Tag Archives: desert rock

MARK LANEGAN BAND: Here Comes That Weird Chill

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It seems absurd to place Mark Lanegan as a man of sunshine. And yet, so much of his music was made with desert scene players that he must have been drawn to it. 

Home is where the heat is? Maybe.

* * *

Anyone who knows Bubblegum knows Methamphetamine Blues. Alongside Hit the City, it’s one of the rock-action peaks from that 2004 album and here, on the preceding Here Comes That Weird Chill EP, it gets prime position: track #1. 

Methamphetamine Blues, Extras & Oddities

Driven by an electro-clank machine pulse, the Methamphetamine Blues groove is anything but bluesy. Fumes and distortion are the order of the day, more workshop grind than back-porch swing, with a sumptuous cast of backing singers teasing a gothic, seductive touch. Despite the huge cast, the loops and the near-constant lead guitar streams by Josh Homme and Dave Catching, it’s controlled … like a lot of Lanegan’s work. Containment, no histrionics. This one revels in taut compression.  

On the Steps of the Cathedral, a hymn-like confessional with surround-sound Lanegan choir and a muted beat, fades in/out with the ghosted air of a Masters of Reality interlude – fitting, given the presence of Chris Goss – before the amps strike back for Clear Spot. It’s a faithful cover, maybe even an unadventurous one given Beefheart’s many outer limits, but it lends itself to the same mechanised distortions as Methamphetamine Blues. For that reason, it works. Let’s rock.  

But from here, a looser vibe takes hold and the EP’s subtitle Methamphetamines, Extras & Oddities rings more true. Deen Ween brings the heat haze with his just-off-enough guitar solos through Message to Mine before the mood turns a 180 with this:  

“Break my heart and hope to die
before Lexington could slow down.
They say a chariot’s waiting
when you get cut loose.
The place starts swinging
when it’s me on the noose.”

When those words get spoken in Lanegan’s heaviest baritone over rain-sodden piano, they cut through everything. 

They sound too true. You believe. Lexington Slowdown is a double-take moment that reorients your listening and elevates the EP because this is where the already obvious quality shifts to next-level. This EP is what made Bubblegum a must-buy the following year. And this EP is probably why I’m more a Lanegan Band casual than a completist because, honestly, nothing else captures Mark Lanegan in rock mode as much to my own liking as fully as this does.      

If Lexington is pivotal then Skeletal History is definitive. The Voice leads, of course, but with alien interference crackling down the left side, desert dry riffs on the right and storm-brew bass and skittish beats locked down the centre, there’s no shortage of elements. No chorus, just flow, an ongoing slow eruption as a storm slowly builds. Explosions darken the track’s fadeout. Played like this, the music sounds less like a band than a telepathic convergence of forces. Vast, wide-open and ominous.

Wish You Well lightens the tone with a droning ebb and flow before Sleep With Me continues the Skeletal History vibe – but this is like the tentative calm after the threat has receded. Adrenalin slowing. Reprise extends Sleep With Me, softening further with immaculate bass lines while guitar distortions break the spaces around Homme’s dubby beat. 

In some ways, it’s harder to see this EP as the Mark Lanegan Band than the album that followed. His name is in the spotlight sure, but the smaller cast of core players – the desert hands like Alain Johannes, Dave Catching, Chris Goss, Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri – knit together like low-ego equals drawing on more than just the music. Maybe it’s their shared histories that make the difference. Maybe the tunes with Nick Oliveri just turn out differently (he plays on more here than Bubblegum). Maybe it’s nothing more than presentation: a bunch of looser experiments being given their own space to run. Whatever it is, something extra comes through in the way this EP flows and hangs together. 

Is it a Desert Session in all but name? 

Possibly, yes. And if so, it’s the most consistent of the bunch – the lack of joke tracks and guest singers make for a darker, more focused mood – and the one that fits Lanegan’s voice best.    

If you lapped up Bubblegum but somehow missed this … track it down: a small trove jammed with riches.     

* * *

NEWS – Bubblegum reissue out soon, includes Weird Chill
Just found out about this by chance today – Bubblegum is being reissued deluxe-style in August with Here Comes That Weird Chill (and other rarities) included on bonus discs, all for the 20th anniversary. Timing or what? Check Piccadilly Records for more.

MDOU MOCTAR – Oh France: TRACK OF THE MONTH

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JUNE REWIND: BLAZING TUAREG PSYCHE, GOTHIC BM AND CHICAGO LEGEND ALBINI LOST

This could be the last Track of the Month Rewind post for a while because the very fine bit of machinery that makes them happen has just died on me…

…the cassette deck. Bye bye Technics RS-HD350. And while this doesn’t stop the showcasing of new music in this digital age, it will stop these Rewinds – or at least pause them for a bit – because the act of taping is where they come from. Can’t rewind without tape.  

Technics tape deck
Various radio tape 69 - on pause
The Rewind: on pause

So, apart from the death of the deck, what’s happened in the last couple of months?  

Record Store Day 2024 came, went and whatevered. English Teacher packed out and wowed the Bullingdon in Oxford. Jesus Lizard announced a new album. But bigger than all those was our new-found reminder, for the absolute worst of reasons, of Steve Albini’s inimitable presence in the music world. 

Reading the tributes, and re-reading and hearing his own words in articles and interviews, it’s staggering to see just how much music he touched – music that will continue to inspire listeners for a long time. It’s a vast repository whose tally is now abruptly fixed. 

Like many music fans, I guess, my knowledge of him didn’t really stretch beyond the bands he was in, the headline bands he recorded, the headlines he himself made (good and bad) and the principles he brought to his craft and The Work. 

But you realise that even the shallowest of skims through the albums he recorded will make for a highly rewarding experience. It’ll be different for everyone but the inevitable shitload of slept-on gems in the Albini backlist means we surely owe ourselves a dabble. And with Shellac being on the cover of Wire magazine just days before he passed, his sudden departure was made even more unreal. RIP Steve Albini.  

OK then, onto some new-ish sounds worth a poke.   

MDOU MOCTAR – Oh France

The Tuareg firebrand played Glastonbury this very afternoon so Worthy Farm is now surely the proud owner of its very own patch of scorched earth. As you might expect, explosive guitar hits hard from the start of Oh France, bringing spice and attack to Saharan flow, and the rhythm section is killer. Together, they wind up the pace and set the scene for shamanic frenzy that’s built for an end-of-set blowout. Feel the heat.

SUNNATA – Wishbone

More spiralling hypnotic psyche, this time from Poland’s Sunnata. Combining droning Massive Attack Risingson-style vocals with an upbeat looping riff, Wishbone trips along nicely before the chorus switches to a lumbering post/stoner groove and a tasty breakdown sets the geological bass loose. Check it here. 

EDO – Radiant Structures  

‘Black metal with a healthy dose of goth post punk’ is how Brad Sanders described this on Bandcamp’s The Metal Show and from the very first bars, the goth tag is unerringly precise – it’s not atmospheric, lush, electro or industrial goth but UK Dank Inc. goth: the guitars draw from the Banshees et al with sheets of thick, intoxicating textures enveloping the BM shred over 8 ever-shifting minutes.

KEVIN ABSTRACT – Blanket

Punk slacker vibes abound in Blanket, a loose two-minute sketch that sounds almost too slight to stand up but is so damned infectious it’s impossible to resist – and there’s more going on than you first think. With a descending chord sequence that’s a distant, non-violent relation to I Wanna Be Your Dog – no wonder Iggy played this on his radio show a few weeks back – it’s the semi-whispered breakdown in the middle that brings the hushed cool. It’s a fleeting tease, but of what? Dense lo-fi? Collage rock? Whatever it is, Blanket will find a place in the sun on your alt-pop carousel.   

‘til next time! (TBD by tape deck resurrection)

Monthly rewind
The monthly music rewind

HEY COLOSSUS – My Name In Blood: TRACK OF THE MONTH

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JULY REWIND: QOTSA STORM WORTHY FARM, HEY COLOSSUS GET BLOODY, ZAMILSKA CHANNELS REZNOR

Right-o, where are we? July … no, it just left dammit, another sign of not getting any writing done. But before we scrape together a handful of ace new noises from the past couple of months, we can’t let Glastonbury go unmentioned, even at this late post-Worthy Farm hour, because 

Queens of the Stone Age: is this as good as live rock music gets?

Of course, it’s the TV version we’re talking about – no chance of actually being there – and even though the ever-expanding BBC TV/radio ubiquity of GLAS-TON-BERRRYYYY often easily grates, this year it didn’t. Seeing Glastonbury through the media means it’s very much a headliner-centric prism but, for rock fans of a certain vintage, the nostalgia-meets-car-crash potential of Guns N’ Roses was impossible to resist. Non-nostalgic sparks flew with, er, Sparks (sorry), Nova Twins, Working Men’s Club and more, but it was the Sunday night Other Stage headliner that promised a special moment.

One of our bands, in the big slot. And it feels like a big deal because although they’re obviously popular, there’s still something a little cult-y about QOTSA – something not quite mainstream. A little bit outside, singular, defiant.

In an interview with Mary Anne Hobbs for 6 Music, Josh Homme quipped that when it comes to Glastonbury, they get asked to do the slot no-one else wants. Last time, it was when Beyonce took the Pyramid Stage. This year, the small matter of Elton John’s Last Ever UK Show was the same-time competition.

The resulting gig was a badass statement in how to step up and own a festival gig. Apologies for the vacuous state of these few words, they don’t add up to a review and definitely offer zero news or insight. They’re just a fumbling attempt to express how exceptional QOTSA are live … a drilled unit with gang attitude who’ve got the chops to do exactly what they want. Stunning show, can’t get enough. Last year, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss turned in a spiritual set that touched on the divine. This year, Queens do the same but with devilish, high-energy relish.  

All of this means the QOTSA love-in continues round here, no doubt helped by the heat of In Times New Roman, but the occasional new sound still managed to creak on through. 

Shall we?

HEY COLOSSUS – My Name In Blood

Having only got two Hey Colossus albums meself – In Black and Gold and Happy Birthday – and not really getting on with the latter while bloody loving the former, we’ve got no choice but to dodge the Hey Colossus backstory and take this tune entirely on its own terms.

And those terms go something like this: sticky dank crawling spidery Slint-y trudgy hypnosis, all via the medium of RIFF. Never has an ascending sequence sounded less positive (disclaimer: I have no actual evidence for that) and those vulnerable shoegazer-esque vocals make a neat juxtaposition. Intricately, gothically doomy and very nearly uplifting, give it a shot and wallow in its dank.

MEMORIALS – Boudicaaa

Matthew Simms, guitarist in Wire. Verity Susman on vocals. Sprightly, catchy post-punk shapes that you might expect but given extra crunch you might not quite expect with an ultra-satisfying heavy low-end oomph that resolvethe main hook. Boudicaaa doesn’t last long and even then, Susman’s vocals disappear long before this already-short track fades away, making it less a song than a sketch that happens to be complete. Neat headbang and no excess. 

ZAMILSKA – Better Off

In trying to create something that captured the trip hop and heavier guitar sounds she listened to growing up, Polish electronica artist Zamilska has conjured a little magic here – a stark beat utilising Nine Inch Nails’ signature sonic decay and Massive Attack’s Mezzanine black-hole teetering. Whether Better Off is typical of Zamilska’s sound or a guitar-enhanced one-off, I don’t know, but it’s a darkly seductive electro strip. 

HEAVY LUNGS – All Gas No Brakes

Jerky shouting with a near-funk punk stab to match, All Gas No Brakes hits you like a rough, rowdy, non-digital guitar-band version of a Working Men’s Club track, an incessant one-note bass pulse that judders, lurches and agitates more than it grooves. Wakey wakey, losers. 

And there we go – a long overdue round-up, must try harder. 

‘til next time!

Northern Quarter, Mamchester
Manchester, Northern Quarter