Skrogg, Blooze: Bottling Mountain Rain
What better to call the boozy blues? New Hampshire trio Skrogg make their full-length debut with the well-portmanteaued Blooze on Drug Rug Records, and follow up their engaging 2011 Raw Heat demo EP (review here) with like-minded backwoodsery and classically heavy rock push. Guitarist/vocalist Jeff Maxfield, bassist Jason Lawrence and drummer Felix Starr have taken on a bluesier sound than they had last time out — something their obviously aware of, given the title and shading of the artwork — and that sits well alongside the other elements in their approach, which is like heavy Southern rock gone North, and shows itself immediately on the bare intro of “Someone up there Must Like Me/Kentucky Bourbon (in 80 Grit),” with its off-mic vocal and foot-stomp percussion. Naturally, thicker tones kick in and Blooze shows more of its true course in the Sabbath-via-Goatsnake push of “Kentucky Bourbon (in 80 Grit),” but the context of that intro remains and continues to pepper the atmosphere throughout the rest of the album, whether it’s the bluegrass bounce of “Cool, Clean Mountain Rain” — which goes so far as to include a fiddle — or the twangy acoustics of the penultimate “A City Girl ain’t No Woman.” These latter two are instrumentals that act as complements to longer cuts like “Gran Torino” (12:05) and closer “One to Nothin'” (5:06), but even within the depths of those songs or the suitably inebriated second cut, “Born to Blooze” (8:27), that vibe isn’t lost, and Skrogg find their niche within that blend of thick grooves and countrified fuckall.
Maxfield‘s vocals are high in the mix and mostly dry — somewhat ironic, given the title — which holds to the sans-bullshit ethic of Raw Heat, but his and Lawrence‘s tones mesh well together over top of Starr‘s thudding toms, captured by Clay Neely (Black Pyramid) and Anthony Cimino at Mojo Studio in Franconia, about two hours south of the band’s home in Troy, in a sound that’s rough but satisfyingly heavy on low end and still able to convey the catchy push of the upbeat “Kentucky Bourbon (in 80 Grit)” and “Gran Torino.” Those two boast the strongest hooks on the album, but ultimately have different aims. Where the opener stands pretty clearly at the head in order to grab the listener and give a sense of what’s coming by switching off between its two parts, the brief “Someone up there Must Like Me” and the subsequent song itself, “Gran Torino” has more space to stretch out and finds Maxfield, Lawrence and Starr engaging a classic, Deep Purple, Made in Japan-style stoner jam, smooth and quiet but for sampled motorcycle revving until the nodding groove of the verse riff kicks in. That they’d couple that jam and one of Blooze‘s most effective choruses together speaks well of their songwriting and dedication to a natural feel, but ultimately it’s the semi-title-track “Born to Blooze” that provides the biggest surprise of the album, moving deftly from thick fuzz to a more open jangle. Lawrence‘s bass fills out the bottom — and of course Starr‘s drums lack nothing for push — but the guitars play it subtler, and Maxfield‘s woman-left-me lyrics get a richer feel for what proves to be something of a departure in terms of the record overall.
A well-placed one at that. By putting “Born to Blooze” right after the relatively straightforward opening of “Kentucky Bourbon (in 80 Grit),” Skrogg almost immediately expand the listener’s expectation, so that the countrified interludes “Cool, Clean Mountain Rain” and “A City Girl ain’t No Woman” hit not necessarily in a manner that’s expected, but one that’s hardly out of place with the deceptive musical diversity on display throughout. The vocals do a lot of work in tying the songs together. Maxfield‘s approach is still developing, but consistent — some layering in the choruses of “Gran Torino” and “Kentucky Bourbon (in 80 Grit)” makes them stand out all the more, but I’d call “Born to Blooze” even more effective for the relatively minimal feel — and a long instrumental exploration led by his guitar caps “Born to Blooze” with the band at their most dynamic, Lawrence and Starr tossing off fills to back Maxfield‘s solo en route to an instrumental return to the verse that leads to a boogie-fied ending, Starr turning it into something of a shuffle with his work on the snare and Maxfield taking his cue from the drums, followed shortly by Lawrence. “Gran Torino” has no shortage of jammed sensibility, and when it arrives sandwiched by “Cool, Clean Mountain Rain” before and “A City Girl ain’t No Woman” after, it feels like the apex of Blooze that it’s intended to be, but in terms of actually expanding Skrogg‘s aesthetic, “Born to Blooze” accomplishes more, even if its impact isn’t as immediate as the catchier material included here.
Their demo showed some influence from Clutch, and Blooze does as well, in closer “One to Nothin’,” taking an easy-rolling groove and adding laid-back organ as Maxfield dons some echo in more of a bluesman/preacher mode à la Neil Fallon while also adding a layer of wah to the bridge between verses, picking up soon to a winding course in a manner that reminds of “Who’s Been Talkin’,” though not in the 12-bar style. Nonetheless the languid groove they wind up embroiled in makes for a satisfying finale to Blooze, the organ adding to the rhythm section while Maxfield tops the sleepy roll with well-toned leads as the last build makes its way upwards instrumentally. The chemistry between Maxfield, Lawrence and Starr and their tightness as a power trio is where the strength of Skrogg on their first album lies, but there are memorable stretches within these tracks as well that aren’t to be overlooked in terms of what they’re able to accomplish when strung together as they are. All told, Blooze clocks in at a little over half an hour, but that’s more than long enough for the three-piece to capture attention and show that they have more at work in their sound than familiar riffs and unipolar lyrics about women and drinking (though they certainly have lyrics about women and drinking as well). Raw Heat was a solid first effort, and the same is true of Blooze as Skrogg‘s debut full-length, but where the appeal of 2011’s EP was its unfiltered, Bike Week-ready heavy rock, the 2013 outing proves its mettle through expanding the band’s reach. I hope they continue to explore.
