Bowery Beasts- Heavy You

When I was in my senior years in a small pathetic excuse of a high school, I fell into the “rejects” group. Being in the rejects group meant  that you didn't like pop music, football, remaining tanked for the entire weekend, shooting random marsupials and when you dated someone it was for longer than a week.

Not liking pop music meant that everyone in the group had differing opinions on what was great, and a few collective favourites. As the new kid on the block I was given a heap of music almost daily and quizzed about it twenty four hours later... If I didn't like the right bands I was ridiculed and mocked. This pressure made me hate music a bit as I was being pushed and pulled in every direction and not left alone to figure it out. It was only after resisting them that I found my feet and I can really appreciate music and really love it. I wish they would have left me alone to start with...

BUT!

On the other hand now that I have my own tastes and opinions I wish I could get those days back. Conversations about bands could last days DAYS and with my new found confidence in what I like and what is good it would be nice to argue with someone about it.

I had this yearning not that long ago after locating in my music library some un-reviewed brilliance. Bowery Beasts was a bit of a surprise for me, not only because I didn't know they were there but because it is like a shining two dollar coin on the footpath of music.

Heavy You is the Bowery Beasts debut EP and I hope there is more to come. This LA band plays really good rock 'n roll. I was quite surprised because whenever I heard the phrase “rock 'n roll” I was transported to some distant childhood memory of my dad's music... But now, I am thrown into the modern era that holds the smooth, sexy sounds that the genre is known for.

Its not just the guitar riffs that catch me, it is the lyrics, vocals, drums the whole set up makes you want to listen to more. The five songs in Heavy You just aren't enough.

I don't have a favourite song this album, which is rare for me, because I think they are all awesome.

It opens with “He Was Your First Tattoo” and instantly reminds me a little of Them Crooked Vultures-  has more rock than roll. Team this legendary sound with lyrics like-

“He was your first tattoo,
Never seen eyes so true
The was the first you knew
Never met a girl like you”

And you have a winner!

“White Diamond Babe” definitely pulls together the silky rock sound to create something really special. It is worth noting that when you are singing along to this music (as one does) you not only sing the lyrics you sing the riffs too...

“Today I saw my angel smile, (duh duh duh dummm dummm dummm)
It made me want to try. (duh duh duh dummm dummm dummm)
Today I saw my angel cry (duh duh duh dummm dummm dummm)
I could see you waiting right there, out on the sand, under the sun.
Twisting her hair, I could see her.”

I was really happy cruising around in my modern day rock 'n roll feeling, then “Young Rockers” took me back to my childhood and took Heavy You up another notch, which I thought was impossible. I think the change in sound comes because this song has more haze around it.

“Amulet” is completely different to any of the other songs, starting off with acoustic sounds and slowly building towards a peak of velvety riffs. Beautiful.

“Rock and Roll Queen” is the neat package at the end of the EP. Tying together all of the sounds of Heavy You, being sweet and having a quick line like-
“I want to roll a Rolling Stone”

My parents live 1300km (808 miles) away from me and I held the phone up to the speaker for 20 minutes because I thought this band was that great. They did too! Bowery Beasts bridges generation gaps with their smooth, beautiful sound. Heavy You is definitely an EP to get and they are a band to watch.

 --Koala

Buy here mp3: Heavy You

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