Dead Meadow
(Tolotta)
by Brian Varney
Ever heard of the Jap psych label PSF? I’m betting the guys in Dead Meadow have. PSF was around in the ’80s (maybe it still is, I honestly don’t know) and hosted great obscure bands like White Heaven and High Rise who worship at the twin alters of Blue Cheer and the Stooges. That last line’s prolly got you thinking they’re gonna sound like Mudhoney, right? Well, no. Though both Mudhoney and High Rise base the majority of their musical vocabulary on the recorded output of those two bands, they focus on very different facets. While Mudhoney concentrates on the punk snarl and garage rock thunder of, say, Blue Cheer’s “Summertime Blues,” the PSF bands are more interested in the drug-induced swirl/drone of the Stooges’ “Fun House” (the song).
I’d like to tell you more about the album, naming specific tunes that I like, but the truth is that I can’t because I had to sell the disc. I was so enamored with the numb, prickly feeling the songs instilled in me that I had to buy some Percocets, and believe me, they don’t come cheap. I didn’t think to write the song titles down, so you’re gonna have to take my word for it when I say that there are some good ones.
I can still remember the cover, which looks like a wood carving of some sort but is all blurry and swirly and pretty cool. I looked at it for awhile when I first got it. It made me think of drugs too. I looked at it ’til my eyes closed and I woke up in a meadow full of nothing. Now it makes sense but it’s too late. I’m out of Percocet and I need another copy of this album.
(PO Box 4412 Arlington, VA 22204)