Dead Meadow – Howls From The Hills (2001)

2011-03-21T09:29:27Z

Dead Meadow – Howls From The Hills (2001)


1. Drifting Down Streams 
2. Dusty Nothing 
3. Jusiamere Farm                play
4. The White Worm 
5. The One I Don't Know 
6. Everything's Goin' On 
7. One and Old 
8. The Breeze Always Blows       play

Musicians:
Jason Simon (guitar); 
Mark Laughlin (cello); 
Steve Kille (bass guitar); 
Amy Domingues (sleigh bell).
Stephen McCarty - drums

Hailing from the nation's capital and looking rather like the teenage cast from the cult film Rushmore, Dead Meadow garnered many an accolade with its first album's surprisingly accomplished and highly authentic brand of psychedelic rock. The young musicians' subtle yet dazzling technical interplay lies at the core of this formula, where power chords and all other such outbursts are usually hinted at, but rarely fully vented through the soft haze of the group's stoner musings. With its flowing grooves and measured, slow stomp, the band's self-titled debut was a discreetly seductive affair, slowly creeping up on the listener when least expected. Quickly released later the same year, second opus Howls from the Hills reprises this same M.O., with only slightly inferior results. Solid opener "Drifting Down Streams" lazily swims into gear over its eight-minute sprawl and the more concise Zeppelin-inspired "Dusty Nothing" delivers some early fireworks, but occasionally plodding tracks like "Jusiamere Farm" and "The White Worm" come off rather like first album leftovers. It would be easy to peg these underwhelming moments as unfocused, yet "focus" is a tricky word when describing Dead Meadow, since a seemingly casual (or possibly carefully orchestrated) lack thereof is an essential component of the group's unique identity. And, like its predecessor, Howls from the Hills' best trips are saved for last, and include the haunting acoustics of "The One I Don't Know," the epic "One and Old," and the excellent "The Breeze Always Blows." A strong effort all around, Howls from the Hills makes up for its occasional shortcomings with a palpable sense of promise, marking this as a band to watch. --- Eduardo Rivadavia, allmusic.com

Dead Meadow's unique marriage of Sabbath riffs, dreamy layers of guitars fuzz bliss, and singer Jason Simon's high-pitched melodic croon have wond over both psychedelic pop/rock and stoner-rock fans alike. Although the band's members met while attending all-ages punk shows in and around Washington D.C.'s punk/indie scene, the trio's sound draws more of their sound from such classic rock legends as Pink Floyd and Black Sabbath. The trio formed in the fall of 1998 out the ashes of local indie rock bands The Impossible Five and Coulour by singer-guitarist Jason Simon, bassist Steve Kille, and drummer Mark Laughlin. The three members set out to fuse their love of early 70's hard rock and 60's psychedelia with their love of fantasy and horror writers J.R.R. Tolkien and H.P. Lovecraft.

They released their six-song debut album in 1999 on Fugazi bassist Joe Lally's Tolotta Records and a joint vinyl release on D.C. indie label Planaria Records. Then in 2001 the band released its second and third albums, Howls from The Hills and Dead Meadow, on Tollotta Records. In a reasonably short period the D.C. trio received offers to tour with everyone from local D.C. hipsters The Make-Up to seedy psychedelic rockers Brian Jonestown Massacre; eventually, they landed the opening slot for high profile indie veterans Guided by Voices. The group was also invited to record live for long time cutting edge British radio personality John Peel for BBC Radio One. Got Live If You Want It! arrived in 2002; that year, the band lost Laughlin and found a new drummer in Stephen McCarty. The band moved to Matador for 2003's breakthrough Shivering King and Others. Cory Shane joined the band in time for 2005's Feathers. Their fifth studio album Old Growth followed in 2007.

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Dead Meadow – Old Growth (2008)

2011-03-19T20:05:52Z

Dead Meadow – Old Growth (2008)


1 Aint' Got Nothing (To Go Wrong) 6:58
2 Between Me and the Ground 3:15
3 What Needs Must Be 4:16
4 Down Here 2:43
5 'Till Kingdom Come 4:05
6 I'm Gone 4:13                    play
7 Seven Seers 4:20                 play
8 The Great Deceiver 3:06
9 The Queen of All Returns 5:33
10 Keep on Walking 3:01
11 Hard People/Hard Times 4:22
12 Either Way 10:20

- Jason Simon - guitar, vocals
- Cory Shane - guitar
- Steve Kille - bass
- Stephen McCarty - drums

Dead Meadow's fifth studio album, and their third for Matador Records, was recorded in two locations: Sunset Sound, a 50-year-old studio on the Sunset Strip, rumored to be haunted by Jim Morrison's ghost, and in a restored abandoned Indiana guest house next door to the farmhouse of drummer Stephen McCarty's parents -- where the band first recorded Howls from the Hills. Potential for a doomy throwback to their early works seemed high, with the latter space boasting 14-foot ceilings perfect for massive drum reverb, old cupboards, and closets for isolation rooms, and surrounding a bottom-lit brick well in the center of the kitchen to make shadows dance while mysterious ghost stories circulated about the shack. As legend has it, a park ranger who rented the secluded space prior to the recording pulled his gun on hand prints that were making their way towards him across the carpet in the middle of the night, and supposedly, as a result of the eerie environment, if you listen carefully, you can hear paranormal sounds bleeding through on some of the guitar tracks, along with footsteps and violin noises coming from nowhere. The spooky back-stories that portray the setting of the album as the cabin from Evil Dead, and cover art that depicts a claustrophobic forest would lead one to believe that this is going to be a stoner rock throwback to the fear-inducing lumbering thunder of Sabbath and Blue Cheer. Unfortunately, fans of Dead Meadow's pummeling self-titled album will be disappointed in the lack of bombast, as now the DC trio is continuing down their path of laid-back entrancement that was becoming all-too comfortable on 2005's Floyd-esque Feathers. There's still a woozy taste of psychedelia in the air, even though most of the songs now fall under the five-minute mark, with most of the grunge saved for the guitar solos. Frontman and guitar slinger Jason Simon still wails on his wah when time permits, but he sounds more apathetic than ever while singing, and the songs are more compact than before, resulting in what feels a lot like a blues-rock version of Spiritualized. Some moments specialize in the plodding groove ("Til Kingdom Come"), some are more experimental and trippy, like the tanpura drone and frantic build of "Seven Seers," others are surprisingly quaint acoustic based numbers like "Down Here." Where the group used to sound like a bulldozer demolishing rubble, now they're more like a snow plow gently shoving away a winter wonderland. It's still good, but isn't stoner rock supposed to sound destructive? ---Jason Lymangrover, AllMusic Review

Muzykę Dead Meadow początkowo klasyfikowano jako coś, co może pogodzić miłośników klasycznego psychodelicznego rocka spod znaku Pink Floyd, fanów gitarowych riffów Black Sabbath oraz zwolenników stonerskich transów, wychowanych na Kyuss. Dziś już nie całkiem to się sprawdza, bo od czasu ukazania się „Feathers" nastąpiło wyraźne przesunięcie się w stronę bardziej „tradycyjnych" gitarowych brzmień bluesowych, zresztą wyśmienicie wyegzekwowanych („Ain't Got Nothing [To Go Wrong]", „Between Me And The Ground", „The Great Deceiver"), no i chyba w ogóle w stronę bardziej zrelaksowanego mainstreamowego rockowego grania, charakterystycznego dla tradycji Zachodniego Wybrzeża. Na „Old Growth" jest jednak większe zróżnicowanie stylistyczne: zaznacza się tu także wpływ folk-rocka („Down Here", „Either Way"), może jakieś echo Marka Lanegana („What Needs Must Be"), nie zabrakło również małego wypadu w stronę hinduskich klimatów („Seven Seers"), a jeśli chodzi o budowanie majestatycznych hymnowych brzmień, to po wysłuchaniu „Till Kingdom Come" tacy wykonawcy jak choćby U2 powinni pomyśleć o emeryturze. ---Adi51

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Rock, Metal

Dead Meadow – Howls From The Hills (2001)

Dead Meadow – Old Growth (2008)