When Warp released info about the new Squarepusher album I didn’t know what to think. They said it was his new band Shobaleader One and I’m thinking, “Band? What the hell is this all about? Squarepusher isn’t in a band.” Squarepusher has always been one guy, Tom Jenkinson, and I don’t know if I like the idea of him being in a “band” that’s for sure. And on top it all off the video they released, posted bellow, looked like a Daft Punk knock off. Mr. Jenkinson has always been a strange individual, but had he gone off the deep end? I read up on the album a bit more to discover that some unnamed musicians (Tom said he can’t name names but if you knew your mind would be blown) got in contact with Tom about working the idea of a electronic band he hinted at on his last album “Just A Souvenir” and he thought he’d give it a go. We got the album delivered from Warp and I had to listen to it right away. The first track, “Plug Me In,” starts off like good ol Squarepusher until the vocals come in. Vocoders! I hate vocoders! I’m almost ready to give up right here, but I listen into the music and you hear the beauty that he’s known for. Somewhat cheesy bass lines with a couple different synth lines weaving back and forth. While I’m enjoying this sweet little slow jam the vocals seem to blend into it all and I don’t really notice em. From here on out the concept of this album comes to light and you see that it’s a “synth pop” album from the future, so to speak. The songs are solid Squarepusher. Some long time fans and newer fans might not be into it, but it’s a great album. It features some great bass work as usual and I’m not 100% convinced that there are other dudes playing on the album. Tom says he wrote it all and they just played what he came up with and put their touches on their parts, but it sounds too much like it’s just Tom. Only time will tell, especially when they go on tour. Overall, it’s a great album and I gladly welcome this album right next to his other classics.

I first heard this album when I took a brief time away from the “music industry” and worked for a skateboard company. We had a pretty good connection with labels and music in general cause music is such a big part of skating. Our general manager Barker gave me this album cause he figured I’d like it and he wasn’t too into it. When you listen to em you can’t really tell they are from Sweden. I say that cause at the same time they got “big” you had other bands like THE HELLACOPTERS, THE HIVES, (International) NOISE CONSPIRICY and others with all the focus, but press doesn’t always mean best, and they don’t really have a similar sound. They’re less pop or rock n roll, but a prefect blend of the two. One of my favorite tracks is “Trapped In” cause it’s mellow, slow and has a really cool change in the music when they hit the chorus of the song. I love songs that make play out as soundtracks to videos in my head. By that I mean when you listen to a song and you can see a what the video for the song would look like in your head. “I Guess I’m Healed” is another slow song that has a steady bass line with some pretty great guitar work over it. Kinda reminds me of something that RADIOHEAD would do now a days. There are lots of layers of background noises and little electronic noodles and such. They have a great skill of working the changes between their verses and choruses. You really hear it on the song “The Truth Is Fucked” where the song is kind of winding down the road, a little build up and BAM!!, the chorus comes in and then right back down to the chill verse. As John Reis once said, “it’s all about dynamics.” I don’t know why these guys didn’t get bigger than they did here in the States, but I truly think they should have. They had another album, “Das Not Compute” come out in 2004, but I feel Black City is a more solid album especially for a debut album.

I first found out about LOS EXPLOSIVOS when their self titled album came into the digital site earlier this year. The cover has an image of the band looking like a mix between mods and rockers (mockers?) in their black and white stripped shirts and leather jackets. With a name like Los Explosivos they had a lot to live up to and they more than succeeded at that. Dirty distorted garage rock from Mexico City, so yes they sing in Spanish, that my ears just love so much. Each song is a tangled web of two guitars, one fuzzed out most of the time and the other with the perfect amount of distortion, walking bass lines and steady yet poppy drum beat all covered with a rock n roll grown reminiscent of Gerry Roslie’s famous scream. “Sonidos Rocanrol” follows the same lines as the self titled album, but this time they throw in some lyrics in English as well as some harmonica. The production is a little louder and better mixed. It has more of a punch and low end to it than the self titled album does. It kinda reminds me of the sound the D4 “6Twenty” album has if you’re familiar with that one. This is one band I’m sure is great live, but no one in the US has the balls to bring em up here.

Up until about five years ago all I really knew about Monster Magnet was the video for “Space Lord” from the late 90′s. I liked the song, but I wasn’t into with the shinny suits, dancers, fireworks, light bulb suits and all the excess. Now that I look back at it the video is pretty awesome since it’s a total hip hop video for a metal song, but at the time I just passed them off as a band trying to make it “big.” So when I started listening to Queens Of The Stone Age it opened up a whole new world of music I had been missing out on for a long time. Even though Monster Magnet isn’t from the “desert scene” of California i fell into this album because of guitarist John McBain. John also played in the bands Wellwater Conspiracy (along with Matt Cameron of Soundgarden/Pearl Jam) and Hater (with Cameron and Ben Shepherd of Soundgarden) as well as contributed to the first Desert Sessions with Josh of QOTSA. So there’s ties between MM and that whole scene.

“Spine Of God” is their first full length release and it’s been hailed by many as one of the best stoner rock albums. Originally release in 1992 on Caroline Records with nine tracks it was remastered and re-released in March 2006 with new artwork, new liner notes, and a demo version of “Ozium” as a bonus track. The version you can get from ThinkIndie is the remastered version and it sounds great. Lots of slow over driven guitars (has that super compressed “grunge” sound of the early 90′s) with lots of room to give it a little bit of a psychedelic feel to it. The track “Nod Scene” would be a great track to listen to while partaking in some of the devil’s lettuce. “Snake Dance” is a good rocking song with one of the best lines I’ve heard, “If Satan lived in Heaven he’d be me.” If you’re just getting into stoner rock or metal, this album needs to be one of the first you listen to. Trust me.

By now people know who the Eagles Of Death Metal are, but when this album came out not too many folks did. The name of the band alone made people stop and think especially when they heard the music. It sounds nothing like the Eagles or death metal. It’s booty shakin’ rock n’ roll with a little southern blues touch that is written and performed for “the ladies” as continually stated by singer Jesse Huges when interviewed. On this album the band was only a 2 piece with Jesse “The Devil” Hughes doing vocals and guitar and Josh “Baby Duck” Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age) on drums and backing vocals. In my opinion this is one of the best records to have come out this decade. It’s simple, it’s rocking and sure enough it gets the ladies shakin’ what their momma gave em. It’s funny cause this album too WAY too long to see the light of day. There was a release date announced and then it went back to TBA. Then a new date was released and then TBA again. Got to the point you never thought this album would see the light of day. Not exactly sure why this happened, but I’m sure as hell glad it came out.

So I really started paying attention to Small Stone Records a few months back when the new Sasquatch album was gearing up to be released. We used to listen to all the releases from Acid King, Tia Carrera, Dozer, Sons Of Otis and more when we had our “Metal Sundays” at Lou’s, but never really paid much attention to the fact they were all on Small Stone. This new Solace album is just another example of the quality stuff coming from Small Stone. Solid slow and heavy guitar riffs with a rhythm section to keep the songs rolling along and some guitar solos here and there. Cap it all off with some slightly distorted vocals and you got an album that is as good if not better than Monster Magnets “Spine Of God” and that album is one of the best stoner albums in my opinion. If you dig anything heavy you’ll dig this album. Check it out on the player below and go buy it if you like it as much as I do.

The first time I heard this album was when Jeff at Lou’s put it on late one night and I couldn’t comprehend the brutalness of the album. I hadn’t heard anything like this before. Didn’t even know what to think of it really. Was it good. Yes. Did I like it? Not really sure. Would I listen to it again? Maybe, but it would have to be in a setting other than work so I could try and take it all in.

The story behind the album was the band had great press from the album “Holy Mountain” and was signed to London Records. They spent a couple of years writing the album and ended up with a 63 minute song called “Dopesmoker” but the label wasn’t to pleased since they couldn’t market it. The band tried to work with the label and retooled the “album” into a 52 minute track called “Jerusalem” and still the label didn’t want to release it. They were dropped from the label and ended up breaking up shortly after all this chaos happened. Rise Above and Music Cartel ended up releasing what came to be known as “Jerusalem” but the 52 minute track was split into 6 “tracks” even though the band didn’t want it to be split up. This is the version I first heard, the short version of the album. haha In 2003 Tee Pee records finally released the original version of the album the band first turned into London Records. All 63 minutes and 31 seconds of stoner greatness with an added bonus of a live version of the track “Sonic Titan.”

Last year Sleep got back together to play one of the All Tomorrows Parties and played the “Holy Mountain” album from start to finish. They will also be playing a show on in New York doing the same thing. Matt Pike said there would be some West Coast dates some time this year as well. I’m gonna make sure I don’t miss those cause who knows when/if they will do it again. Would be awesome to see em play “Dopesmoker” live as well. Members of sleep have gone on to play in other awesome bands such as Om, High On Fire and Shrinebuilder.

This was the first Melvins album I ever purchased. I had really only heard the Melvins on the “Deep Six” compilation and on this album is a different band than what was on that comp in more ways than one. One reason being the addition of Jared and Cody of Big Business into the lineup of the band. The other is the fact the songs aren’t 15-30 seconds long. Solid album from start to finish with brutally heavy guitar and bass and booming drums thanks to the dual drummer set up. Because of this album I went back and got every Melvins album and have seen them live multiple times. It’s kinda weird how you’ll hear a band and not be that into them then years later give em another shot and wonder why you had not been listening to them the whole time.

I’ve loved this album since it came out in August of 2009. At first I was a little bummed that the vocals were in English only cause mariachi music needs to be sung in Spanish, or so I thought. Matt and Joby did an interview with NPR and gave a very valid reason as to why they chose not to sing in Spanish. Matt doesn’t know how to speak it so it wouldn’t work if he tried to sing it. After hearing the interview I listened to the album again and it just seemed right, like everything finally fell into place. It’s pretty awesome that a punk band from LA could pull off a full on mariachi album and do it just as well as a full time mariachi band. I’ve not seen em play live but they go all out and got the suits hand made to bring it all together. It would be wrong if they played shows in jeans and t-shirts while playing mariachi music. I’ve seen some mariachi guys play in street clothes and it just loses it’s charm.

They’ve done 2 videos for the album so far with the first being the track “Cell Mates”. It features them playing at their favorite Mexican food joint in LA. They should do a tour of nothing but El Torito’s cause they’d fit right in.

Mariachi El Bronx – “Cell Mates” from Our Videos on Vimeo.

the second video was for one of my favorite tracks on the album. The video for “Holy” fits the track perfectly and is shot extremely well.

Mariachi El Bronx – Holy from Our Videos on Vimeo.

Anyway, check out the album. It’s great to put it on and eat some home made guacamole while sipping on an ice cold Tecate.