Bud Spencer Blues Explosion – Do It

Bud Spencer Blues Explosion – Do It
Self released – 2011
Rock, Blues, Garage, Stoner
Rated: *****

The third installment of the Italian magic duo Bud Spencer Blues Explosion is like a golden stick of dynamite. This blast will ring on forever and ever into legend. The title Do It is the shortened version of the song Dio Odia I Tristi; which means that God Hates Sadness. And one can definitely not be sad when listening to this heavy rocking beauty of an album. This one incorporates the desert virtuosity of Homme; the search for bluesroots of White and merges it with that seventies sound they do so well, the garage that started it all and their exceptionally bright and cheerful breezy songs for the longest days of the year. This album is the perfect example of what a duo may accomplish if they are like one. And they are a miraculous one at that; two that know what the exact amount of nostalgia is, which is needed to get the emotional juices flowing without becoming retro or old. A platinum kaboom with a rain shower of precious gems!

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Bud Spencer Blues Explosion – BSBE

Bud Spencer Blues Explosion – BSBE
Yorpikus – 2009
Rock, Blues, Garage, Stoner
Rated: ****

The sophomore self-titled album of the Italian duo Bud Spencer Blues Explosion is a righteous continuation of their first album. Signed to the Yorpikus label the two got to work in taking their sound from the debut to their logical extremes. It’s is hard rocking seventies Zeppelin and Hendrix; old down and dirty delta blues and an incredible Chemical Brothers cover of Hey Boy, Hey Girl. But ofcourse we also get those little springtime easygoing and juicy ditties; the ones that will make your head bop while drinking a beer on some city terrazzo or lying in the grass somewhere surrounded by half naked women playing Frisbee. Errr.. And all done in an extremely matter of fact natural way that drugs you and leaves you helpless to their virtuosity. It moves you and makes your limbs twist in ways you never thought possible. Explosive stuff!

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Bud Spencer Blues Explosion – Happy

Bud Spencer Blues Explosion – Happy
Self released – 2008
Rock, Blues, Garage
Rated: ****

Founded in the capital of Italy in 2007, the Bud Spencer Blues Explosion is a duo that knows where to seek out the best blues mustard and incorporate that into their own garage soul. Ofcourse there is something reminiscent of the White Stripes here; for they two were a duo celebrating the roots of all music. But Bud is less sophisticated, much more raw and visceral and above all has an incredibly funky punk spirit. It has that open vibe similar to everything Cato Salsa does and vibrates like some long lost seventies diamond. It’s a buckshot full of adrenaline and highly energetic. And then there are those little flirts with electronics and samples; weird and extremely sunny. Like a laid-back late spring afternoon filled with wine-coolers and lazy lovemaking… One can only imagine what their live shows must be like…

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Polarbeers – Tetris

Polarbeers – Tetris
Self released – 2011
Rock, Stoner, Psychedelics, Blues
Rated: *****

It is never easy to pick a bandname. Sometimes they just come to you and all members like it. Sometimes you settle for something. And at other times you just make up some crap and it sticks. But the Polarbeers went through a lengthy look at a refrigerator full of foreign beers. In a downtown bar, restaurant and local hangout they just stood there, with a beer in hand, looking at all the beers with their weird and ridiculous names. It took almost an hour before they noticed the Venezuelan Polarbeer. And then ofcourse; it was immediately decided. Influenced by a punk soul and a melodic groove reminiscent of Foo Fighters they started to carve out their own little sound in the suburbs of Milano. Plagued by many, many, many line-up changes. It took them four years to reach maturity and only after they recorded Tetris and the bassplayer featured on it again decided to leave and new one joined; did they find their final line-up. Which is now in the process of writing new songs and recording their first full-sized album as a trio. But let’s not forget about Tetris just yet, for the four songs on this EP are full of stoner and psychedelic blues splendor. But it does not really do justice to their awesome live sound. So let’s hope they will be able to capture that on their new record…

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Polarbeers – Everywhere But Home

Polarbeers – Everywhere But Home
Self released – 2010
Rock, Stoner, Psychedelics, Blues
Rated: ****

As 2010 progressed the Polarbeers found new blood and Everywhere But Home was recorded as a foursome. Before the female guitar player had to leave the band again for personal reasons that might have something to do with bordering on the verge of insanity; or so the rumors go. Everywhere But Home is once again a gritty and dusty rock EP featuring four songs that excel in a massive wall of sound. Due to the production the wave of beautiful noise sometimes looses the focus and the melody that is hidden underneath gets lost in the avalanche. And with a song influenced by Dave Grohl on it and his manic love for coffee we can be sure that these guys got tons of humor too. Unfortunately after this little ditty Fox, the singer, guitar player had to undergo surgery due to a polyp on his vocal chords and the band again had to take it easy…

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Polarbeers – Jingle Single

Polarbeers – Jingle Single
Self released – 2010
Rock, Stoner, Punk, Blues, Psychedelics
Rated: ***

Italian threesome Polarbeers was formed in the spring of 2007 and was aiming at becoming the best punk hardcore band to ever emerge from the suburbs of Milano. Soon however the line-up problems started and a drift towards a more psychedelic approach began. And for a moment there they thought about continuing on as a duo. But come September 2009 the drummer from Back At The Garage and Trust No One decided to join the band. And just after new year the first recording session was done, resulting in this one take Jingle Single. It is a short and sweet gravelly instrumental rock out. Only vaguely alluding to the magic that was still to come…

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Pig – Rise

Pig – Rise
Self released – 2012
Rock, Kraut, Doom, Psychedelics
Rated: ***

Pig are a three-piece formation from somewhere on the British Isle and from the outskirts of New Mexico. Formed on the foundations of long lost tracks of the enigmatic Ego Death Squad the music dives head first into a beatnik and sixties counter culture atmosphere with an extra layer of occult and tribal meandering, a mantra driven bass and krautrock structuring. It is the weirdness and mystery surrounding the trio that makes the sound even more lucious. Rise is apparently already their third album and their first two should become available soon as well. Instrumental tracks laden with samples that invoke an ancestral life old fire in the soul. It only makes the blood stir even more and put a level of extreme anxiety in ones veins for the apparent movie it is all meant for; with an even more seductive and magnetic title: Kubricks.

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Back from Milano...

Back from Milano…

It was a weird and tiresome weekend in Milano. Filled with incredibly beautiful women and very grotesque old bats that never understood that those wrinkles are sagging skin. Plastering and botoxing them will only make your face wider and look like a caricature version of The Joker. Luckily there was enough beer and wine to flush that scary angst sweat away. But it was not until the sun went down that the city truly came to life. The old drunken bums on the street where no long annoying vagrants but fellow seekers of wild times. And when a not so foul smelling one asked me for a light, I promised him a drink if he would show me to the ugliest and most violent underground bar he knew. “Sure,” he said, “maybe you could also buy me a woman there?” And with that we moved forward into the night, joined once again by a mutual interest…

Off to Milano...

Off to Milano...

“A man who has not been in Italy, is always conscious of an inferiority.” I believe some dingbat called Samuel Johnson once said that. But he said loads of things, mostly rubbish due to the fact he had an appetite for the strange tea coming from the Brazilian jungle and his well-known habit of shouting obscene and wild utterings at complete strangers. Still, he might have had a point there and it is only just we explore it to a maddening extent. So we whisk ourselves off to one of the fashion capitols of the world to test the rock’n roll waters there and see what kind of savage adventures we can get ourselves into…

Dope Flood – A Planet on Four Legs

Dope Flood – A Planet on Four Legs
Self released – 2011
Rock, Stoner, Grunge
Rated: ***

Almost exactly a year ago the Greece quartet Dope Flood released their debut EP A Planet On Four Legs. Formed only a year before they bring a tasty mixture of heavy nineties grunge, alternative rock, atavistic stoner and languid desert riffs. And they translate it on their first release into three tracks filled with gritty aggression but also into dawdling rhythms and intense drooping structures. They’re at their most convincing during the sunny and lazy notes and turn highly American when they punch the gas. Like a fast gunning muscle car that weaves through heavy traffic but really loves the wide open sun blistered empty and deserted highway the most. So filler’up, speed out of town and get ready to surf the flood…

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Serious Beak – Huxwhukw

Serious Beak – Huxwhukw
Self released – 2011
Metal, Psychedelic, Post, Stoner, Progressive, Grind
Rated: ***

We ofcourse all know that Huxwhukw is the supernatural long-beaked cannibal bird and long time servant to non other than Baxwbakwalnuksiwe; the Cannibal-at-the-North-end-of-the-world in Kwakwaka'wakw mythology. Huxwhukw uses his long, snapping beak to crack open the skulls of men to eat their brains and pluck out their eyeballs. Well, he sure knows how to get to the tasty bits. And then there is ofcourse that poetic beauty in naming the album after that damned little birdie if and when your band is called Serious Beak. And it is justified to name the album after the legendary bird for it is a record filled with instrumental mayhem and madness; some twisted version of terror and insanity which the birdie loves to spread. Serious Freak, Serious Break, it would all apply here for the four amigos have an knack for discordant riffs, out of left field breaks and freaky heaviness that will liquefy your brain. It is highly intensive metal aimed to provoke seizures and confuse. But because their gnarly and snarly noise sometimes subdues and evolves to a dreamlike soar through the clouds you know these guys are able to do more then just overwhelm. I sure as hell know what my next pet will be…

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Tuber – Smoked Up Notes

Tuber – Smoked Up Notes
Self released – 2012
Rock, Post, Stoner
Rated: ****

Instrumental greatness hailing from the lovely Greece. Tuber is a trio that excells in combining stoner with postrock and in creating excellent smoky and swirling atmospheres that never dull and always entertain. Smoked Up Notes is there perfect example of their catalogue. It creates an entire space for itself while still keeping it all grounded enough to rock. The three amigos hive off to different dimensions, float here, rock there and color the music with an intense palet of sounds. This is one song that should be played over and over untill it slowly dissolves along with the rest of the universe…

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No Anchor – Rope / Pussyfootin’

No Anchor – Rope / Pussyfootin’
Self released – 2012
Metal, Doom, Sludge, Scream, Noise, Punk
Rated: ***

Somewhere on the outskirts of Brisbane City three guys started a commercial seafaring endeavor that would put the East Indies Company to shame. Trading spices and slaves just as easily as notes and tones. Forever sailing the oceans since they had No Anchor. Yikes; those were an eerily wrong kind of first few lines. But with the Australian threesome No Anchor you can never go wrong. Since they master in creating seemingly unending chaos in a concise structure with just the right amount of madness to make it stick. The horrible thing about these three brilliant gentlemen is that they decided to give us only 4 minutes and 43 seconds to enjoy. (Not counting the cover, which is only available on vinyl.) It therefor leaves a bit of a salty taste in your mouth; a longing for more and a wavering doubt that all might not end well and that we won’t reach port…

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Lugnoro – Annorstädes

Lugnoro – Annorstädes
Ozium Records – 2012
Rock, Psychedelics, Seventies, Progressive, Blues
Rated: ****

It’s the seventies man, interlaced with psychedelics from the era of fluid projections as well as elements from progressive rock and blues. As the initial release by the new Swedish label Ozium Records, they selected one kinghell of an album. Annorstädes, which is also the first full-sized record by fivesome Lugnoro, which hails from that same beautiful Scandinavian country and is jam-packed with blues rock fury delivered in feverish fervour. Like a band on a holy mission to bring that age-old good rock to everyone’s ear. Founded in the year of our Lord 2007 the band went through several line-up changes and released their first EP Tellus in 2009. The new album Annorstädes brings forth once more their love for the Hammond and progressive seventies blues. They use their devotion and their guitarlines to exact perfect harmonies and produce retro structures that will make the flowers on your blouse start to bloom, weave and dance. It’s all that Deep Purple glow, Led Zeppelin spirit and Allman Brothers cunning brought to you in an almost pastoral color and stately or ceremonious voice. And when the rock mass ends all we can do is pray that Lugnoro will succeed in their mission to turn heads and make them all tune in… It’s all happening man!

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Verdun – The Cosmic Escape of Admiral Masuka

Verdun – The Cosmic Escape of Admiral Masuka
Head Records / Throatruiner Records – 2012
Rock, Metal, Doom, Sludge
Rated: ****

Hoe Ver is Dunn? Translates as, How far is Dunn? Which is an amazing but not easy to come by Dutch book by author Jaap Verduyn. It tells a weird tale about a soldier named Darryl Shields escaping through time and space during the battle of Verdun. And I wonder how big that small chance actually is that he met Admiral Masuka somewhere along his journey. Even though the Admiral was the sole survivor of a nuclear holocaust and only then left this astral plane to search for salvation and God. It must be so; for time and space always harmonizes. Like it does on Verdun’s 2012 release The Cosmic Escape of Admiral Masuka. The French fivesome deliver a harmonic doom EP filled with war torn riffs marching to the steadfast beat of scorched banging. And with their incendiary vocals they spellbind the listener to their steady rhythm and drag you along on their pilgrimage through the universe. With supernatural guitar tunnels in a rainbow of color the songs enchant and entrance. Absolutely majestic and magical!

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Bubonic Bear – Fleshworld

Bubonic Bear – Fleshworld
Self released – 2011
Rock, Noise, Sludge, Punk
Rated: ***

Bubonic Bear is a two piece noise, punk, sludge band from Philadelphia, USA. Their forte lies in dark and blackened howls, screams and equally evil drum pounding and burned riffs. This isn’t simply being brutal for brutality’s sake; this is fierce fury and barbaric hypnotic hardcore for all the right reasons. To impress with bleak and rough noise melted across ingenious structures and breaks. And on the moments the throttle pulls back even further; they mesmerize even more. This is not for the feint hearted or for that hangover Sunday morning; but for hailstorm filled afternoons and weird nights in abandoned piss ridden worn down factory warehouses…

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Horisont - Second Assault

Horisont - Second Assault

Horisonts first official music video for the first single Second Assault of the new album with the same title set to appear on 20-04-12. If the Swedes commited this level of excellence to vinyl we are in for a real freakin treat! Get ready to blow your speakers through the roof! Simply awe awe awesome!

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Piñata – Demo

Piñata – Demo
Self released – 2012
Rock, Stoner, Psychedelics, Space
Rated: ****

With all the ADHD-type diagnosed kids running around in the world, one would expect all birthday parties to host a Piñata bashing. Get rid of some of that excess energy and aggression. Although they are rarely filled with decent food and usually contain E-colored sweets and candies; only aggravating the situation in the long run. But who cares, right? Everything worth doing, is worth doing right. Get that energy level up, space out on all the factory chemicals and let the good times flow. Just like the trio hailing from Alicante, Spain who named themselves Piñata. Started in 2007 the guys shelved their project after a year and the departure of two members. Back in 2009 they started again and toured around the country only to give the thing a break once more. But starting 2012 the fellas are back for good; this time we hope for the long haul. Cause their heavy psychedelic version of atavistic stoner contains enough aggression to keep energy levels high and heads a bopping. And with the tiny traces of their space rock beginnings, this is one dangerous kaleidoscopic ass Piñata. Are you ready for a beating?

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Legal Fingers – No Time For Tenderness

Legal Fingers – No Time For Tenderness
Maxed Out Records / Self released – 2012
Rock, Sleaze, Stoner, Garage, Metal
Rated: ***

High times rock ‘n roll boogie for an alcohol soaked night that takes you back to the days when all metal fans grew their hair long and carried around huge portable cassette players to fill the surrounding parking lot air with distorted guitars and pounding drums. The Legal Fingers trio do just that and infuse this trip down memory lane with some hairy sleazerock, little bits of stoner and most of all a truckload of humor. The sheer amount of playing fun that explodes full force from their first record No Time For Tenderness suggests that these guys are the best drinking buddies one could wish for. Not to mention high rolling entertainers that always try for the six the hard way even though their music suggests otherwise. Highly dubious in nature the songs are infectious by default and contagious like some honor badge STD…

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Lion Farm – Lion Farm EP

Lion Farm – Lion Farm EP
Self released – 2012
Rock, Garage, Psychedelics, Stoner
Rated: ***

Canada, it was a barren and hostile wasteland. Dangerously crowded with polar bears and flying hockey pucks. But in downtown Montreal that sort of thing hardly matters; you just have to keep the gates closed and those dangerous elements out especially when breeding lions. And the four guys from Lion Farm keep the beasts locked up tight and the menacing music fenced in like a jailhouse island. On their first EP they bring you four songs ripe with anticipation and on the verge of exploding. But this wicked state of pure musical torment continues the entire time and keeps you on the edge of the seat, with pearly beads of sweat on your forehead and your skin crawling like its being attacked by an army of alien ants. Splendid riffs that could find their way into a garage band just as easily as into a stoner formation and it’s all held together by effective steady drums and vocals that bring the gray, the grimy and that free and wild spirit… Hakuna Matata motherfuckers!

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Spine Chilling Breeze – Promo

Spine Chilling Breeze – Promo
Self released – 2012
Rock, Stoner, Metal
Rated: ***

Formed in the middle of 2011 the Greek foursome Spine Chilling Breeze is not wasting any time. They are set to release a full album in 2012 but have already sent out a two track promo as a steamy teasing taste. It has that seminal desert stoner color interspersed with a minute bit of eighties metal, a tiny bit of nineties alternative rock and some age old heavy riffing that can compete with the best. With interesting rousing subjects and female squeaks of joy and bliss we might be in for some catchy archaic stoner in the near future. For now we will have to make due with their two track dynamic and energetic soundtrack for a day of speeding on an empty highway. A blistering a sun above and an old muscle car without brakes. Yes; it might be hot and sweaty, it still gives you a Spine Chilling Breeze…

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Widowmaker – Fuck Nastan Allt

Widowmaker – Fuck Nastan Allt
Self released – 2012
Metal, Black, Core, Grind
Rated: ***

My relatives in Australia are always raving on about their island and the separate styled music scene. And there is some poetic truth in their words. Cause Aussie pub rock is also a brilliant genre that’s typical for an island. Take all the good parts of rock’n roll and filter out all the unnecessary crap. And our two compadres from Widowmaker have that exact mindset. Recorded in two days straight their first EP Fuck Nastal Allt is a testament to the do it yourself attitude and a flag bearer for no nonsense black metal grindcore. Interlaced with disturbing samples and eerie background sounds as the only attire; the massive noise bombards your brain and inner workings like a whole fleet of man-o-wars. With unholy screams and sepulchral tones you are left to your own defenses which weaken with every nanosecond passed. Both members also fuck around with Only Sleeping, Acid Snake, and Bison and if this is their hobby side-project, let’s hope they keep finding enough two day periods to keep this beast alive…

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Vagitarians – Wood

Vagitarians – Wood
Self released – 2012
Sludge, Doom, Metal
Rated: ***

The five Vagitarians hail from the liquor soaked grounds of Warsaw, Poland and started their lunching and munching in 2008. A year later they released their first demo called Flesh And Bones, which consists of four tracks that remind of a sludge and stoner outfit with hardcore roots running for the bus. After which their ability and prowess improved considerably and can easily be judged by their 2011 semi acoustic EP Stoner Bones Blues. And as that title already hints; it contained a tinge of blues and lot of progressive structuring. Add those two EP’s together and we get a nice gist of what their 2012 album Wood results to. A heavy sludge and doom inspired metal album with hardcore nuances, progressive compositions and blues on the very point of the needle. This is scarred charcoal southern sludge blackened by grimy riffs and guttural vocals. And even though the screams do disturb and bewilder, my own little twang of complain; why not use that clean voice once every so often? Maybe it’s got its mouth full? Smacznego!

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Town Portal – Vacuum Horror

Town Portal – Vacuum Horror
Self released – 2012
Rock, Post, Math, Prog, Metal
Rated: ***

I remember those weird nights in Copenhagen. Wondering about the mysterious glass tram metro system. Getting lost around Vega and fighting off floating skeleton heads in Stubnitz. Following strange women to Ruba’Dub, screaming about tsunamis, dolphins with hands and biting girls in their arm to say goodbye. Aah yes, those were the good old days. Luckily we survived and can now listen to some good music to take us back there: Town Portal. With their first instrumental endeavor called Vacuum Horror they use equally eerie time signatures and unusual breaks. Translated by dry and airy drums, progressive colored guitar and groovy basslines. It has a tinge of post rock and an equal amount of darkness. For the most part it entices with an arcane and enigmatic imagery invoked by their swirling, whirling and complex melodies. Like drunken midnight mayhem in a city filled with angels… Gnide en End!

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Le Scimmie – Dromomania

Le Scimmie – Dromomania
Self released – 2011
Stoner, Doom, Noise, Garage
Rated: ***

Dromomania is the debut album of the Italian duo Le Scimmie. Recorded in only four days this instrumental piece of work is heavy laden with inspiration and ideas. The project started in the year 2007 and had a clear aim; to get as raw as possible with a minimal amount of instrumentation. Their ramshackle progressive garage sound is translated into smashing riffs that change speed and hue in an instant, evolving the melody from grim to driving and the atmosphere from accepting to frustrating. And then they take their thrash punk structure and turn all of it into a rainbow of stoner, doom and noise. Viewed separately the ten tracks amount to little more then fading fragments of a nightmare. But when listened to as whole it seems to be telling a tall tale of adventures through a sick and twisted landscape. Bella zio!

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Black Smoke Dragon – Demo 12

Black Smoke Dragon – Demo 12
Self released – 2012
Stoner, Doom, Sludge, Metal
Rated: ***

Another band that graced the Stoner HiVe inbox in the past month comes from lovely Spain. The four named themselves Black Smoke Dragon and released a two-track demo this year, which you can steal at no cost from bandcamp. The guys all play in different bands such as Oddy Lane, Arsenaut, Extincion and ID3M. But since they all share a love for the darker riffs and the stoner tunes they decided to also do something together. So in 2009 they started jamming and soon after their first songs became reality. Holding the middle between instrumental stoner like Karma To Burn and dark twisted energies we know from EyeHateGod, Crowbar and even slower masters like Sleep they present an interesting amalgam of sludge rock and stoner metal. And even with the production being on the thin side of things this is still some profound heaviness… Maravilloso!

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Bronson – For Every Action, There’s A Jackson

The lovely Jen Khobran who founded Bronson...

Bronson – For Every Action, There’s A Jackson
Big Lizard Records / Self released – 2003
Stoner
Rated: ****

Bronson started out in 2002 and consists of four guys who also played or play in Fuzztub, Malachite, Plaster of Paris, Halfcocked, Slunt and Blue Man Group. (Yes, those blue fuckers.) Their five song EP from 2003 called For Every Action, There’s A Jackon is filled with groovy, fuzzed out, desert style stoner rock. In the vein of Fu Manchu, Kyuss, Nebula and Queens Of The Stone Age these guys rock hard and let them jams do the kicking. Too bad it ended prematurely when the label ceased to exist and all members left for other bands. Maybe a call to reunite via social media might get hem back together; we all know it worked for Channel Zero…

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Blood Red Water – Tales of Addiction and Despair

Blood Red Water – Tales of Addiction and Despair
Self released – 2011
Stoner, Doom, Sludge
Rated: ***

In a few weeks I will leave for Milan to test the heavy rock waters there so it seems only fitting to already use my feelers to search lovely Italy for some inspired rock. Hailing from Venice, Blood Red Water, was formed in the summer of 2010 and consists of four freaks that earned their spurs in loads of other bands. Since they all shared a love for bands like EyeHateGod, Electric Wizard and St.Vitus it was only right to enter the water in that area. But soon they drifted along and floated wherever the current might take them. Their gritty variation of sludge and doom is filled with an energetic garage and hardcore feel and convinces just as easily during the slow moments as during the faster stoner related songs. It has that epic atmosphere but unfortunately never becomes that great adventure we long for. This might be due to the less attractive grunts and the wavering clean vocals; although the apparent but mostly unused ability does shine through on some moments. Luckily we have the strings and rhythm sections that are menacing enough to pull you under water like some undead swamp monster and make you bleed…

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Stubb – Stubb

Stubb – Stubb
Superhot Records – 2012
Rock, Stoner, Psychedelics, Seventies
Rated: ****

Formed in 2006, the London based trio Stubb was essentially a live band and stayed that way until a stable line-up was found; and this took around four years. But after yet another successful tour through Germany and the UK following Stone Axe they agreed that Tony Reed (Stone Axe, Mos Generator) had to be the right man for the job in regards to the mastering and mixing of their debut album. Their heavy psychedelic sound transports you to the seventies and the first note of their massive fuzziness makes your body tingle all over with great anticipation. But it doesn’t stop there; they also know how to hold on to a lazy groove that enthralls and to folk inspired acoustic interludes and little ditties that captivate. But their progressive riffing and blues motivated solo’s will charm and delight any lover of heaviness. Classic for classic sake, with many layers, wild in a subtle and shrewd manner, energetic and free…

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Muffler Men – Trigger And Fly

Muffler Men – Trigger And Fly
Self released / Rough Trade – 2011
Rock, Stoner, Grunge
Rated: ****

So as we enter March and leave the Dutch Courage Month behind there is a pressing need to start talking about all the albums, demos and EP’s the various bands have sent our way. But before we do that I feel the inspired need to give you all one last Belgian treat. And so we do just that. Do you know the Muffler Men? The Muffler Men? The Muffler Men! I said, do you know the Muffler Men? The Muffler Men! They started around 2008 and live somewhere near Gent. And on their first record Trigger And Fly they grace us with ten radio friendly rock song that never become too poppy but entertain to the maximum. With overtones of extremely catchy Queens Of The Stone Age riffing, vocals and a Foo Fighters sentiment the trio knows how to build up a song. And with the productional help from the likes of Brian Gardner (Bowie, QOTSA, Foo) there is not a fill too much or an accent too little. And just when you think these guys got the pop structure trick down, but do they know more? They go ahead and surprise with the instrumental free for all track All Dressed Up. Energetic, addictive and not at all subdued; the Muffler Men…

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