I never had to make my own playlist for one of these posts before, but the second of three Dozer and Demon Cleaner demo-type split 7″s, 1998’s Hawaiian Cottage, wasn’t immediately available all together, and the Demon Cleaner tracks included above — “Heading Home” and “Megawheel” — are taken from the Swedish band’s debut album, The Freeflight (discussed here), as my admittedly limited chase-down skills couldn’t find the single’s recordings streaming anywhere. I own this one — not bragging; it was a valued gift from an even more valued friend – but don’t have a way to transfer. If I hear one complaint about it in the comments, I’ll be surprised, but I felt compelled to mention it just the same.

So, we pick up where we left off last time with the Demon Cleaner vs. Dozer split (discussed here), to which Hawaiian Cottage made a quick-turnaround follow-up, releasing the same year. And like both of Demon Cleaner‘s tracks, which I was happy to find at all, some of what Dozer included here wound up on their own Y2K-issued first album, In the Tail of a Comet (featured here, discussed here), namely the ultra-recognizable, ultra-catchy “Riding the Machine.”

Dozer take top billing this time, so that on the cover it’s Dozer vs. Demon Cleaner — whatever rivalry aspect there may have been between these two bands at the time, they were already friends and collaborators; the ‘vs.’ no doubt comes from the epic battles they all undertook as teenagers playing Street Fighter II. At least that’s the narrative I’ve given it. On Hawaiian Cottage, already one can hear how much the two outfits were growing together, each feeling their way through their desert rock influences while setting themselves on the path to being the bands they’d become during their respective times together, Dozer‘s obviously ongoing. I’m reasonably sure both bands at this point where recording with Bengt Bäcke, who also served as the longtime bassist of affiliated outfit Greenleaf, so how much they’re on the same page here shouldn’t really be a shock.

And an early take on “Riding the Machine,” which would not only feature on Dozer‘s LP but was a highlight of it, is nothing to sneeze at here. Its sound is rawer obviously than the ‘finished’ one, and it comes accompanied by “Silverball,” which didn’t make the record but actually does a lot of work in conveying the intensity that would emerge over time in Dozer‘s sound. As much as their later work, whether it’s 2023’s Drifting in the Endless Void (review here) or 2008’s Beyond Colossal (featured here, discussed here, 2009 interview here), took on a dynamic, atmospheric and immersive sound, the thrust so plainly audible in “Silverball” very much remains a part of what Dozer do. It’s just the fuzzed-out baby version of the thing, which also happens to be awesome.

“Heading Home” begins Demon Cleaner‘s B-side, followed by the does-for-Fu–Manchu-what-Dozer-does-for-Kyuss “Megawheel,” the hook of which makes a fitting complement to “Riding the Machine” as they wrap up the split. Starting off with fuzzy, languid wah, it is pure turn-of-the-century stoner rock bliss, cool in the vocal delivery with a bit of shaker in the groove, then the surge of distortion with the vocals cutting through as they hit into the chorus. Smooth, well executed, bare-bones structurally, but it should be. It’s a demo made by 20 year olds who just happened to have a label — Dozer guitarist Tommi Holappa‘s Molten Universe, which also put out The Freeflight — and the capacity to press it up well in advance of the vinyl revival kicking off in earnest.

The repeated lines, “I am slowing down/I am heading home’ in the push of the second half of “Heading Home” give over to a somewhat understated lead and a tempo kick as they decide to tear into it at the end, and “Megawheel” rolls out (get it?) on suitably farty low end and righteous buzz. No disrespect to Dozer, who show up big to be sure, but if it’s a contest of which hook is going to be stuck in your head all day, “Megawheel” is a tough one to get away from.

It is declarative in its stomp but doesn’t stay put as it jumps into the first bridge and stops with a couple hits of cowbell to work back in. The fuzz is warm and there’s plenty for everybody, and where there are times over the course of their two LPs — the second of which was self-titled and issued in 2002; it hasn’t closed a week yet in this fashion but will at some point I’m sure; I keep a list — where they get caught up in the charge and end up more punkish than, say, their side A counterparts on this outing, even when “Megawheel” hits the gas, the sense of control remains firm as they bring it to a head at the finish, a drop-mic moment at the end predating mic drops when it comes down to silence.

There’s a temptation to write a lot into these releases as regards importance-to-genre, and certainly Dozer and Demon Cleaner‘s work warrants that kind of consideration despite the discrepancies between their respective discographies. But the truth of listening, whether you’re putting on your platter that you’ve had since before The Matrix came out and somewhat hilariously codified the 1990s as the peak of civilization, streaming the tracks above or engaging in a little light piracy 27 years after the fact while you wait for the Dozer early-works comp I’ve campaigned for for so long to surface, is so much simpler. It’s not about what Dozer would do over the next decade, or about Demon Cleaner launching the production career of Karl Daniel Lidén, whose work helped directly shape what those of us geographically elsewhere think of as ‘Swedish heavy rock.’ You get that in its quintessential form on this split and its compatriot releases.

But more, it’s about the fact that the bands just went for it. They got in the studio, played the songs, put them out. It’s the joy of creating a thing, of being part of a group creating a thing, of celebrating the sounds you love with your friends. Playing in the truest sense. You can hear all of that on Hawaian Cottage too, and so it seems all the more to capture a special moment in the lifespans of these two acts.

As always, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy.

—

We’ll wrap this informal mini-series next week with 1999’s Domestic Dudes as third of the three. After that, if there’s anyone’s catalog you want to see written up — I did Sabbath at one point last year or the year before, if you’ll recall — I’m open to suggestion if you’d like to leave a comment with one. Kyuss are obvious. Clutch would keep me busy for the rest of the year probably. But I’ve done a fair number of both their records, so that’s a challenge too — stuff where at least most of it hasn’t been already covered. Cathedral would be an interesting one, or Saint Vitus. Colour Haze are one of my favorite bands ever. Might be fun to dig into Chopping Machine or Seven at the start of their catalog.

I just went to change over the load of wash in the basement — speaking of dudely domesticity — and wound up taking a broom to the years’ worth of spider and cobwebs on the ceiling and the walls and everything around the washer and dryer, so let that serve as an indicator of my level of distraction this week. I slept hard last night but woke up at 3AM yesterday morning, so maybe not such a shock, and in terms of quality-of-life, those kinds of days are markedly lower.

Couple that with The Pecan having a harder time in school this week, hitting kids and teachers and yesterday needing to be taken out of an assembly after chasing around a one-armed man wanting to ask him questions about I know not what but I assume his one arm, and a kind of disastrous playdate yesterday where she melted down each time her friend wanted to hang out with the dog — which her friend definitely did, I think in part because my daughter spent so much time losing it — and I upped her meds before sending her in today.

If it wasn’t already a three-day weekend with Monday off, I’d have probably kept her home in an effort to give her a break. As it is, we’ll try and have a quiet-ish day tomorrow while still getting out to do some physical activity — it’s supposed to be nice, so that’ll help — and see where we’re at Sunday and Monday. She’s having issues giving up control of, well, anything, and we fall into arguments of “that’s not your decision” and “you’re not in charge of that” when she starts issuing commands or barking orders. Someday she’ll make an excellent supreme leader of the Terran Empire. Until then, I’d be pretty fucking happy if I could get her out of grade school without her turning the place to rubble.

So yesterday and today kind of become a wait by the phone, which of course helps nothing whether it’s the ambient anxiety of the house or conveying my own disappointing expectations for how things will go. The school’s behaviorist brought me into the office the other day and we sat, The Pecan too, while they talked about everything that’s been going on. It sucked. And they had some plan with some rule sheet that the kid drew up herself or some such — all the therapeutically-designed current things to do to try to get and keep a child on board with the social contract — but she’s burned through so much of that over the years between Early Intervention, OT, DI, speech at home and out, two-and-a-half years of pre-K and Kindergarten that I’m honestly not hopeful anything other than a kick in her dose will see any even medium-term movement in the direction we want. This too is sad. I don’t like drugging my kid. I can’t afford to send her to a school in the woods with a private tutor to teach her mechanical engineering, long division and/or quantum mechanics. If I could, I would. I just want her to be okay and don’t know what to do to help that happen.

In this, as in so many other ways, parenting sucks. She’s got therapy on Monday, which we started for paperwork purposes — insurance stuff, it’s complicated and political so I’m not going to talk about it — and now seems like maybe it’s a good idea to continue.

Am I really gonna leave off on that note? We were doing so well talking about Dozer and Demon Cleaner and here I am with the bumout before I send you packing back to whatever you got distaracted from to read this (hopefully nothing important)?

That’s real life, folks. Sometimes the things that are supposed to make you feel the best make you feel the worst. If that’s harshing a mellow, at least it’s honest. You move on regardless. Another week will come, hopefully better rested and less discouraging. If not, well, Roadburn’s in about two and a half weeks, so a couple days out of my own head are on the horizon, and surely that’s a better place to be as regards the self-talk underlying it all, which grows crueler with the passing of each nervous day.

But if you want something to look forward to, the Lo-Pan album is out next week. I’ll be reviewing that for Monday, I hope. I’ve also got premieres for The Elven, which has Isaiah Mitchell from Earthless involved, as well as Temple Fang and The Summit Fever. So that’s at least two of the best LPs I’ve heard so far in 2025 being written up. Things can’t be that horrible when the music is so good.

Have a great weekend. Don’t forget to hydrate.

FRM.

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