Lowrider
Ode To Io (MeteorCity)
by Craig Regala
I’ll get it out of the way: These guys owe much of their sonic palette and most of their procedural structure to the gods of desert thunder, Kyuss. Probably not as much as Dozer or Natas or even Misdemeanor, but without ‘m they’d probably be a different sounding band. Luckily, Kyuss’ break with consensus rock reality gave them status as an archetype, thereby opening up territory that needed inhabitants to explore and defend it. The function of an archetype designates a concurrency with historical precedence, they sound new but work within the same language and cultural sphere as their antecedents, so the archetype not only points to the future but to the past. Kyuss cracks reality at night, Lowrider moves into that schism during the day, widens it, and light shines through to the masses and, TA-DA!, real rock gains another foothold.
Lowrider use a spacier vocal approach and focus on the crushed riffage recalling the early grunge stuff and its links to the lumpen heavy just-post-blues and acid rock gunk from the early ’70s. Intensified and fed by Kyuss “Blues for The Red Sun” brand sausage and using a clean metalized chomp, these guys would add decent bulk and tack down the fourth corner of the Solace, Red Giant, Nebula show playing in my head tonight.
As rock fans are generally more open-minded than marketers, (and engage the music more realistically than reviewers), I’d say Lowrider, along with many of their compatriots in the desert/stoner/rocker-doom section of the record store, have something to offer those who like it straight up. I don’t hear a tune that’d stuff ‘m in yer ear as much as the sound, rhythm and riffage do, thereby keeping them off of contemporary “hits” radio (commercial radio is all “hits” these days, no matter what the genre), that is even if they had the cash to prime that pump. So along with Puny Human, Witchery, Entombed, Sons of Otis, Goatsnake, Solace, Halford, Mondo Generator and a cement barge full of other worthies – these guys are in the rotation. I suggest you find out more about them and other like-minded units.
(PO Box 40322 Albuquerque, NM 87196)
