Review: Dead Hits, Real Love
Roiled in acidic sneer, the debut EP Real Love from NY psych-shovers Dead Hits has its roots in 2010s-era trippers Naam, whose guitarist/vocalist Ryan Lee Lugar reemerges here. It’s been some 11 years since Naam‘s last studio release — a four-way split (review here) with Black Rainbows, The Flying Eyes and White Hills — and accordingly, Lugar and the company he’s keeping in Dead Hits, with Philippe “Phi Moon” Ortanez (ex-Mirror Queen, ex-La Otracina, Shifters, solo stuff, etc.) also on guitar, Brian Murphy on bass and backing vocals and Jesse Ministero on drums, have embarked on discovering their own take, whatever familiar elements might carry over from Lugar‘s previous outfit, as heard in the vocal pattern on Real Love‘s wah-soaked opening title-track or the gritty blowout in the second half of the penultimate “Perfect World.”
Psychedelic rock is still the foundation, but there’s a fresh dynamic coming together in Dead Hits as well, both in terms of the conversation between Lugar and Ortanez on guitar — which seems to be a big part of it in terms of the songrwiting — and stylistic turns like the grit-garage finisher “Schweinhund,” or its earlier, also-three-minutes-long hard-fuzz-boogie counterpart “Melted.” The second cut behind “Real Love” is a scorcher as regards general purpose, fuzzed in tone and tight in terms of rhythm, with Lugar running through lines overtop, vague but discernible if you want to listen. A series of crashes seems to herald a slowdown but they twist back into the verse instead, some nuance there perhaps ingrained from early NY punk, a bit of perhaps-subconscious strut learned through osmosis before the next ripping solo precedes a last verse and noisy ending.
Pattern-wise, there’s nothing crazy about it. Both “Real Love” and “Melted” have a keeping-it-loose vibe, but the opener is a march and its companion piece at the outset feels no less based around physical movement in its procession, even if that movement happens in another way. Both songs are written to a structure, with purpose, and though Dead Hits may or may not at some point take on a longer form in terms of songwriting — Real Love was co-produced by Lugar and Studio G‘s Jeff Berner (who engineered), but while one assumes the songs started from Lugar, but the only credit given is John Weingarten (ex-Naam) and Tony Castineyra for “additional songwriting” — this initial showing, a first-impression first EP, isn’t where it happens.
Centerpiece “Day and Night” follows the true-to-title finish of “Melted” with a riff that feels culled from the Witch school of riffing and so is suitable for relation to a band who used to be labelmates with them. As it moves past its intro, “Day and Night” has a fervency to its low end that neither “Melted” nor “Real Love” before it boasted. This change in approach doesn’t upset the character of the EP — they’ve had three songs each with something of a different look, so there’s not really anything yet to depart from; they’re still setting the context — and it shifts into a mellower verse before renewing the flood of l0w-end fuzz, shuffling snare and intertwined lead guitar. “Day and Night” is almost entirely instrumental for its second half, and uses much of that time to establish a progression that has both melodic depth and psychedelic outreach. You can hear it in the churn of bass and guitar under the solo, as well of course as in the solo itself.
And maybe it’s inevitable that Lugar and Ortanez would be a focal point for a listener aware of their pedigree, but I’m not sure that’s an obstacle to those otherwise unfamiliar with these players. The reason I say this is specifically because Murphy and Ministero do so much of the work in terms of holding these songs together. Yes, saying something like that is ridiculous in a way, because if the songs weren’t held together they likely wouldn’t be on the EP in the first place, but while the roles of bass and drums in creating the fluidity overarching throughout Real Love is understated, it’s also what lets Ortanez‘s leads and Lugar‘s verses shine, and it’s what balances out the stretches where the guitar is shouting at the universe, because it’s where the band still keep a foot on the ground in terms of groove.
“Day and Night,” also the longest inclusion at 5:31, is a highlight for its tone and for its shred, but if you miss out on the soul behind Ministero‘s snare work or the crunch brought to the underlying rhythm part by Murphy‘s bass, then you’ve missed the song. The point is these are not happenstance or secondary elements. While nascent in the way of a debut EP, Real Love showcases the shape of the whole band, not just the members with parentheses next to their names.
Before the aforementioned “Schweinhund” caps, feedback and low rumble lead the way into the explosion at the start of “Perfect World.” Shorter, more taut and forward-directed in its roll, “Perfect World” keeps its current of guitar noise as the bass punches out the bounce of the verse, bit of grunge creep in the line there, but put through a prismatic filter of some sort or other. They’re building in that early verse and it’s hard to tell because of the noise, which only makes it feel cleverer as they shift into a crashing instrumental hook. It won’t be the last one as they turn around, and with the rough production, what’s probably a catchy-enough riff requires some digging out of the morass, but that’s pretty satisfying too, and when the solo hits around three and a half minutes in, I feel like I can see Ortanez wiggling his foot on the wah for maximum scorch.
At the end, “Schweinhund” caps with a different kind of ambition, still psych but more banger and less prog-indulgence, which I’ll take as a positive sign and thank you very much. I don’t know what Dead Hits‘ plans are beyond these songs and local gigs, if they have any, but while Real Love sounds like the output of a group getting their bearings, it’s also likely to throw the listener off-balance with just how much of a sense of themselves the band seem to have at this point. Self-awareness, and bonus, because it doesn’t seem to be holding them back.
