EP Shakedown: Bandito - I & II

For this week's 'EP Shakedown' I'm going to double up with a pair of EPs released by Bandito, aptly titled Bandito I and Bandito II (or just I and II but I like having the name there). You can download their most recent EP from their website, or get their entire discography (these two EPs and a single) from their BandCamp page. So snag some free music, give it a listen and read on.

Bandito treads between a couple different sounds within the stoner genre. Their first EP opens with "For No One" which is close to the harshness of Hermano or the raw sound of Kyuss' early works (wow a stoner band that sounds like Kyuss). The following song, "Trent Boyett," is something much more groove oriented. I do have to laugh because "Trent Boyett" seems like an obvious homage to a South Park episode, I'm not 100% but it seems to be about a child always in trouble, which sums up the episode pretty well. The other two songs of the album are in a more sludgy realm, being more down-tuned and rough-vocaled (but not too growly). "Killing Black" and "Cubic Cycle" are both decent, but I definitely like their more groove/funk songs more.

EP Shakedown: Manhammer - Above The New Frontier

Manhammer is a hard band to get a hold of. It was damn near impossible for me to find any real information on this group, with only YouTube and porn sites popping up with most of my searches. I ended up having to turn to the SludgeSwamp, as they had at least a link to the band's MySpace. I also found another band called ManHammer, and a 'Future Site For Manhammer,' so maybe I did find them after all. I think the first focus of this band should be to raise themselves up from the dirge that a search of Manhammer pulls up. Your web identity is everything, and if people can't find you you're losing some potential fans.

EP Shakedown: Big Jesus - Big Jesus

Ok, I'm not feeling too hot, so short and sweet are what's in store.

Big Jesus is a stoner/alternative/post-grunge act from Las Vegas, of all places. Their debut EP (follow the link for the free download) is a combination of rock n' roll stoner and the post-grunge style that made Alice In Chains famous. The opener, "Ribs," is a nice bout of the former, while keeping in a down-tuned and darker feel. And actually the second track, "Hairteeth," could easily have been found on an Alice In Chains album, or as a tribute at the very least. It sounds straight from the 90s and that is nothing if not a good thing.

EP Shakedown: Major Kong - Orogenesis

Ok, my computer is back up and running smoothly, turns out it wasn't a big deal really. So this is the 'EP Shakedown' that I had all set up for Saturday that was never posted. Luckily I had the articles for Sunday and Tuesday already set to go, so you all had something to tide you over. I'll get back on schedule tomorrow with the daily postings.

Major Kong comes highly recommended by several sources as some great sludge metal. This is down and dirty instrumental doom metal, I can't really call it sludge, because to me sludge is all in the vocals, but I feel I'm just splitting hairs there. The songs (four of them) are long and drawn-out, seeming to go on forever.

Orogenesis (available for free download), the debut EP from the guys of Fifty Foot Woman, is for anyone who loves some dark doom. If you're looking for complex rhythms or styles, you need to be listening to something else. The songs are droning and fairly predictable, but at the same time, they will melt your face (which would be a sweet album name).

EP Shakedown: Mother of God - Forging A New Path

Still spinning with the new bands that I discovered (or rediscovered) from The Soda Shop Comp. Vol 1, which is the point of a compilation of that type right? I figured after re-listening to Lo-Pan and Whores of Tijuana, and then reviewing Gozu's debut, the next logical step was Mother of God, for some good ol' stoner/doom. As I drink at 6pm on a Wednesday (yea, I finally have my articles cued up again), I'm just going to sit back, relax and let the sounds of this great act wash over me. Their wall of sound style of stoner is great for this, as I'm learning.

First thing, Forging A New Path has a lot of fuzz. Let the intro to the third track, "Blind Monkey," show you that. It is what leads to the wall of sound comment I made before. If you can't find a millisecond of silence, or a slight dip in energy coming at you, that is a wall of sound as far as I'm concerned, and this EP is full of it. While the disc itself isn't really slow or doomy enough to be accurately classified as stoner/doom metal, it is too slow to be straight up stoner. It falls into that rarely utilized classification of tempo and style, which oddly helps out the release as a whole. It gives the group enough of a stylistic leniency to play on both sides of the fence. Some songs are a little more on the doom side, while others are more straight-stoner.

EP Shakedown: Ocean Towers - Chapter 1

In a very 70s metal way, Ocean Towers puts out tunes. Their debut EP, Chapter 1 (which is available free from their BandCamp page), isn't quite enough of a throwback to be confined to the retro-rock tag, but I could easily see some of these songs appearing on a mid-to-late 70s release. Along with that there are plenty of more modern sounds and elements within the five-track record - it's an adventure with these guys.

The first two tracks, "New Slides" and "Honey Slides," are the obvious retroly-influenced tracks, at times sounding like Black Sabbath (mid-Ozzy era, think Vol. 4 or Sabbath Bloody Sabbath) or heavy Deep Purple, mixing all of this well within the stoner vein of Kyuss. The balance of style and form is what really stands out in my mind with these two, there isn't any wavering of the music or the vocals, nothing that would bely these relative newcomers short histories. This is all rock n' roll and metal, a mix so well stirred you can't see where one begins and another ends.

EP Shakedown: The Helldozers - My Anger

The Helldozers are a southern stoner/sludge act, who have been nice enough to release their debut EP, My Anger, for free off of their website (both in MP3 and FLAC for those huge music nerds out there). Their style is slightly reminiscent of early Down, with a heavy groove sound with some rough (but understandable) vocals. For someone who isn't wholly on the guttural style of singing, as I've stated many times before, it took me a little bit to get on board with it all, but by the end of the first track off of the EP I was happily engaged.

The release begins with "My Anger" which may or may not be live, there are live sounds but you never know nowadays whether or not they aren't added in. The song takes a while to take off, or perhaps it was the time needed for me to get used to their style (see above), but either way it ends strong and is easily enjoyable. The following song, "I'am What I'am," has a really catchy chorus and some good music to go along with it, but sounds like something is missing from the equation. "Seven Seas," the following song, is a really groove-metal, circa 1990-era thrash. It's quick and heavy, but not so frantic as the 80s thrash was, more mature and tuned down for effect. A really good end of the first half of the record.

EP Shakedown: Trash Titan - Trash Titan

Trash Titan seems like a very accurate name for this group. The music they make is some rough and trashy stoner rock with a huge sound. The songs off of their self-titled EP move between being blues/retro rock and grooving southern rock, with the occasional thrash feeling within the breakdowns.

"Medicine" does a good job of setting the scene; with the southern-tinged rock coming in thick. The second track, "Sunny Day," is where the album begins to take off, where the mix of stoner genres is more apparent. Elements of southern, rock n' roll and thrash all make their play here. This leads to the more subdued but far superior, "Whiskey Love," the high point of the release. This one is straight-forward southern jam-stoner, with a moving rhythm and a entertaining story.

EP Shakedown: Syd Arthur - Moving World

I had know idea who or what Syd Arthur was, but what I heard was not what I was expecting by any means. Moving World was another 'gift sent' to me by Ripple Music, and I really don't know what to make of it. It melds styles I previously thought un-meldable. Truly a conundrum of sound and style. I only label this as progressive rock because I don't know what else to classify it as, it is that much of an interesting mashup of style.

I'm going to assume Syd Arthur is either a nickname or the band name, like Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull or Franz Ferdinand, a name that sounds like a person's, but is in fact the group's name (in my searches I discovered a theory that the band gets it's name from Syd Barret (original singer for Pink Floyd) and from The Kinks' album, Arthur (Or The Decline And Fall Of The British Empire), so that's kind of interesting). I say this because the singer has a very peculiar voice; At times making me think it is a female singing, and at others just a really odd male (the first draft of this paragraph was all about a female vocalist, then I did some actual research and learned the truth). It is really odd, I can tell that he's British, but other then that I am at a loss.

EP Shakedown: The Dandelion Club - One More Margarita

Down and dirty garage rock, this is what The Dandelion Club is selling. Their EP, One More Margarita (follow the link for a free download from the group's BandCamp), is a three-song, rough production release that captures the band's live element really well. Now, I haven't ever seen them live or anything, but judging from the energy they put out on this disc, it's not a far leap to make. By the half-way point on the first two songs it sounds like the singer is out of breath and exhausted, having worked so hard to put all he had into the track, this is why I would expect great things from band live.

Their style seems a mix of the garage rock of the 90s, the DIY style of punk (as well as some punky vocals) and the fuzz of stoner, giving it an almost punk folk sound. I know my first thought when the vocals came in on the title track was one of a Celtic punk band like The Pogues of Flogging Molly, although The Dandelion Club really don't have any true folk influences. It's just in the vocals and the loose production values I guess.

EP Shakedown: Heavy Ripples, Vol. 1

I'm usually reluctant to listen and review compilation albums/EPs, because of the usual clash of styles and overall skill of the bands featured. It's the only place where you can hear stoner rock sat next to NWOAHM and atmospheric doom. It's just a little too sketchy for a real review... usually.

For the first compilation EP released by Ripple Music, aptly titled Heavy Ripples, Vol. 1, the guys have collected some amazing acts of the stoner persuasion. The album begins within the blues side of the sub-genre, then takes small sonic steps throughout the rest of the album, through excellent song selection, moving towards rock 'n roll and a dash of punk. Normally this shift would have bothered me, but the fellas at Ripple have done a superb job making it all from amazingly.

Stone Axe is at it again, with their real chill, more-blues-then-rock sound. This time turning the Mos Generator song, "Nightwolf," into what seems like a blues standard, something that I wouldn't think possible. This excellent effort is followed by Sun Gods In Exile, a group not on the Ripple Music label - originally from Small Stone - but nice enough to let their music be included (I'm sure the added press doesn't hurt either). Their song, "Over My Broken Body," isn't as blues-oriented as Stone Axe's work, but you can hear the correlation between the pair.

EP Shakedown: Spiders - Spiders

I started these EP Shakedowns as a hope for a simple and short article for the weekends, something that wouldn't take a lot of time to bang out, so I can get a break in every now and then, and you all aren't left out in the cold. For the past few sessions of this segment, the articles have been long and getting longer, which is obviously the opposite of what I wanted. So this is going to be a return to form that never existed - short and sweet.

I was initially surprised when the first notes of Spiders' debut EP came out of my speakers, this was a woman singing! There is nothing bad about it, especially with the skill showed off here, but even in the 2010s a female vocalist in rock is a semi-oddity. I know I shouldn't have been startled, her pic is on the album artwork, but apparently I don't pay that much attention to this sort of thing. Her voice isn't the best thing I've ever heard, coming off a bit like Janis Joplin - the power is there but it's lacking on the range - but she is well aware of her abilities and sticks with what she knows.

EP Shakedown: Lecherous Gaze - Lecherous Gaze

Lecherous Gaze's self-titled EP is a quick, four-track, fifteen-minute rocker, melding stoner rock and punkish themes. Actually I hear a bit of the classic era of punk hidden in there; British acts like The Clash and The Sex Pistols. It's partially in the muddled, over-exposed vocals, and part in the quick guitar and drum rhythms.

The EP seems to be split into two stylistic types; the first half - "Phaze" and "Sold" - fall solidly into the punk/stoner crossover I mentioned above. The licks are catchy and plentiful, the vocals are simple and quick (if not easily understood), reminding me of the 80s heyday of punk. The songs kind of blend into each other, and as I'm not a connoisseur of punk, not the high point of the disc for my ears.

EP Shakedown: The Five Tones - Episode I: Tennessee

Keepin' up with the daily posting, as best I can. This EP Shakedown is dedicated to some new blues-inspired rock (that is, rock focused more on blues, as opposed to blues rock, which has such a wide berth, it might as well mean nothing), The Five Tones.

The Five Tones' debut EP, Episode I: Tennessee, is a great display of what a group can do with blues rock, even if their influences are obvious. Their songs are eclectic go from being a throwback to the delta-blues era of the 20s, to sounding like a more modern rock band is releasing a blues-oriented LP, or just a more modern version of blues rock (with more emphasis on the rock aspect). I can't figure out if I really like the music, or just like how it reminds me of other acts.

The most obvious song of a modern relation is the first track, "Hid Away." It has such a similar guitar rhythm to Wolfmother's "Joker & The Thief" that it's all I think about when I listen to the song. "Hid Away" is still a good song, but the resemblance is uncanny, as if Wolfmother decided to go blues rock instead of psychedelia-laced stoner. It's too similar for me, and I know that I'll never get over that hurdle.

EP Shakedown: Amplifier - Fractal

I know a week ago I was saying that I am too busy to keep up the seven day posting thing I've been doing, but I'm going to guess that was a lie (both to myself and you all). I'm just going to make the weekends be lighter on the time-consuming projects. A every s such, I'm going to start the weekend with a short article about an EP that I've been enjoying every Saturday, and Sundays are for videos. I know I've had videos before, but they've all ways been random, so now I'm trying to make it a little more regular, they still might pop up every now and then, but for now lets just say it's only on Sundays. That being said, welcome to the first EP Shakedown:

I'm not afraid to say it: I like Amplifier. Many of you could have probably guessed this, owing in fact to the couple of articles I've dedicated to them so far, or you've heard the band and question anyone who doesn't like them. Either way you are correct, they rock, and they roll. In the past, Amplifier has used EPs in a very ingenuous way; they use the short releases as a stepping-stone between the stylistic changes of their full-lengths. Originally the group was more alternative then progressive, but now, three full lengths and three EPs later, they are solid in their love for all things prog.

Their latest LP release, The Octopus, was one of my favorites for 2010, moving great strides into a more submersive style. It was a double disc, but that didn't hinder it in any way, instead allowing for more time with experimentation and re-examination of themselves. The EP released before it, Eternity, showed this somewhat, with songs with a much grander theme and a release that was more cohesive. The bridge was made, and the style changes were gaped.