one shiny springtime afternoon, thumbing through their poorly-kept racks looking for whatever I could find. That store was by and large awful, but there was always at least one thing, and ever since the time I found White Zombie‘s Make Them Die Slowly on Caroline Records there I went back every so often to see what was to see.

Camarosmith‘s Camarosmith sat there, used, probably filed under ‘B,’ because that’s how they rolled at CD World Totowa, with its Sabotage-style cover. This was maybe 2005 or 2006. I knew I knew the name Camarosmith, but who the band was, where they were from or what they did (other than take Sabbath-esque pictures of themselves for the front of their record), not so much. And though I didn’t buy it that day, every single time I went back to that particular store, I looked for it again, and the record stayed in the back of my mind from then on.

Finally, after resigning myself to the fact that another used copy wasn’t in my future, I picked up Camarosmith from the All That is Heavy webstore, and here’s what I’ve found out since:

1. When Jeff Matz (Zeke, High on Fire) played bass in the band, he was known as Sweet Potato Jackson.
2. Jack Endino produced the record. Never a bad thing.
3. It pretty much rocks.

Camarosmith is the only record the Seattle five-piece ever put out, and though they toured Europe, did a West Coast US run with Dixie Witch (an appropriate pairing, though Camarosmith are a little higher tempo on average), had just filmed a video for album opener “It’s Alright,” and also had the song featured on the soundtrack of the Tony Hawk’s Underground video game, after that, they were never heard from again. The last news update to their website is from 2004 and it talks about how they weren’t able to get into Canada to play some shows. I’d hate to think of Camarosmith as yet another unfortunate victim of heightened post-9/11 border security.

Vocalist Ben “Devil” Rew and drummer Donny Paycheck ran Dead Teenager Records, which put out the album (reportedly, Donny Paycheck left to pursue other projects), so presumably if they’d wanted to there was nothing to stop them from following-up Camarosmith, but instead they get to be one of those American stoner rock bands who put out one decent record and disappeared, despite members’ connections with other acts. Next time I’m stalking High on Fire, I’ll have to be sure to ask Matz wha happen. Or, you know, I could just listen to the Camarosmith record instead and kick myself in the ass for not buying it a half-decade ago. Yeah, that sounds more likely.

Tags: Camarosmith, Dead Teenager, Seattle, Washington

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 11:37 am and is filed under Buried Treasure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.