Review & Full Album Premiere: Geezer, Stoned Blues Machine
[Click play above to stream Geezer’s Stoned Blues Machine in full. Album is out Friday on Heavy Psych Sounds.]
Now we know what to call Geezer. They’re a Stoned Blues Machine. The Kingston, New York, three-piece of guitarist/vocalist Pat Harrington, bassist Richie Touseull and drummer Steve Markota have never been more so than on their latest collection. In mid-2020, the heavy, bluesy, intermittently-jammed-out-but-nearly-always-rocking trio issued the righteous Groovy (review here), which was a lockdown-era lifeline to a better time if also a reminder of the kind of party that absolutely at that point couldn’t happen. It may be that record’s fate to have never gotten its due in terms of being celebrated live, but Geezer knew even as that was coming out that they would press forward and continue to write, rather than sit on their hands and wait for the pandemic to abate.
Stoned Blues Machine answers the boogie and the ass-shake of Groovy, and with the lineup solidified around these three players since 2019’s Spiral Fires EP (review here), but pushes further and works on multiple levels — perhaps best emphasized in the title-track itself, which has a huge swinging nod as its foundation but also brings in finer details like some addled-sounding mumbles along with its verse lines before the hook, “Stoned blues machine/Living is my thing/When things ain’t what they seem/When you’re stoned, baby, don’t want to think about it,” is fleshed out with what might be a guitar effect that sounds like a dolphin chirrup, like they’re just screwing with you.
But that perspective is essential to understanding where Geezer are coming from especially early on. Working with producer Chris Bittner at Applehead Recording — I was fortunate enough to be there for the basic tracks of much of the record (in-studio posted here and here) — they’ve never sounded bigger, clearer or more professional, and that progression is natural from Groovy, 2021’s recorded-in-the-practice-space jam single Solstice (review here) filling the long, show-less gap between with its expansive, synth-laden exploration as an immersive holdover.
It doesn’t always work out this way, but the elaborate production is what allows Geezer to flesh out their songs. The dual-channel vocal layering for the “ooh” in opener “Atomic Moronic,” for example, or the tambourine adding to the crescendo of the penultimate “Saviours” ahead of the seven-minute finale, which sees them loosen the reins structurally and roll out a mellow jam in the midsection topped with effects-laced vocals and, after five minutes in, give over to a languid solo that’s a highlight in terms of its fuzzy tone and the just-holding-to-the-beat bassline that accompanies.
These songs have been worked on, to be sure, but are not overwrought, and they offer a point of view of which the title-track is emblematic. Considering sociopolitical turmoil, a raging virus (which I’ll note for my own posterity that I have right now; thankfully a seemingly mild variant thus far), and whatever other apocalyptic visions one might cast over the last few years — can’t help but think of watching an insurrection in progress when I see the title “Broken Glass,” even though the song’s an uptempo strut-and-stomper with handclaps in its chorus, but certainly second cut “Logan’s Run” applies as well with its immediate shuffle-chug, more tambourine, big-room crash and final repetitions of “Do not resist” — there’s been no shortage of reasons to feel overwhelmed.
And Stoned Blues Machine doesn’t shy away from expressing confusion, dismay or judgment. “Atomic Moronic” is a song for the Trump years — the line, “You put your faith in stupid,” is as succinct a summary of American anti-intellectualism as one could ever hope to hear — but there’s no sense of preach either. “Atomic Moronic” and “Stoned Blues Machine” aren’t campaigning, and neither is “Broken Glass,” they’re just trying to get through it. That, too, is deeply relatable. It’s a kind of helplessness answered both by essentially saying ‘screw it’ and going to get high, and of course by writing these songs themselves, the act of creating them, arranging, recording, etc., which side B’s “Eleven” seems to engage directly. Turn up and get away, even if just in your own brain. Who would begrudge them that?
Especially when the material is so tight. Side A moves from “Atomic Moronic” into “Logan’s Run” into the maddeningly catchy “A Cold Black Heart” and “Stoned Blues Machine” with a build of propulsion that loses not a step as “Broken Glass” picks up with its bouncing snare and “Eleven” finds salvation in its volume — “The walls are closing in again/And I ain’t leaving/And I don’t want to think about it again” — and “Saviours” begins a more tempered shove en route to “The Diamond Rain of Saturn,” which for its first two minutes (until the countdown ends) rocks like all is normal and then spends the next four minutes tripping out until building back to the album’s last apex. All told, it’s eight tracks and 42 minutes that live up to the ethic they espouse and answer chaos with cohesion, setting the proverbial bar higher for themselves while discovering a way to both be in the moment lyrically and to get out of it.
Being their sixth album in less than a decade, Stoned Blues Machine continues to show forward growth on the part of the band, and the lineup of Harrington, Touseull and Markota deliver the songs with organic-feeling chemistry and an energy that having been there I’ll tell you is sincere. They worked hard to make the best Geezer album yet, and they made the best Geezer album yet. I’ll readily cop to being a fan of their work in general, but if one considers Groovy as a second debut for the band since it was their first with this incarnation (Harrington is the lone remaining founder), then Stoned Blues Machine is beyond a worthy follow-up. You can either get on board or not, it’s up to you, but the ability of Geezer to find good times in dark times isn’t to be understated, and if a Stoned Blues Machine is what they are, one only hopes there are wheels on the bottom so they can keep this creative momentum rolling.
Geezer, “Logan’s Run” official video
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Tags: Geezer, Geezer Stoned Blues Machine, Heavy Psych Sounds, Kingston, New York, Stoned Blues Machine
