Pigs fly, cows jump over the moon, ice cubes rattle in the devil’s tumbler. I just was watching the Packers and Vikings on Monday Night Football when what did my little ears hear but Black Mountain’s “Druganaut” in a Buick ad. Black Mountain! “Druganaut”! Here’s hoping Stephen McBean gets a ski chalet at Whistler Mountain out of the deal. Does the US government know that taxpayer dollars are funding “Druganaut” to market those crappy Buicks?
Archive for Black Mountain
Black Mountain’s “Druganaut” In Buick Lacrosse Ad
Posted in Music with tags "Druganaut", Black Mountain on October 6, 2009 by johnbuckley100The Warlocks’ “Mirror Explodes” And The Shards Shine Darkly
Posted in Music with tags " Galaxie 500, Black Angels, Black Mountain, First Communion After Party, Sonic Youth, The Warlocks, Tulip Frenzy on May 21, 2009 by johnbuckley100When L.A. psychedelic masters The Warlocks released 2003’s Phoenix, it was filled with enough exuberance for a Modern Lovers album. “Shake The Dope Out” even kinda sounded like “Roadrunner.” And then there was “Baby Blue,” as sweet a confection of SoCal Britpop as anything produced by BJM or members of the Paisley Underground.
But things got darker from there, witness the titles of their next two albums — Surgery and Heavy Deavey Skull Lover. This was disappointing, because at their best, The Warlock’s were the Alpha dogs of the nascent American neopsychedelic scene — big brothers to the Black Angels, regional counterparts to Vancouver’s Black Mountain. They are the grandparents of First Communion After Party, the ones that show up and leave cigarettes in the punch bowl and ashes right next to the rosary that was the gift of Aunt Martha. They could bash their way darkly through six-minute guitar fests with Bobby Heksher singing like some exile from The Darkside, like maybe the member of Spaceman 3 who was left on launch pad because he was just too heavy to get into orbit. Call him Spaceman 4.
Now comes The Mirror Explodes, and it’s the best thing they’ve done in six years. Maybe the concoctions they consume keep them from ever returning to the relative innocence of their Phoenix days, but they’ve sure resurrected themselves from the ashes. Okay, so the opening song sounds like late ’80s Sonic Youth, and surely “There Is A Formula To Your Despair” was swiped from Kramer’s apartment after an early Galaxie 500 session. But these are compliments, man. They’ve got a little of their swagger back, even if it’s 33 RPM swagger in a 45 RPM world. The Mirror Explodes, and after you duck, you realize things are shining brightly all around the room.
The Pink Mountaintops’ “Outside Love”
Posted in Music with tags Black Mountain, Pink Mountaintops, Stephen McBean, Tulip Frenzy on April 30, 2009 by johnbuckley100Judging by the album art, the Pink Mountaintops Outside Love is not really a platter of of music, but a novel written by Professor McBean from the University of Vancouver. Stephen McBean may be the auteur, but music-making, unlike novel-writing, is a collaborative act (unless, of course, you’re Prince), and he seems to have recruited half the musicians in Canada to assist him. These include, of course, his Black Mountain brethren, but also the likes of Sophie Trudeau (from various bands in Montreal.) Even the New Pornographer’s Kathryn Calder shows up in the choir.
It’s interesting McBean’s eye for talent would wander to Montreal, given the expansiveness of the sound here, the cathedral space and Spector-esque density, which could put one in mind of the Arcade Fire. Maybe the best way to think of this is McBean’s authorial sensibility has brought him to construct a number of short stories, harkening to the masters (Bowie’s “Heroes” being a template for “Axis: Thrones of Love,” The Velvet Underground’s entire clanging, thumping oeuvre the template for Outside Love‘s only outright rocker, “The Gayest of Sunbeams.” He may as well be quoting from masters of the short form, like Raymond Carver and Donald Barthelme.)
It’s hard to know how this fits into the McBean cannon. Here’s a guy whose Black Mountain’s most recent incarnation was brilliant early Pyschedelic Metal, and whose “Behind The Fall” is the single greatest evocation of NoWave ever — at least by someone who wasn’t there. And here on “Holiday,” he sounds like he’s happy to play in a Mekons country dance around the campfire. “And I Thank You” would not sound out of place on a Wilco album. As an author, he stretches. Previous outings by the Pink Mountaintops have been the faster counterpart to Black Mountain. This one heads out in multiple new directions, but at mostly a slow pace. It is, in places, very beautiful, which is not a description often invoked when talking about Black Mountain or Pink Mountaintops (“thrilling” and “heavy” probably having the boldest print in a word cloud.). It’s pretty likely the next Black Mountain album will confound us all, because this author has so much talent, he can write anything, comedy or tragedy, and rock’n’roll in any of its many incarnations.
7th Best Album of 2008, Black Mountain’s “In The Future”
Posted in Music with tags Black Mountain, Blood Meridian, John Buckley, Tulip Frenzy Top Ten List on December 8, 2008 by johnbuckley100Surely the title was ironic, because “In The Future” sounds like the album made secretly by the engineer when the musicians from Cactus left the studio in, oh, January 1970. Lacking the Sly and The Family Stone call-and-response dynamic between Stephen McBean and Amber Weber that was so delightful on “Drugonaut,” this is as heavy as a 3:00 a.m. nodfest in a Gastown loft. Now if only Black Mountain would give Matthew Camirand and Joshua Wells enough time off to record the ultimate Blood Meridian album, fans of Vancouver bands would have the musical equivalent of Whistler-Blackcomb.
The Black Angels Prove Black Is Beautiful
Posted in Music with tags Black Mountain, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Black Angels, Velvet Underground on July 18, 2008 by johnbuckley100I wasn’t much of a fan of Black Oak Arkansas, I enjoy but don’t need the Black Keys, and the Black Crowes leave me cold. Black Sabbath? Please. Still, I’m ready for a show in basic black. How ’bout a triple bill of The Black Angels, Black Mountain, and BRMC? The Black Angels would probably have to go first to warm up the crowd, since they’re less well known than Black Mountain or the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Plus, they’d set the proper mood, which is to say, trance.
Austinites, they do not come from the same musical neighborhood as Flaco Jimenez. It’s nice to know that after Roky Erickson, the words “Texas” and “psychedelia” don’t automatically lead to discussions about Tex Watson. I think what really got me about these guys was “Bloodhounds on My Trail,” which is mesmerizing. Think of “Hellhound On My Trail” done by a supergroup starring Lydia Lunch, John Fogerty, and Peter Green.
I’m not just trying to be clever about the links to Black Mountain and BRMC — these guys are jacked into the same amps both those disparate, not necessarily kindred, but nonetheless spiritually linked bands play. Their debut album “Passover” brought comparisons to the Velvet Underground, Galaxy 500, the Gun Club, and Led Zep. Can’t go wrong with those references thrown in the blender. Their second album, “Directions To See A Ghost,” adds the Fall’s descending guitar lines to the BRMC dynamic, and cops song structures from “Astronomy Domine”-era Floyd. Alex Maas has this weirdly androgynous voice, and when the levee breaks, he slightly drowns in Robert Plant’s lower registers.
Missed them at the Rock and Roll Hotel, where I think they opened for the Warlocks — more kindred spirits. When John Cale wrote “The Black Angel’s Death Song,” who knew that someday these guys would catch its wind?
Black Mountain Blows The Doors Off D.C.’s Rock and Roll Hotel
Posted in Music with tags Black Mountain, Blood Meridian, Pink Mountaintops on February 20, 2008 by johnbuckley100- Black Mountain is the rare band that is tighter live than in the studio. Last night they came to D.C.’s Rock and Roll Hotel and had a volcanic eruption.
- Stephen McBean was a surprisingly low-key front man, given how dominant his singing is on both Black Mountain and sister-band Pink Mountaintops records, and he seemed more comfortable playing guitar back by the amps while Amber Webber held the center stage. From the moment they struck up “Stormy High” from their new LP “In The Future,” it was clear that Black Mountain is one highly gelled unit, as tight as the Stones in ’69, more propulsive than Led Zeppelin, with greater psychedelic range than any of the San Francisco bands or even the “Ummagumma”-era Pink Floyd. Yeah, I know the company I’m putting them in. I don’t do it casually.
- Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that Matthew Camirand and Joshua Wells were riveted together, the most urgent rhythm section on God’s green Earth, at least since John Bonham slipped away. After all, they’re the heart and soul of Blood Meridian, but that’s an alt-country band, for cryin’ out loud. Camirand finger picks a Gibson bass while Wells wallops his drum kit like John Henry besting the infernal machine. Interestingly, on “Druganaut”– which is a killer in both recorded versions, but last night was played at a looser, ever so slightly slower tempo — Wells plays the beat backwards, they way Charlie Watts plays reggae. It was very subtle, and magnificent.
- Amber Webber sings in a warbly ululation like a Yemeni widow at a funeral procession, but she basically just stands there, cool as a cucumber. For a band so centered on call-and-response vocals — all kidding aside, Webber and McBean are not unlike Sly Stone and his sister going back and forth in “Dance to the Music” — she and McBean are exceptionally easy going.
- McBean looks like he purposely is trying to scare young children, with his thick long hair and black beard, but he plays the guitar like a genie. “That guitarist carried the band,” I heard some kids say on the street as we left the surprisingly Mudd Club-like Rock And Roll Hotel. I disagree — the MVP for this outing, and I suspect others, is clearly Joshua Wells — but McBean’s at least on par with Dave Gilmour in being able to project a band like this into deep space.
- In the review of “In The Future,” Tulip Frenzy earlier chided them for channeling Deep Purple, but Jeremy Schmidt’s keyboards pay as much of a debt to Pere Ubu’s Alan Ravenstine’s analog synth as they do to, say, Keith Emerson.
- The set was a surprisingly fast-paced sonic goo, never bogging down into vanilla fudge, even on the loooong songs. “Stormy High” kicked off the set, and they played most of “In The Future,” before finishing up with a one-two punch of “Druganaut” and “No Satisfaction” from their first album. I’m used to the campfire version of “No Satisfaction,” but this was pure punk rock.
- Under most circumstances, listening to a band invoke the early ’70s sound of pre-heavy metal psychedelia is not my idea of fun. I’m kind of stunned that in 2008, the best real rock’n’roll around is being made by a band just this side of prog. But it’s all true. Black Mountain blew the doors off the Rock and Roll Hotel.
NPR helpfully aired the whole thing. Want to hear what I’m talking about? Link here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=19086361
Black Mountain Goes Back To “In The Future”
Posted in Music with tags Black Mountain, Black Sabbath, Blood Meridian, Pink Mountaintops, PJ Harvey on February 3, 2008 by johnbuckley100Trying to describe Black Mountain’s music is like copywriting for one of those Ben and Jerry’s ice cream mash ups. In some ways, it’s easier to imagine what peanut butter cups mushed with cherry pie might taste like than it is to get a handle on a band that can sound like Sly and Family Stone jamming with Black Sabbath. Okay, they’ve got big, slow, gooey riffs, and when Stephen McBean and Amber Webber get that call and response thing going, you do indeed think of Sly calling out and Ozzy responding. But that was then — on their superb 2005 eponymous debut. “In the Future” is more like a mashup of Deep Purple with the Human Switchboard, and I mean that as a compliment.### This is a heavy album, Ummagumma meets PJ Harvey. I miss the light, Tom Herman-esque guitar playing of the first album, and it seems a step farther in the direction of darkness than the rosy alpenglow of their Pink Mountaintops sister band/offshoot. It’s been a while since I’ve cheerfully signed up to listen to prog rock, as this often is. ### But when it’s good — when the Blood Meridian rhythm section of Joshua Wells (drums) and Matthew Camirand (bass) crank up the bottom, and Amber Weber’s voice soars, as it does on “Queens Will Play,” and Stephen McBean leads the incantation — these guys tower over the coastal fjords of British Columbia, casting their shadow on the entire Vancouver scene. ### I miss the pure fun of “Druganaut,” and “No Satisfaction,” and “Bicycle Man” from their earlier work. But I can’t get “In The Future” out of the rotation on my iPod. This is more nourishing than a bowl full of Phish Food.
Blood Meridian’s “Liquidate Paris” Will Do Until Black Mountain’s New One
Posted in Music with tags Black Mountain, Blood Meridian, Cat Power, The Fleshtones, The Pink Mountaintops on January 9, 2008 by johnbuckley100The eyes of the nation await dramatic events later in the month. We’re not talking about the Nevada caucuses, the South Carolina primary. We’re talking about the real Super Tuesday, January 22nd, when Black Mountain, Cat Power, and the Fleshtones all release albums. I don’t know how to handicap Super Tuesday other than to say that in the case of the Fleshtones, I pray they haven’t succumbed to that “change” bug that seems to have infected Obamawannabes: Tulip Frenzy likes its Fleshtones just the way God made ’em.
- But while I’m really looking forward to the other two releases, it’s Black Mountain that intrigues me most. While we await “Into the Future,” I’ve been playing everything by Black Mountain and its two sister-groups, The Pink Mountaintops and Blood Meridian. Happily, Blood Meridian released a limited edition new album at the end of 2007. After contorting myself to find it — searching Ebay, pulling on threads — it’s just showed up in the iTunes store.
- “Liquidate Paris” is nowhere near as good as their last one, “Kick Up The Dust,” which took away the coveted “Tulip Frenzy Album of the Year” (c) honors in 2006. It has the same parched, Calexico-esque countrywestern sound as the last one — you know what I mean: percussion that sounds like a marimba but is really a rattlesnake tail shake, and that’s not slide guitar, that’s a ricochet from the shoot-out at the Ok Corral — but Matthew Camirand, Joshua Wells, and the rest of the gang seem like they recorded it while midway through a Pony Express mission, which in this case may have just been Blood Mountain’s latest. It lacks the relaxed, melodic, poignancy of “Kick Up The Dust,”which was recorded during an extended woodshed on Vancouver Island or some bucolic North’o’theborder locale. Still, go download “Everything She Said,” “Burning River of Guilt,” “She Calls Me,” and “She Wears Black and I Wear White.” Those songs are great.
- For more on The Black Mountain/Blood Meridian collective see Tulip Frenzy v. 1.0.
Tulip Frenzy 