16 Buy Smoke Machine (And Why That’s News)
Okay, so ‘band supports dry-ice industry’ isn’t exactly ‘dog bites man’ when it comes to breaking news. I get that. Here’s the thing: based out of Los Angeles, 16 celebrate 30 years of existence in 2021. Guitarist/vocalist Bobby Ferry is the lone remaining original member, with bassist Barney Firks and drummer Dion Thurman joining to coincide with circa 2013 and guitarist Alex Shuster coming aboard in 2017, but if you’ve ever tried to do something for 30 years, you know that even if you take a break somewhere along the line — say from 2004-ish to 2008-ish — it’s still a significant amount of time to dedicate to a single project.
Their buying a smoke machine now matters not so much in itself, but in just how much it tells you about the band. While their well earned longstanding reputation is for pummeling hardcore-minded sludge, delivered raw on their early work and growing thicker as time has gone on (haven’t we all?), their 2020 album, Dream Squasher (review here), found them branching into new ideas on multiple levels, incorporating melodies and moods that dared to not be directly punishing at least in relation to what was around them. The follow-up to 2016’s Lifespan of a Moth (review here), it was the fourth album they’ve put out since coming back together prior to 2009’s Bridges to Burn, meaning the second era of the band has now matched the first for LPs released.
What the smoke machine emphasizes is that 30 years, eight albums, countless splits, comps, and so on later, 16 are still pursuing new ideas and new ways of thinking about what they do. There are few traits that are to be considered as admirable in creative work. I don’t expect the smoke machine means they’ve suddenly gone arena rock or space-prog or whatever, but it’s these little organic tweaks that show artistic refinement at play, even if the outcome of their songwriting is often so unremittingly heavy.
In addition to Dream Squasher, 16 took part last year in Magnetic Eye Records‘ Dirt: Redux (review here) tribute to Alice in Chains, and in 2021, they already have a spot in the Doom Sessions series of splits released by Heavy Psych Sounds, sharing an outing with onetime tourmates Grime. Here’s hoping they get the chance to bring their new smoke machine to a gig someday soon.
Their announcement was duly succinct:
After 29 years we have decided to buy a smoke machine. Evolution can be painfully slow.
— 16theband (@16theband) March 13, 2021
After 29 years we have decided to buy a smoke machine. Evolution can be painfully slow.
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