Coming at you live and direct from the Wegmans pharmacy counter where I’m waiting to pick up some pinkeye drops for my kid, who stayed home from half-day pre-k on Monday because the Quarterly Review isn’t complicated enough on its own. It was my diagnosis that called off the bus, later confirmed over telehealth, so at least I wasn’t wrong and shot my own day. I know this shit doesn’t matter to anyone — it’ll barely matter to me in half an hour — but, well, I don’t think I’ve ever written while waiting for a prescription before and I’m just stoned enough to think it might be fun to do so now.

Of course, by the time I’m writing the reviews below — tomorrow morning, as it happens — this scrip will have long since been ready and retrieved. But a moment to live through, just the same.

We hit halfway today. Hope your week’s been good so far. Mine’s kind of a mixed bag apart from the music, which has been pretty cool.

Quarterly Review #21-30:

Yakuza, Sutra

Since it would be impossible anyway to encapsulate the scope of Yakuza‘s Sutra — the Chicago-based progressive psych-metal outfit led by vocalist/saxophonist Bruce Lamont, with Matt McClelland on guitar/backing vocals, Jerome Marshall on bass and James Staffel on drums/percussion — from the transcendental churn of “2is1” to the deadpan tension build in and noise rock payoff in “Embers,” the sax-scorch bass-punch metallurgical crunch of “Into Forever” and the deceptively bright finish of “Never the Less,” and so on, let’s do a Q&A. They still might grind at any moment? Yup, see “Burn Before Reading.” They still on a wavelength of their own? Oh most definitely; see “Echoes From the Sky,” “Capricorn Rising,” etc. Still underrated? Yup. It’s been 11 years since they released Beyul (review here). Still ahead of their time? Yes. Like anti-genre pioneers John Zorn or Peter Brötzmann turned heavy and metal, or like Virus or Voivod with their specific kind of if-you-know-you-know, cult-following-worthy individualist creativity, Yakuza weave through the consuming 53-minute procession of Sutra with a sensibility that isn’t otherworldly because it’s psychedelic or drenched in effects (though it might also be those things at any given moment), but because they sound like they come from another planet. A welcome return from an outfit genuinely driven toward the unique and a meld of styles beyond metal and/or jazz. And they’ve got a fitting home on Svart. I know it’s been over a decade, but I hope these dudes get old in this band.

Yakuza on Facebook

Svart Records website

—

 

Lotus Thrones, The Heretic Souvenir

The second offering from Philadelphia multi-instrumentalist Heath Rave (Altars of the Moon, former drums in Wolvhammer, etc.) under the banner of Lotus Thrones, the seven-song/38-minute The Heretic Souvenir (on Disorder and Seeing Red) draws its individual pieces across an aural divide by means of a stark atmosphere, the post-plague-and-the-plague-is-capitalism skulking groove of “B0T0XDR0NE$” emblematic both of perspective and of willingness to throw a saxophone overtop if the mood’s right (by Yakuza‘s Bruce Lamont, no less), which it is. At the outset, “Gore Orphanage” is more of an onslaught, and “Alpha Centauri” has room for both a mathy chug and goth-rocking shove, the latter enhanced by Rave‘s low-register vocals. Following the Genghis Tron-esque glitch-grind of 1:16 centerpiece “Glassed,” the three-and-a-half-minute “Roses” ups the goth factor significantly, delving into twisted Type O Negative-style pulls and punk-rooted forward thrust in a highlight reportedly about Rave‘s kid, which is nice (not sarcastic), before making the jump into “Autumn of the Heretic Souvenir,” which melds Americana and low-key dub at the start of its 11-minute run before shifting into concrete sludge chug and encompassing trades between atmospheric melody and outright crush until a shift eight minutes in brings stand(mostly)alone keys backed by channel-swapping electronic noise as a setup for the final surge’s particularly declarative riff. That makes the alt-jazz instrumental “Nautilus” something of an afterthought, but not out of place in terms of its noir ambience that’s also somehow indebted to Nine Inch Nails. There’s a cough near the end. See if you can hear it.

Lotus Thrones on Facebook

Seeing Red Records store

Disorder Recordings website

—

 

Endtime & Cosmic Reaper, Doom Sessions Vol. 7

Realized at the formidable behest of Heavy Psych Sounds, the seventh installment of the Doom Sessions series (Vol. 8 is already out) brings together Sweden’s strongly cinematic sludge-doomers Endtime with fire-crackling North Carolinian woods-doomers Cosmic Reaper. With two songs from the former and three from the latter, the balance winds up with more of an EP feel from Cosmic Reaper and like a single with an intro from Endtime, who dedicate the first couple of minutes of “Tunnel of Life” to a keyboard intro that’s very likely a soundtrack reference I just don’t know because I’m horror-ignorant before getting down to riff-rumble-roll business on the righteously slow-raging seven minutes of “Beyond the Black Void.” Cosmic Reaper, meanwhile, have three cuts, with harmonized guitars entering “Sundowner” en route to a languid and melodic nod verse, a solo later answering the VHS atmosphere of Endtime before “Dead and Loving It” and “King of Kings” cult-doom their way into oblivion, the latter picking up a bit of momentum as it pushes near the eight-minute mark. It’s a little uneven, considering, but Doom Sessions Vol. 7 provides a showcase for two of Heavy Psych Sounds‘ up-and-coming acts, and that’s pretty clearly the point. If it leads to listeners checking out their albums after hearing it, mission accomplished.

Endtime on Facebook

Cosmic Reaper on Facebook

Heavy Psych Sounds website

—

 

High Priest, Invocation

Don’t skip this because of High Priest‘s generic-stoner-rock name. The Chicago four-piece of bassist/vocalist Justin Valentino, guitarists Pete Grossmann and John Regan and drummer Dan Polak make an awaited full-length debut with Invocation on Magnetic Eye Records, and if the label’s endorsement isn’t enough, I’ll tell you the eight-song/44-minute long-player is rife with thoughtful construction, melody and heft. Through the opening title-track and into the lumber, sweep and boogie of “Divinity,” they incorporate metal with the two guitars and some of the vocal patterning, but aren’t beholden to that anymore than to heavy rock, and far from unipolar, “Ceremony” gives a professional fullness of sound that “Cosmic Key” ups immediately to round out side A before “Down in the Park” hints toward heavygaze without actually tipping over, “Universe” finds the swing buried under that monolithic fuzz, “Conjure” offers a bluesier but still huge-sounding take and 7:40 closer “Heaven” layers a chorus of self-harmonizing Valentinos to underscore the point of how much the vocals add to the band. Which is a lot. What’s lost in pointing that out is just how densely weighted their backdrop is, and the nuance High Priest bring to their arrangements throughout, but whether you want to dig into that or just learn the words and sing along, you can’t lose.

High Priest on Facebook

Magnetic Eye Records store

—

 

MiR, Season Unknown

Its catharsis laced in every stretch of the skin-peeling tremolo and echoing screams of “Altar of Liar,” Season Unknown arrives as the first release from Poland’s MiR, a directly-blackened spinoff of heavy psych rockers Spaceslug, whose guitarist/vocalist Bartosz Janik and bassist/vocalist Jan Rutka feature along with guitarist Michał Zieleniewski (71tonman) and drummer Krzystof Kamisiński (Burning Hands). The relationship to Janik and Rutka‘s other (main?) band is sonically tenuous, though Spaceslug‘s Kamil Ziółkowski also guests on vocals, making it all the more appropriate that MiR stands as a different project. Ripping and progressive in kind, cuts like “Lost in Vision” and the blastbeaten severity of “Ashen” are an in-genre rampage, and while “Sum of All Mourn” is singularly engrossing in its groove, the penultimate “Yesterday Rotten” comes through as willfully stripped to its essential components until its drifting finish, which is fair enough ahead of the more expansive closer “Illusive Loss of Inner Frame,” which incorporates trades between all-out gnash and atmospheric contemplations. I won’t profess to be an expert on black metal, but as a sidestep, Season Unknown is both respectfully bold and clearly schooled in what it wants to be.

MiR on Facebook

MiR on Bandcamp

—

 

Hiram-Maxim, Colder

Recorded by esteemed producer Martin Bisi (Swans, Sonic Youth, Unsane, etc.) in 2021-’22, Colder is Hiram-Maxim‘s third full-length, with hints of Angels of Light amid the sneering heaviness of “Bathed in Blood” after opener/longest track (immediate points) “Alpha” lays out the bleak atmosphere in which what follows will reside. “Undone” gets pretty close to laying on the floor, while “It Feels Good” very pointedly doesn’t for its three minutes of dug-in cafe woe, from out of which “Hive Mind” emerges with keys and drums forward in a moody verse before the post-punk urgency takes more complete hold en route to a finish of manipulated noise. As one would have to expect, “Shock Cock” is a rocker at heart, and the lead-in from the drone/experimental spoken word of “Time Lost Time” holds as a backdrop so that its Stooges-style comedown heavy is duly weirded out. Is that a theremin? Possibly. They cap by building a wall of malevolence and contempt with “Sick to Death” in under three minutes, resolving in a furious assault of kitchen-sink volume, that, yes, recedes, but is resonant enough to leave scratches on your arm. Don’t let anyone tell you this isn’t extreme music just because some dude isn’t singing about killing some lady or quoting a medical dictionary. Colder could just as easily have been called ‘Volcanic.’

Hiram-Maxim on Facebook

Wax Mage Records on Facebook

—

 

The Heavy Co., Brain Dead

Seeming always to be ready with a friendly, easy nod, Lafayette/Indianapolis, Indiana’s The Heavy Co. return with “Brain Dead” as a follow-up single to late-2022’s “God Damn, Jimmy.” The current four-piece incarnation of the band — guitarist/vocalist Ian Daniel, guitarist Jeff Kaleth, bassist Eric Bruce and drummer TR McCully — seem to be refocused from some of the group’s late-’10s departures, elements of outlaw country set aside in favor of a rolling riff with shades of familiar boogie in the start-stops beneath its solo section, a catchy but largely unassuming chorus, and a theme that, indeed, is about getting high. In one form or another, The Heavy Co. have been at it for most of the last 15 years, and in a little over four minutes they demonstrate where they want their emphasis to be — a loose, jammy feel held over from the riffout that probably birthed the song in the first place coinciding with the structure of the verses and chorus and a lack of pretense that is no less a defining aspect than the aforementioned riff. They know what they’re doing, so let ’em roll on. I don’t know if the singles are ahead of an album release or not, but whatever shows up whenever it does, The Heavy Co. are reliable in my mind and this is right in their current wheelhouse.

The Heavy Co. on Facebook

The Heavy Co. on Bandcamp

—

 

The Cimmerian, Sword & Sorcery Vol. I

The intervening year since L.A.’s The Cimmerian made their debut with Thrice Majestic (review here) seems to have made the trio even more pummeling, as their Sword & Sorcery Vol. I two-songer finds them incorporating death and extreme metal for a feel like a combined-era Entombed on leadoff “Suffer No Guilt” which is a credit to bassist Nicolas Rocha‘s vocal burl as well as the intensity of riff from David Gein (ex-The Scimitar) and corresponding thrash gallop in David Morales‘ drumming. The subsequent “Inanna Rising” is slower, with a more open nod in its rhythm, but no less threatening, with fluid rolls of double-kick pushing the verse forward amid the growls and an effective scream, a sample of something (everything?) burning, and a kick in pace before the solo about halfway into the track’s 7:53. If The Cimmerian are growing more metal, and it seems they are, then the aggression suits them as the finish of “Inanna Rising” attests, and the thickness of sludge carried over in their tonality assures that the force of their impact is more than superficial.

The Cimmerian on Facebook

The Cimmerian on Bandcamp

—

 

Nepaal, Protoaeolianism

Released as an offering from the amorphous Hungarian collective Psychedelic Source Records, the three-song Protoaeolianism arrives under the moniker of Nepaal — also stylized as :nepaal, with the colon — finding mainstay Bence Ambrus on guitar with Krisztina Benus on keys, Dávid Strausz on bass, Krisztián Megyeri on drums and Marci Bíró on effects/synth for captured-in-the-moment improvisations of increasing reach as space and psych and krautrocks comingle with hypnotic pulsations on “Innoxial Talent Parade” (9:54), the centerpiece “Brahman Sleeps 432 Billion Years” (19:14) and “Ineffable Minor States” (13:44), each of which has its arc of departure, journey and arrival, forming a multi-stage narrative voyage that’s as lush as the liquefied tones and sundry whatever-that-was noises. “Ineffable Minor States” is so serene in its just-guitar start that the first time I heard it I thought the song had cut off, but no. They’re just taking their time, and why shouldn’t they? And why shouldn’t we all take some time to pause, engage mindfully with our surroundings, experience or senses one at a time, the things we see, hear, touch, taste, smell? Maybe Protoaeolianism — instrumental for the duration — is a call to that. Maybe it’s just some jams from jammers and I shouldn’t read anything else into it. Here then, as in all things, you choose your own adventure. I’m glad to be the one to tell you this is an adventure worth taking.

Psychedelic Source Records on Facebook

Psychedelic Source Records on Bandcamp

—

 

Hope Hole, Beautiful Doom

There is much to dig into on the second full-length from Toledo, Ohio, duo Hope Hole — the returning parties of Matt Snyder and Mike Mulholland — who offer eight originals and a centerpiece cover of The Cure‘s “Sinking” that’s not even close to being the saddest thing on the record, titled Beautiful Doom presumably in honor of the music itself. Leadoff “Spirits on the Radio” makes me nostalgic for a keyboard-laced goth glory day that never happened while also tapping some of mid-period Anathema‘s abiding downer soul, seeming to speak to itself as much as the audience with repetitions of “You reap what you sew.” Some Godflesh surfaces in “600 Years,” and they’re resolute in the melancholy of “Common Sense” until the chugging starts, like a dirtier, underproduced Crippled Black Phoenix. Rolling with deceptive momentum, the title-track could be acoustic until it starts with the solo and electronic beats later before shifting into the piano, beats, drift guitar, and so on of “Sinking.” “Chopping Me” could be an entire band’s sound but it’s barely a quarter of what Hope Hole have to say in terms of aesthetic two records deep. “Mutant Dynamo” duly punks its arthouse sludge and shreds a self-aware over-the-top solo in the vein of Brendan Small, while “Pyrokinetic” revives earlier goth swing with a gruff biker exterior (I’d watch that movie) and a moment of spinning weirdo triumph at the end, almost happy to be burned, where the seven-minute finale “Cities of Gold” returns to beats over its gradual guitar start, emerging with chanting vocals to become its own declaration of progressive intent. Beautiful Doom ends with a steady march rather than the expected blowout, having built its gorgeous decay out of the same rotten Midwestern ground as the debut — 2021’s Death Can Change (review here) — but moved unquestionably forward from it.

Hope Hole on Facebook

Hope Hole on Bandcamp

—

 

Today, July 28, marks the release of Lafayette, Indiana, rockers The Heavy Co.‘s new single, Wormweed (Live at Foam City). The single-song outing follows behind their last single, “Shelter” (premiered here), for which Rock Freaks Records has pressed up a 7″ to be issued Oct. 8 through Bandcamp and at gigs — they had them at Freak Valley Festival in Germany, I noted; the fest and imprint are affiliated — the song having earned a bit of fanfare with a guest spot from a pre-recorded solo by Earthless‘ Isaiah Mitchell. And, just to tie everything together, The Heavy Co. will support Earthless at their tour stop in Indiana on Sept. 13, with records on hand.

You’re what my grandmother would call ‘a smart cookie,’ so I’m going to assume you’ve got all that and just keep going. Good? Good.

I don’t know if the below stream of the track counts as a premiere, really, but the band called it one even though the song will be publicly available and I’m not one to argue so long as the point gets across that “Wormweed (Live at Foam City)” is available now. The song runs a bit under six minutes and is instrumental in its entirety. Recorded by the four-piece of guitarist/vocalist Ian Daniel, now-guitarist Jeff Kaleth, bassist Eric Bruce and drummer TR McCully, it’s live and recalls self-titled-era Clutch in its middle after starting out with more of a ’70s strut — something from which the band in any incarnation has never shied — interchanging a fluid verse and spacier groove before pulling up circa 3:45 to make way for the slowdown roll that more than earns its place consuming the rest of the track. A winding solo overtop — the things you can do with two guitarists — gives further sense of life to the live recording, and even over the last feedback and drum crashes there’s a palpable and purposeful sense of motion.

“Wormweed (Live at Foam City)” was, yes, tracked entirely live. That’s easier to do sans vocals, but one way or the other, The Heavy Co. succeed in getting their dual-edged point across, emphasizing the budding chemistry in the new lineup and the lack of pretense that has heretofore defined their work. It’s been a bumpy few years for the group, who came back from a six-years-no-new-material-out hiatus with 2020’s single “Phoenix” (posted here) as the duo of Daniel and Kaleth — the latter then on drums — and have since gone on to expand the lineup. But that reconstruction as a double-guitar foursome and hit-record-and-go studio ethic can only speak of a desire to play live, which, as noted, they’re doing as well. So much the better.

Given what I’m hearing here, they could make an album in this manner, recording live and so on. I’d probably want a couple songs with vocals — Daniel has an interesting voice and it’d be a lot of guitar solos otherwise; if that’s a pain while recording live, they might be forgiven for overdubbing live vocals later; that’s a pretty standard approach these days — but that just provides another opportunity to change things up from one song to the next. A new debut for 2023, some 15 years after their initial start in 2008? No doubt weirder things have happened.

When/if I hear of such a thing, I’ll let you know. Today, enjoy the new single. They certainly make that easy enough to do.

Dig:

The Heavy Co. will release their new single, Wormweed (Live at Foam City) July 28th. It will be available on the band’s Bandcamp and all of the regular streaming platforms.

This is the first release to feature their revamped line up with TR McCully on drums and Eric Bruce on bass. Jeff Kaleth has moved from behind the kit to guitar.

The track was recorded 100% live in one take at their Foam City recording studio. What you hear is exactly what happened.

The single comes right in time with the announcement of their October 8 release date for their 7 in. single with Rock Freaks Records, Shelter ft. Isaiah Mitchell of Earthless. The vinyl will be available at live shows and a limited number will also be available in the US through their Bandcamp.

Speaking of Earthless, THC will be opening for the San Diego power trio, September 13, in Ft. Wayne, IN. A limited number of the 7 in. will be available along with a newly designed line of merch.

Please tune in…

The Heavy Co. on Facebook

The Heavy Co. on Bandcamp

Indiana-based two-piece The Heavy Co. will issue their new single Shelter on Sept. 18. One doesn’t hear all that often from the Lafayette, Indiana, two-piece, but it seems to me that if you’ve got Isaiah Mitchell of Earthless and Golden Void and general Lord of Guitar-ness fame contributing a solo to a track, well, that’s probably worth putting together a release of some sort. The three-minute song is the second new offering the band has had since reconfiguring as the duo of guitarist/vocalist Ian Daniel and drummer Jeff Kaleth, arriving behind April’s “Phoenix” single (posted here), which arrived concurrent to a compilation of material from the band’s original run during 2008-2014. They’ve since also put out a live track from a gig in 2014, but in terms of new music, it’s just been “Phoenix” and now “Shelter,” which, if you’re paying attention, would be enough for a 7″ or even a cassingle if they were feeling snazzy and wanted to put the art by Ohio-based artist Chad Wells to work.

Whatever they end up doing with it in terms of a physical pressing, if anything, “Shelter” isn’t the first time The Heavy Co. have flirted with country influences by a longshot, but Daniel‘s vocals here — backed with low-mixed harmonies by Tom Dean — really underscore the point. The track unfolds across a void-of-pretense three-minute stretch, rolling easily and smoothly through its initial verses before giving over its last minute to Mitchell‘s solo. There seem to be two layers of guitar working there, and I’m not sure if that’s Daniel adding his own accompanying lead track or if Mitchell can just magically play two guitars at the same time — you’d have to believe it, given the breadth of his work — but one way or the other, it’s an organic fit with the produced-in-lockdown single, which would seem to derive its title more from “shelter in place” than “Gimme Shelter” or any other such usage. Fair enough for the times in which it was made, which were these times, which are hard times. You take shelter where you can get it.

Now then. With the official release a week out, here’s the premiere of “Shelter” for your streaming perusal. Some more info follows as sent along by the band.

Please enjoy:

The Heavy Co. – Shelter (Ft. Isaiah Mitchell)

Produced by: THC
Guitar Solo : Isaiah Mitchell
Extra Vocals: Tom Dean
Mastered by: Ed Littman
Artwork by: Chad Wells

Released: September 18, 2020
DPR Records
Indianapolis, IN

The Heavy Co. is the long running Neo-Psychedelic Stoner Rock studio project of Ian Daniel and Jeff Kaleth. Their latest single, Shelter, features a blistering solo from Isaiah Mitchell (Earthless, Black Crowes).

Recorded remotely in their private studios, this is the first track THC has released in the isolation caused by Covid 19. The title is a direct reflection of the situation, contrasting with the theme of internal and external exploration of reality.

Please tune in…

The Heavy Company on Facebook

The Heavy Company on Bandcamp

Some of the tracks included on Indiana rockers The Heavy Company‘s new pun-titled tape, Uno Dose (or The Uno Dose, I’ve seen and referred to it as both at this point), have been floating around for most of this year. “What’s Eating Harry Lee?” showed up in a video back in January, and “State Flag Blues,” on which Geezer‘s Pat Harrington guests on slide guitar, appeared as a single as well, while “The Humboldt County Waltz” and “One Big Drag” — performed, as they put it, “more or less live” here alongside “What’s Eating Harry Lee?” on side one — come from 2013’s Midwest Electric full-length (review here). That can give Uno Dose something of a hodge-podge feel from one half to the next, but honestly, the band’s jams are so laid back and with the context of a release — being a tape EP — it barely matters. Far more important is what the three songs on side two seem to signify in terms of The Heavy Co.‘s overall direction.

Since their 2011 debut EP, Please Tune In… (review here), the trio — now comprised of guitarist/vocalist Ian Gerber, drummer Jeff Kaleth and bassist Michael Naish — have specialized in unpretentious, natural sounding heavy rock. What made Midwest Electric work so well was how the direction shifted more toward open-sounding jam-based material while maintaining the songwriting at the core of the debut. Uno Dose pushes further in both directions, the newer cuts on side two, “El Perdedor,” “State Flag Blues” and “New Song to Sing” grooving out laid back tonal warmth at a comfort level that only enhances the overall listening experience. In the case of “State Flag Blues,” Harrington‘s guitar adds a psych-blues flourish alongside Gerber‘s rhythm track and some surprisingly aggressive, socially-conscious lyrics working in themes of Indiana politics; a classic protest song given a tonal beef-up.

The instrumental “El Perdedor” before it sets up a smooth-paced, jammy vibe, and “New Song to Sing,” which closes out Uno Dose, unfurls a languid funk of starts and stops and grooves with just the slightest undercurrent of wah foreboding. A recording job by Kaleth captures some subtle layering, and a key change in the vocals finds Gerber tapping his inner Mark Lanegan for the bridge to a brief multi-layered solo, The Heavy Co. getting more complex even as they expand the breadth and cohesion of their jams, seemingly stripping their approach down to its most fluid elements. Their particular blend continues to impress even on the first half of the tape’s live renditions, and as they move forward from Midwest Electric I think we’ve just seen the beginning of where their explorations might carry them. In giving a glimpse of the work in progress, Uno Dose earns a hearty “right on.”

The Heavy Co., Uno Dose (2014)

The Heavy Company on Thee Facebooks

The Heavy Company on Bandcamp

Based in Lafayette, Indiana, heavy rock outfit The Heavy Company made their debut in the form of the 2011 EP, The Heavy (Please Tune In…). It was a release that, despite raw self-production, had a number of things working in its favor — most notably a prevailing lack of pretense and natural sensibility. When it comes to hearing the follow-up first full-length, Midwest Electric, the discovery that those elements have carried over from the EP (review here) comes with some measure of relief, since it’s precisely this modest ethic that stands The Heavy Co. out from the bulk of their peers. If anything, it’s amplified on the seven-tracks of Midwest Electric, which is out on a limited CD run through the band’s own DPR Records in hopes of financing a vinyl pressing, and the album nestles itself easily into an overarching groove while maintaining sonic and structural diversity between its individual pieces. The band, down to the duo of guitarist/vocalist/bassist Ian Gerber and drummer/vocalist/guitarist Jeff Kaleth from their original trio incarnation — bassist Scott Gilkey plays on the first half of the album — elicit a strikingly organic, jammed sensibility, resulting in a full-album flow that’s unmistakably aware of European heavy psychedelia but hardly at all reaching for it sonically, instead weaving into and around American-style riff rock with understated finesse, here a Clutch groove, there an organ-laced tribute to Neil Young that sounds more like Mark Lanegan, at least in terms of the vocals. The Heavy Co. remain underproduced, but what’s encouraging about that in terms of the manageable 37-minute stretch of Midwest Electric is they turn that roughness into a part of their aesthetic, so that the opening push of “The Humboldt County Waltz” comes across with a garage sensibility, like a less urban The Brought Low underscored by a steady rumble of stoner-rocking low end, indicative perhaps of some of the sonic shifts to come as the songs play out. They never quite touch on Americana, and they never quite touch on retro ’70s rock, but there are pieces of both brought into the melting-pot-stew of their sound.

That’s evidenced on “The Humboldt County Waltz” well enough, but more so on the subsequent “A Groove a Mile Wide,” which is longer and more psychedelic thanks in part to a guest solo by Michael Rafalowich of Brooklyn’s Strange Haze. A cut in the tempo gives Kaleth‘s drums some sense of bounce, and the vocals seem content to ride the laid back groove through the verses, making room for ascending and descending guitar runs in between. There’s an undercurrent of psychedelic noise and effects that’s subtle, but there all the same, and it rises to prominence just before two minutes in when Rafalowich‘s solo takes hold. Gerber joins and the two guitars hold something like a mini-freakout, departing as quickly as they game as watery vocals return over more present low end and backwards cymbal washes. They cap “A Groove a Mile Wide” by delivering the title line and then seeking to embody it, and but for some of the tastier riffs to come on “Greasy Mush” and “One Big Drag,” I’d be inclined to say they got there, but the instrumental ending of “A Groove a Mile Wide” serves its purpose well nonetheless, and by the time the moodier “Neil Young” arrives, it has become abundantly clear that The Heavy Co. are working with a much wider sonic breadth this time around than on The Heavy (Please Tune In…). Quiet guitars strum out cleanly amid rising and falling organ swells and smoky vocals — could be Kaleth taking the fore from Gerber, I don’t know, but the style is different enough to make me think it’s someone else — and though distortion never feels far off, by the time it arrives, the band has successfully widened their scope and given a lonelier vibe to more accomplished songwriting. Lead notes echo out behind “Neil Young”‘s final moments, and the song ends with guitar and organ in quick succession, which does little to setup the shift into the fervently stonerized groove of “Greasy Mush,” but obviously recognizes that the latter is so immersive it doesn’t matter anyway. A riff easily mouthed along with, “Greasy Mush” makes the most of its central figure, stretching upwards of six minutes and peppering an open-sounding instrumental chorus with some of Midwest Electric‘s best bass work — the “voom”s in the would-be verses are a nice touch as well, as the band themselves say when the jam has ended. Before they get there, the guitars lead the way down an extended heavy psych jam that keeps its soothing sensibility even as it moves further away from the song’s initial idea, which is brought back at the end to excellently bookend the proceedings.

Read more »

Released earlier this year, the debut EP from Indiana’s The Heavy Co., is unpretentious almost to the point of humility. The Heavy (Please Tune In…) is its own instructions, and across the varied 23 minutes of the six tracks, the trio seem earnest in their asking. They do say “please,” after all. The Heavy Co. (also written out in full as The Heavy Company) formed in 2008 and have a subtle and atmospheric take on heavy blues, at times veering into desert rock on the EP, and can alternately convey a sense of darkness or calm. At their “heaviest,” they seem to be coming more from a place of ambience than sonics, and the vocals of guitarist Ian Gerber back up that idea with a mostly laid back approach that’s at times overly afflicted with the blues but mostly right in line with what the song as a whole warrants. Gerber is joined in The Heavy Co. by the deft bass work of Ryan Strawsma and the traditionally-aligned rock drumming of Jeff Kaleth, and all three manage to impress in their own way, and though guest organ and blues harp from Chad Cutsinger and percussion from Jace Epple do add flourish to the tracks (Epple’s harmonica solo on “Black Tuesday” is charming enough to make that song a highlight), the band are never nearly as jammingly psychedelic as their mushroom-laden front cover might have you believe.

That’s not to say they’ll never get there if they want to, just that they’re not there now. However, The Heavy (Please Tune In…) does open in such a way that puts the focus immediately on atmosphere – the two-minute “Please Tune In…” ambient piece introduces the subtlety that will typify most of The Heavy Co.’s musical personality. Spacious, soft guitar notes ring out while Kaleth offers low-mixed (rightly for what they’re doing) fills behind. Gerber intros “The Heavy” himself with Strawsma’s warm accenting notes behind, and Cutsinger’s organ gives flavor to the song, which has a slightly Southern bent, mostly in the vocals. There’s a Doors-feel to Cutsinger’s playing, but it’s more “Riders on the Storm” than the theatrical “Light My Fire.” Again, “The Heavy” lives up to its name for the atmosphere it conveys, and it’s really more about the chill than the thunderous bombast. The vaguely Skynyrd-esque “Black Tuesday” taps into Hoosier rural tones without sounding foolish, coming off like a more countrified Against Nature, particularly as regards Gerber’s guitar tone and vocals. It’s the second catchiest chorus on The Heavy (Please Tune In…) to the closing “Caged Bird,” and Cutsinger once again underscores on organ later on. There’s a deceptive amount happening between Cutsinger, Strawsma’s excellent runs and the layers of Gerber’s guitar, but the six-and-a-half-minute “Wormwood” clears the air with a simple, no-nonsense instrumental groove.

Read more »