Från mars – Medvetslös
Legend has it that you can get high off simply by taking a sniff of an Electric Wizard artwork on your phone. Don’t even get me started on the music. There’s heavier stuff out there in the world, sure. But, little of it is covered in as much pot smoke as the stuff created by these stoner luminaries.
It sounds like, Swedish group, Från mars have been sniffing the same artwork. The riffs to Medvetslös would certainly get the police hounds sniffing these folks’ jacket pockets, with their slow Sabbathy riffs promising doom and gloom to all those that would dare take a chance on the music.
The vocals to the single Medvetslös, however, promise something different. The clear, dramatic female vocals add a new dimension to these desert rock stylings. Swedish rock bands, usually, have to choose between two things. Are they going to be a melodic pop act or are they going to be a scary metal band? Från mars have refused to choose and we’re all the best for it.
The Leeward Fits – I Don’t Want It Don’t Need It
Damn, I miss vibrant, sad-bastard music like the one that Elvis Costello pioneered with his early, angsty, punk coattail-riding records. There’s something truly uplifting, strangely, about hearing a grown man decrying his pain in song, while rocking out to sweet guitar-led boogie.
Naturally, the likes of Costello were merely disguising their true abilities, whereas most of their contemporaries were hiding the lack of theirs. Another thing that was camouflaged in those early records was his anger. He was not pretend-enraged like some of his punk/new wave contemporaries. He was positively fuming.
The Leeward Fits draw from a similar pool of talent and emotions on their clever I Don’t Want It Don’t Need It. But, the punks that they grew up on were wearing tight jeans and leather jackets and bringing garage rock back. For that reason, the cool sound of 2001era NYC bands enters the mix in this nice, smart, indie-guitar number.
