The chorus of the eponymous opener of Weed is Weed‘s self-released Blunt Force Trauma full-length debut sums up the band’s mentality neatly. It goes:

Weed is weed
So plant the seed
Oh yes indeed.

If there was ever any doubt about what weed is, let it be answered: Weed is most definitely weed. Weed is Weed culls together some of Maryland’s favorite sons of doom, fronted by Dave Sherman of Earthride himself with his former Spirit Caravan bandmate Gary Isom on lead guitar. Jason Fisher plays guitar, Darren Waters plays bass — though Mark Ammen (Unorthodox, Pentagram) and Johnny Kotsioukis (Wretched) both also play on the album, and Rob “Cougin” Brannigan (Wretched) plays drums. As you’d have to expect, the songs on Blunt Force Trauma are stoner rock to the end of each leaf, led by the riffs and Sherman‘s inimitable growl, but there’s a rough edge to the production that gives each piece a rawer feel, whether it’s the low-end boogie of “Low to No” or the later percussion/bass-driven “Goin’ Down to Harlem.”

So far as I can tell, the only track that has no mention of reefer is the sixth cut, “Eat Pussy,” which charmingly gets a PG-rated reworking as the unlisted bonus track “Eat Cookies” — “Eat them cookies when you come home from work/Eat them cookies don’t you be no jerk,” and so on, with an “Oooh, snickerdoodle” thrown in for good measure. This kind of tongue-in-cheek shenanigans is to be found all over Blunt Force Trauma — the album’s name itself turned into a pun thanks to the pot leaf on the cover — but between the mega-chug of the riffs, Sherman‘s vicious vocals, which harness some of his roughest growls to date, and Isom‘s how-did-this-dude-wind-up-playing-drums lead work, there’s more to be had throughout than inside jokes about pot. Though of course there are plenty of those as well.

Prior to that aforementioned bonus cut, the album proper rounds out with its title-track, which is plenty raucous enough even before the six minutes of noise and feedback round out its full 10:49 stretch, but if you’ve not yet climbed into Weed is Weed‘s smoke-filled van, you’re probably gonna have to get your fix somewhere else anyway. More downer crash and heavy THC-addled dirt ensue, which has more or less been the course of the album, though not without some sense of changing things up in terms of tempo if not overall method. It’s a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of affair. They didn’t call is Weed is Something Else, did they?

Certainly not. As the group has been together since 2005 in one shape or another and since Blunt Force Trauma just came out this year, I won’t dare speculate on the timing of a follow-up, but whether you look at Weed is Weed as a sidebar to Sherman‘s work in Earthride or as a bunch of dudes from Maryland who’ve probably known each other for ages getting together to riff out and have a good time, the band makes no pretense about being anything more than just that. You might have to work to get a copy (and by “work” I mean send them a message on Thee Facebooks), but for those who can’t get enough of the grittier side of Maryland doom, Weed is Weed will be as welcome as cookies after work.

Weed is Weed, “One Hit Wonder”

Weed is Weed on Thee Facebooks

Weed is Weed on Reverbnation

Tags: Blunt Force Trauma, Frederick, Maryland, Maryland doom, Unsigned bands, Weed is Weed, Weed is Weed Blunt Force Trauma

This entry was posted on Monday, August 5th, 2013 at 4:37 pm and is filed under Buried Treasure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.