Magboots and Song Of The Lizard Reviewed
Magboots – Liquid Plasma
Sure, you could turn a Formula 1 car into a golf cart and use a tank door as a bookcase, but it would feel like a bit of a wasted opportunity. It would, at best, be the sort of idea best avoided because there are others that simply make more sense.
Quite similarly, you may turn an electric guitar into an instrument that sounds very little like what you almost instinctively assume a guitar should sound like. In fact, for the past decades, this is what most indie, math, and post-rock guitar players have concerned themselves with.
Sure, it feels clever. Why not make a guitar sound like a keyboard? Why not get it to ring out like pipes played on a Scottish cliff? Because those instruments already exist and, besides, it sounds too good being used as Magboots do.
The electric guitar, ideally, should make a sound that both excites and strikes fear into the heart of the common listener. This is what the stoner-rock-driven “Liquid Plasma” aims to sound like. It’s a success. Listening to Magboots ends up feeling like you’re attending a pagan dance where nearly everybody gets sacrificed at the end while you eat popcorn. It ain’t new or fancy, but it sure has to be entertaining for many.
Song Of The Lizard – Coyote
You’d think that kids would make the best rock musicians. They, after all, are the kind that will not lie, won’t hide from the truth and behave entirely naturally without feeling the need to adapt their behaviour to their surroundings. They’re rockstars!
But have you heard rock bands comprised of children? They’re very rarely good. And they very rarely possess any of those qualities that I listed earlier. What happens to make them miss their opportunity?
Nearly everyone, it seems, regardless of age or experience, either freezes up when in front of a microphone or becomes tempted to be someone else. It’s a shame. Most of us are just programmed, I guess, to follow the lead of others.
But Song of the Lizard, an Italian heavy psych-rock group, have done something quite remarkable with “Coyote.” This stoner-tinged, desert-rock jam feels like the artists revealing themselves completely and spontaneously. It’s music about loneliness and the desire for change. It’s honest, raw, and truthful. What a rarity!
