Black Country Communion 2

 

I had absolutely no intention of ever trying to hear this album let alone review it, but for some reason Glenn Hughes is playing a recurring role in my life these days. A few weeks ago I picked up the Deep Purple Mk.IV documentary Phoenix Rising. The day after watching it I stumbled upon a used LP copy of Come Taste The Band and I knew it was destiny compelling me to buy it yet again. Then the new issue of Classic Rock arrives the day after that with a big article on Glenn’s band Black Country Communion and their new second album. I read it with mild interest but had no real plans of hearing it. Well, I didn’t have to since someone just handed me a promo copy and I must admit it’s pretty good so here I am writing about it.

Black Country Communion is sort of a supergroup that was put together by producer Kevin Shirley to combine the forces of Glenn Hughes with blues guitarist Joe Bonamossa, drummer Jason Bonham (no introduction necessary) and keyboard player Derek Sherinian. The players are all top notch pros but they rock together really well. Led Zeppelin is the main influence and they do it better than anyone I can think of. The guitar riffs are very Zeppy and the keyboards (mainly organ) add an obvious Deep Purple tone but there are some “Kashmir” style synth effects occasionally, too.

The band rocks hard right out of the gate on “The Outsider” with an “Evil” speedy jam that’s totally Cactus worthy. Glenn Hughes turns 60 on August 21 this year but can still sing with more gusto than dudes one third his age. He really has no right to be able to sing this well after all the hard living he’s done. Someone upstairs likes him.  Glenn’s bass playing sometimes gets overlooked because of his powerful voice but he can really groove. He’s always been a heavily R&B influenced player and his role in BCC is no different. He never gets carried away and blends well with the powerhouse drumming of Jason Bonham. I’ve heard very little of Joe Bonamossa’s music prior to this but he really gets the Led out on his riffing and solos and Derek Sherinian’s keys fit the songs very well.

Although it’s their second album, Zep III is more the template here with the Presence turned up to 11. “The Battle For Hadrian's Wall” will have you swinging from the gallows pole while “Little Secret” will have you ordering “Tea For One.” By far my favorite song is “Smokestack Woman” because it sounds like Krokus (One Vice At A Time-era) covering “Custard Pie.” How can you not love Glenn bellowing “Smokestack woman gonna steal my soul” like Marc Storace on a crystal meth powertrip? You can’t!

The eleven songs clock in at about an hour with a few of the songs going on for a minute or two too long. The production is great, the band sounds like they’re all playing in a room together and having a blast so I’ll chalk it up to the spirit of the boogie that prevented them from doing too much editing. All the members have pretty busy solo careers but hopefully they’ll continue to make time for this band.

--Woody

www.bccommunion.com/

The Sword - Warp Riders

Album number three from Austin, TX band The Sword finds them downplaying the heavy Sabbath influence of their first two and adding a lot more classic rock to their sound. The new direction definitely works in their favor. Debut album Age of Winters was a very solid entry into the Sabbath worship sweepstakes but the follow up Gods Of The Earth seemed to stretch their creativity a bit thin. Despite accusations of “hipster metal,” The Sword is a good band it’s always worthwhile to check out what their up to.

First off, the production on Warp Riders is much improved. Producer Matt Bayles (Mastodon, Isis, Pearl Jam) gives their sound much more clarity. The guitars are still tuned low but the tones are never mushy or lack definition. The other big improvement is with the vocals. J.D. Croncise has never had a great voice and his vocals were always buried in the mix on previous albums. His voice is still not very strong but his singing has gotten better and it sounds like they worked really hard on getting him to sound good.

 “Acheron/Unearthing The Orb” follows in the tradition of Iron Maiden influenced instrumentals that open Sword albums. The single “Tres Brujas” follows and sets the tone for the rest of the album. With a nod to ZZ Top in the title and a riff pinching their classic “Precious and Grace,” The Sword have a chance to win over classic rock fans who aren’t really into metal. “Lawless Lands” and “The Chronomancer I: Hubris” are further Texas boogie stompers.

The other big discernable influence on Warp Riders is Thin Lizzy. “Night City” has some trademark Lizzy guitar harmonies and arrangement flourishes that would sound great on classic rock radio. Fans of the heavier side of Thin Lizzy like “Thunder and Lightning” and “Warriors” will love the songs “Arrows In The Dark” and the title song.

Warp Riders is some sort of sci-fi concept album involving a planet locked in perpetual darkness. Honestly, this type of thing is not my cup of tea, but the music and vocal melodies are strong enough to ignore the sword and sorcery role playing. Fans of ultra heavy doom should skip this one but those who aren’t afraid of a little Foghat boogie in their metal should definitely check this out. They’re touring the US with Karma To Burn and Mount Carmel in October.

--Woody

Buy here:  Warp Riders
mp3: Warp Riders
vinyl: Warp Riders

http://www.swordofdoom.com/

Ripple News - History Repeats Itself: Poobah and JPT Scare Band Together Again on the Same Record Label and on the Air at WFMU

In the early 1990’s a small record label broke out of San Antonio, Monster Records, specializing in limited release/collector’s vinyl from underground 1970’s hard rock bands.  For several years, Monster churned out an impressive array of steaming protometal, adding such bands as Poobah, JPT Scare Band, Truth and Janey, Hawkwind, and Manilla Road to their roster.  But as so often happens in the music business, time passed, tastes changed and Monster Records ceased to exist.

Fast forward 20 years, and the sands of the hourglass churn backwards in time.  Suddenly metal legends, Youngstown Ohio’s Poobah, and Kansas City’s JPT Scare Band, find themselves as popular as ever and stunningly, back on the same record label.  This time it’s Ripple Music filling the void, providing the world with the tasty underground protometal that they crave.

Within a span of two months, both JPT Scare Band and Poobah released classic works with Ripple Music, JPT Scare Band’s Acid Blues is the White Man’s Burden, and Poobah’s 1972 seminal debut, Let Me In.  Both releases hit the world in eye-opening, two-tone double LP packages with gatefold covers as well as CD formats.  Both packed with rare pictures, notes, and bonus tracks.

Jim Gustafson, the mastermind behind Poobah, sums it up. “It’s cool that Poobah ended up with JPT again on the same label, only better this time. I saved these tapes for decades, looking for the right time and place to do this, and now it has happened.”

And 40 years after originally forming, both bands find themselves cranking out their music to a legion of fans new and old.  WFMU in New York has both bands on frequent rotation, spreading the protometal, acid rock gospel to hungry, waiting ears.

“It’s a wonderful bit of synchronicity,” says JPT Scare Band drummer, Jeff Littrell, “that when we finally get back on a label again, the moguls at Ripple Music have also signed our old label mates, Poobah.  Déjà vu all over again!  JPT Scare Band and Poobah ripping faces off on the same label in the 21st Century.”

Ripple Music plans to keep bringing on the ballsy retro-metal with future releases by Scottish protometal icons, Iron Claw, as well as modern purveyors following the raw, sonic blueprint, Stone Axe, Mos Generator, Grifter, Mighty High, and Venomin James.

As Ripple founders Todd Severin and John Rancik say, “Ripple Music exists to bring the guts back to rock and roll!”

buy here:  Poobah   JPT Scare Band

Them Crooked Vultures - S/T

Blood red and black the front cover on the CD would make an even better album cover: one to stare at over and over as you flip the vinyl getting stoned after school and engraving the head of the vulture into your Pee Chee notebook.  Put on the headphones and step into their world. Its Homme, Grohl and, yes, John Paul Jones deciding to kick out some jams for you to listen to.

It doesn’t try to blow you out of the water from the first track, which is what you might think of from a power trio comprised of those three, but this is a trio that doesn’t need to smash you upside the head from the word go. "Nobody Loves Me and Neither Do I" opens with Grohl’s powerful backbeat and the underproduced sound of the band in the room. Drums front and center, JPJ on the left, and Homme on the right, the band sounds like they’ve just walked into the practice studio to knock a few out. Odd metered riff and Homme singing about a some hot sex. We’re all good until 2:44 in and they take the fucking gloves off. Grohl starts to hit them like he’s finally in John Bonham’s seat and JPJ brings the bottom end of the Hammer of the Gods.

i know how to burn with passion
hold nothing back for future ration
give all you are, do not make haste
savor every single taste
you get...cut

i know how beat control
do opposites of what you're told
quick to react, to break the box
turn on queue, as your cell door locks
behind you

Without the virtuoso guitar hero, Homme plays the rhythm and the textures and riffs, but doesn’t fill the space the way that Jimmy Page did , although his sloppy fills to start "Mind Eraser, No Chaser" bring to mind Pagey’s playing with Zeppelin live.  Gifted with one of the best choruses on the record is the classic line: Gimme a reason why a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Mindful of the history of power trio supergroups? Usually they tend to devoid of irony or any sense of history, but the Vultures are a little better than that. Here is one where you think that you died and wandered into classic rock heaven or a classic rock car crash. Homme nails the Cream falsetto and Clapton chord changes, Grohl absolutely kills with his Ginger Baker drumming, and JPJ tramples it all underfoot with the funkiest white boy keyboard playing since getting physical with his graffiti. Four minutes and 27 seconds that you won’t be able to turn off.

There are echoes of Cream and the Zeppelin as well on "Reptiles," the coked up tempo and quick sonic changes to the guitars and vocals duplicating the urgency of needing a quick fix. Is that a little Ziggy Stardust mixed it? Grohl’s powerhouse drumming allows JPJ to lock in with him the same way that he did with Bonham: both can keep the train a rollin’ while adding textures and fills that elevate the rhythm way above ordinary. It couldn’t tell you a damn bit of what "Reptiles" is about  and I could care less. Just that at high volume the song leaves you exhausted. "Elephant" offers some of the same sensibility, and bashing riff fest that pounds you a mere two minutes into the song. You weren’t coming here for power ballads were you? You knew that, right? (The break in "Elephants" sounds like Homme has been at the Alice in Chains collection by the way)

There is almost no concession to pop sensibility here. The band is ready to rock and rock their way, fuck the rest of you. Homme, the least decorated of the three is also in the drivers seat as the voice and guitar of the group, but its clear in the song structures and playing that Grohl and JPJ have their say. The powerhouse drumming/ bass guitar lock in on Reptiles and the breakdown/bridge section of "New Fang" both have elements of classic Nirvana and Zeppelin that its obvious to hear.

One thing that these musicians know is tension, and "Dead End Friends" carries a foreboding and menace that is missing from so many songs. Homme’s delivery is perfect, his guitar panned both far right and far left and for the first time there are both elements of the Seattle minor chord structure mixing with the 70’s classic rock. Grohl is playing all over his kit by the end and it sounds like old skool Nirvana without Kurt losing it up front.

Gunman funks up their guitar line, but to what effect? You have the loudest and one of the heaviest rhythm sections playing behind you and its like standing in front of a sonic locomotive. The guitar plays a distant second here, while its spacey vocals carry the melody line and a fuzzy narrative. The chorus is practically a moment with a stoned Keith Relf from the late period Yardbirds. Do I see lava lamps on stage? Oh yes I do.

There are at least two tracks, "Warsaw" and "Interlude with Ludes" that could and would have been left out had this been committed to vinyl, and neither add anything new. The closing track, "Spinning In Daffodils," topping 7 minutes lays bare their past and their present: from the gentle guitar to open the song, to a powerful driving middle that takes less prisoners that early Iron Maiden to a breakdown at then end that turns the band into minstrels passing through the studio, it is a study in exhausting every ounce of energy out of both the listener and the musician alike. Even as the guitar fades out towards the end, JPJ gets of two quick bass fills that would be beyond most ordinary mortals, much less 6:45 into the song.

These Vultures mean business, and whether it’s a one off or there will be other Vultures albums, makes no difference here. They rock hard, do it on their own terms and leave few entrails in their wake. Pick it up, spin it, see them live if you can. Its quite a merging of past, present and future.

- the stunned rock iguana

Buy here: Them Crooked Vultures