Novadriver

Deeper High (Small Stone)
By Craig Regala

Novadriver are an American kick-ass band honing all the good shit about hard-fucking-rock into one big ball of mung. Packing down mid-tempo arena stompers like the children of the Nuge/Aerosmith ’76 tour, the bad-ass Green River side of grunge, and snot-thick Stonesisms jerked through the long lamented Surgery or legendary Union Carbide Productions.

You’d have to be a true rock-hater to not wanna see these guys with the rejuvenated Roadsaw and rehabbed Lamont. Fuck, these guys are the Midwestern Fu Manchu or the U.S. corollary to the utterly wonderful The Quill. Quill = classic Euro-Deep Purple rootage, Novadriver sups at a table well-apportioned by Grand Funk Railroad.

But are tunes there? Are they? Yup. The guitar/vocal melodies sink a hook and work off the bass counterpoint to the “ride the groove, steady as she goes, Captain” drumming of Eric Miller, and soulful, hard rock classique singin’ of Mark Miers. Like ATP, these guys can weave a spacey heat-wave-off-the-highway shimmer that’ll sate any appetite for early Monster Magnet. These guys REALLY make me want to swap the guy up the road for his ’82 Firebird…
(www.smallstone.com)