The Quarterhorse

I Was on Fire for You (Radio Is Down)
by Craig Regala

I like clean, clear, powerful production, esp. for bands that are wide-open and physical. The Quarterhorse are such a thing. Classic three-piece set-up: Tubs, bass, and six string with occasional growl/scream/hollar/speaking when they deem necessary. They reference little (outside of a cover at the end: A Melvins tune when they were tapping on the second side of Black Flag’s My War) except the “rock” ideal of stacking noise on top of squared-off rhythmn, mostly keeping midtempo, where the true gut-punch is firmly located. On this planet, such an ideal has been used by Swans, Gore, Electric Wizard, Blue Feedtime, Pelican, and many others I’m too stupid to remember or too dumb to know. On other planets, who knows? Let’s hope a bunch.

Tension/release/tension/release, tension-tension, tension, stutter step, uptempo, riff change, tension, tension, bash-out, etc. As the tunings and tools are standard, the output is easily graspable by anyone who ever turned off the radio and went snooping around in their uncle’s recs. and found Thee Fucking Champs, Harvey Milk, Rudimentary Peni Fushitsusha, and other worthies. Many metal and stoner bands tap the same m.o. but draw upon a deep cultural well which brings up influences that make the stuff easy to reference. Not so here. It’s pretty much uncut and crashed out.
(PMB #1436 120 State Ave. NE Olympia, WA 98501)