A white spinning vinyl slab of hard rockin' stoner rock via France. Not a new album, guess it came out in 2012, but somehow just now made it's way through the open doors of the Ripple office. We'll blame the failing US Postal Service for losing it for 13 months. Whatever, it's here now and is simply one juicy slab of meat and potatoes heavy rock. Mixing a raw, garage-y vibe of early MC5 with their Dozer/QOTSA inspired stoner riffing, Junkyard Birds come on full throttle here. Opener "High Heels and Leather Boots," tears into it right from the drop of the needle. Massive, rolling distorted QOTSA riffs and garage-type vocals tear this baby apart. This song simply storms with stoner fuzz and punk fury. And it doesn't let up from there. "Lady FTW" ups the rawness of the Stooges vibe. "The Witch and the Pinball Lizard," shows off the bands more spaced-out psychedelic moods, while "Serial Licker Blues" drops down into a freak out doomified acid blues. And that's just side one.
"Death Valley Rider" kicks off side 2 by dropping down into the sandy and dusty confines you'd expect from the name with a fierce charger of a riff and a prickly guitar solo. And it goes from there. A touch of metal, a touch of stoner, a big dollop of early-fuzzed punk.
Vocals are a bit distorted and buried in the mix, but that's hardly a distraction. More a flavor. Overall, a killer release from a band I hope to hear more from. A simple statement of intent and a blast of good 'ol fashioned heavy rocking and rolling.
Yeah, I'm not the first to write up this album. Christ, it's alreay 6 months old and Heavy Planet gave it a rip-roaring write up a touch back. But still, I can't figure out why more people aren't talking about these guys and this ferocious platter of decaying sludge metal drifting in from the Arizona desert. These guys bring together an otherworldly combination of the beautiful and the beastly. The sublime and the subversive. "Pelisneros" starts off with some of the coolest, smoothest desert guitar I've heard in years. Heavy, yet totally melodic, and as the riff gets going, the bottom end drops out to a a simply gorgeous, dual guitar interplay. Subtle and delicate, it's like desert-rock jazz. An amazing slice of music. Then the fury returns in full, guttural, death and decay sludge vocal and the whole things descends into an interplay of rotting corpses and beautiful desert nights. It's freaking epic is what it is and not a song to be missed.
From there the album is a miasma of twisted desert dust devils, demented vocal samples, purifying sludge muck and killer passages of shear beauty. It's an album of power and expansiveness. Definitely one to check out if you like your sludge with nuance as well as nastiness.
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