Friday Full-Length: Dozer vs. Demon Cleaner, Domestic Dudes Split 7″
Like their two preceding shared releases — 1998’s Demon Cleaner vs. Dozer (discussed here) and 1999’s follow-up Hawaiian Cottage (discussed here) — the split 7″ Domestic Dudes was released through Molten Universe, the label helmed by Dozer guitarist Tommi Holappa. And because it’s the last of the three, it’s easy enough to think of these four songs and 13 minutes as a springboard that sent both of these outfits toward releasing their debut full-lengths in 2000 — that’s Dozer‘s In the Tail of a Comet (featured here, discussed here) and Demon Cleaner‘s The Freeflight (discussed here); note that Lowrider also had their first album and Greenleaf, who pulled members and guests from all three bands, had their first EP in 2000; good living in Sweden at the turn of the century (also now) — and sure enough, there are easy-enough-in-hindsight arguments to be made that that’s what’s happening.
I’m not sure there’s actually such a thing as being ‘ready’ to make an album, since plenty of great ones have been put out by people who obviously weren’t ‘ready’ in any convential sense for what would result. It’s a cliché that rock critics throw out there — myself included (at least in the cliché part; I’m not sure I count as a critic anymore) — as a way of saying, “I think this band could make a record I’d think is cool,” and since it’s generally intended as a compliment and is kind of milquetoast, nobody really blinks. Fine.
By the same token, to listen to Demon Cleaner‘s “Taurus” and “45” and Dozer‘s “Octanoid” and “Hail the Dude,” even in comparison to the work they were doing just a year earlier in 1999, I think you can hear a progression of sound and purpose that helped solidify their respective identities going into their 2000 LPs. Neither of these Demon Cleaner tracks would show up on The Freeflight or the band’s subsequent 2002 self-titled swansong, but they’re for sure on the trajectory of where that album was coming from, loosely grooving and plenty brash in the buzz of “45,” taking the desert roll of “Taurus” and the little bit of a jam they throw into the solo section and paring it back to the most essential components, then setting it to run.
Kyuss still very much is a defining influence — for both bands at this stage, really — but by the end of “45,” Demon Cleaner gave a picture of where they were headed, and given the limitations of the 7″ format they were working in for what was either intended as a series from the start or just became one as they went on, the fact that they manage to give a dynamic expression of their sound in just six minutes and two well-paired tracks speaks to how generally underrated Demon Cleaner‘s work is to begin with. That whole stopped-after-the-second-record thing probably has something to do with that. Bottom line though, Demon Cleaner were onto something here, and though they wouldn’t be a band anymore by the time five years passed after Domestic Dudes came out, they did manage to realize at least some of the potential they showed in these three nascent splits.
“Octanoid,” with its standout pottymouth chorus and the emergent distinctive throaty swagger of guitarist Fredrik Nordin, will be recognizable from Dozer‘s second album,
2001’s Madre de Dios (featured here), and I don’t know that “Hail the Dude” is or isn’t about The Big Lebowski, but it’s possible, as that film was also released in 1999. In any case, with a howl of guitar after the drum count-in and a steady stoner-rock-when-it-was-stoner-rock-now-we-call-it-classic janga-janga in the verse, “Hail the Dude” is exactly the kind ‘lost’ track that has for years been begging to show up on a compilation release of some sort, but I’ve harped on that enough these last couple weeks, and the songs themselves make the argument better than I could anyhow.
I’d be curious to know if Dozer and Demon Cleaner — and you’ll notice that they’ve switched back to Demon Cleaner vs. Dozer on the cover art; for Hawaiian Cottage, Dozer had top billing — went into Domestic Dudes knowing it was the last of three, or if there was no plan to start with, or what, because there’s such a palpable sense in listening to it of both acts being all in. On the first split, they’re beginning to get a sense of who they are, but by the third, Demon Cleaner have a firm grip on their intent in “Taurus” and “45,” and while Dozer would move past the desert-fuzzed style after their second record and find a more individualized take, at times aggressive, at times spacious, and still evolving these many years later, their 2023 comeback, Drifting in the Endless Void (review here), boasting a richer sprawl after a 15-year studio absence.
But you knew that, so right on. I know these guys are plenty busy. As previously noted, Demon Cleaner‘s drummer was Karl Daniel Lidén, who not only would go on to play in Dozer and Greenleaf, but would record those bands as well as countless others, his work as producer having no less of an impact on the shape of Swedish heavy across a generation than his contributions as a musician. He continues to produce and/or mix killer records — had a hand in High Desert Queen‘s album last year, which ruled — and this clique of players, from Dozer to Greenleaf, Demon Cleaner, Lowrider, probably a couple others from around then, still exists in terms of collaborating with each other and the friendships that these three platters helped solidify.
And it would just be the bloggiest thing ever for me to tell you that those friendships are what’s most important, that it’s the sense of community and support in the heavy underground that makes it so special in a world that’s come to be defined largely by its cruelties and isolation. All true. But while I’m glad at least some of the relationships here continue on to this day, because it’s nice to have friends or so I’m told, that has little to do with the actual listening experience. As far as a takeaway from the third of the trilogy: understand that Domestic Dudes isn’t really the finish, but barely the beginning of what either of these acts would accomplish. They’re still young, hungry, and yes, both bands also sound ready on whatever level one might think of to take the next step. Obviously they were about to do exactly that.
As always, I hope you enjoy, and I hope you’ve enjoyed all three of these over the last couple weeks. I’ve wanted to write about these forever and it was a lot of fun to dig in. Maybe some day they’ll make a fourth. You never know.
—
Rough week. I’ll be honest, my head’s been elsewhere pretty much since Wednesday. The Pecan’s having trouble at school. She went after a para at lunch who pulled her away from getting into it with another kid, and we had to go pick her up yesterday early. It sucked. The Patient Mrs. and I were an hour away when we got the call, trying to chase down a check so she can buy a car that ended up taking us to a credit union on the campus of (wait for it) West Point, which was surreal even before you get to the gummy I’d eaten. But yeah, that was a long-ass, quiet drive back from West Point to the school. Gut-wrenching.
You feel terrible for the kid. It’s not like she doesn’t know what she’s doing is wrong, she just can’t stop it. She gets overwhelmed and lashes out. The para touched her. I’m sure the kid was doing some goofy shit or calling her names or whatever — there’s a whole set of boys in her class she’s having trouble with the last few weeks and it’s turned her world to shit — but she apparently went after him and then the para and there you go. That was a shitty pickup to live through.
We kept her home today. She’s in the bedroom watching Mark Rober — a new obsession, at least a decent portion of it is science — and will likely be there until hunger makes it untenable. The Patient Mrs. is home today too and the sun looks like it’s daring to come out, so leaving the house might happen at some point. That would probably be advisable, anyhow.
But the kid had a great weekend last weekend, including Monday off, which we spent all day at the arcade at the mall. We even played Super Smash Bros. for N64, which felt like a parenting achievement I didn’t know I’d been waiting for for years, and she got into it deep on some skeeball like the Jersey girl she is, and had a ton of fun. We saw family and family friends and she’d had a decent day last Friday enough that we didn’t get a call and so I thought going into Tuesday maybe upping her meds had helped. Not so much.
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were each a wreck and so here we are Friday.
This isn’t our first time in this position as parents. Honestly, after the rough start to kindergarten last year, which was a fucking trauma, I was hoping we were done. Now I’m wondering if this is how it’s going to be and if so, if that’s where we are, how we’re going to move forward. Not only getting her back in school as soon as possible, where she belongs by any measure, but what can be put in place so that the escalation of the last couple weeks stops before somebody gets hurt.
It’s fucking difficult. It’s been a difficult week, and absolutely, I’ve been distracted from what’s going on around here. There’s been a lot of cool shit though, it was a good week. I’m doing my best to keep my head in it, and as usual The Obelisk is a bit of therapy for my brain, even if I’ve come to spend more time complaining about the back-end work of running the site than I used to.
Next week is a Quarterly Review. I’ll start working on it tomorrow. It’s seven days, and then after that I’m going to Roadburn and then I’m taking like a day off after that and that’s basically April. I’ve got premieres set up through the end of the month after the QR and fest coverage, and then we’re into May. It’ll be 2028 before I know it. Shit, she’ll be in fourth grade. That’s almost middle school.
Have a great and safe weekend. Hydrate, watch your head, try and have some fun. Things are hard. Take your moments where and when you can, and if you need to breathe, breathe. Thanks as always for reading.
FRM.
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Tags: Borlange, Demon Cleaner, Demon Cleaner vs. Dozer Domestic Dudes, Domestic Dudes, Dozer, Molten Universe Records, Sweden
