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Written
by Scott Wigley, posted by blog admin
A long time ago
alternative rock stopped being alternative rock. Gone were the interesting ideas of Seattle
and Subpop, the tougher sounding prog/hard-rock/neo-psychedelic bands of the
90s (Hum, Failure, Shiner, etc.) all broke up and the often overlooked
post-grunge bands like Paw and Menthol from the second wave of the movement
never officially called it a day but simply went on eternal hiatus. There’s a smattering of bands amongst the new
guard that still nail the sound of yesteryear and keep it alive but not enough,
so along comes Boston’s Heavy America to show that a true alternative still
exists.
The band’s
ideals across the 9 tracks of their debut …Now
encapsulates everything that was great about the aforementioned outfits while
adding their own secret sauce to the crockpot.
Their nearest peers are difficult to define yet they can be closest
related to Paw in the way they combine clean psychedelic textures, riff-driven
70s rock and gruffly affecting vocal melodies into something very much a
product of a long lost time. Most tracks
on …Now leisurely excavate twinkling,
twanging guitars that are only lightly distorted (ala Dinosaur Jr. or Shiner)
that slowly rises into towering riff/groove salvos battered into place by the
lively rhythm duo of drummer Dan Fried and bassist Budd Lapham. Vocalist/guitarist Mike Seguin has a highly
melodic voice capable of Marlboro smoked registers as well, yet again calling
to mind Paw’s underrated country poet Mark Hennessy. Though they eschew slide guitars and pedal
steel for keys, “Proud Shame” wavers on the midpoint of highly catchy, sweetly
crafted guitar melodicism that still has a penchant for boozed-up power chord
anger. The same can be said for the
bass/percussion surges which range from pensive contemplation to bone-busting
lurches. In one simple song Heavy
America lays the foundation for the album to come, even if the successive songs
constantly tweak the formula.
There’s
eclectic freak-out jams that turn the hard rock staples of yore on their ear
with either killer quiet/loud dynamics that challenge any indie rock band with
PURE rock (“Bleed Mary,” “Casting Stones”) and they even go into lengthy atmospheric
trips which sound like a 60s psychedelic rock band stranded in the meanest
biker bar on the south side of town (“I Can Take It”). They can a pretty much big riff-free ballad
like “Heavy Eyes” and not lose my attention span or pour on the throttle with
relentless southern rock n’ roll in the vein of the mid-tempo “Sweet Kisses” or
the more brass-knuckle bashing of “Pray for Me” and “Goliath.” The only thing that’s proof positive is that
a bad song is not in their vocabulary.
With no duff
filler tunes, underdeveloped jamming and songs bereft of memorable
craftsmanship, …Now is very much a
perfect 70s rock album that crash-landed in 2017. You can preview any song here and be
impressed enough to buy the whole album and that’s the mark of a band with
top-notch chops at the top of their game and Heavy America’s career in rock n’
roll is just getting started.
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