Dali’s Llama

Sweet Sludge
by Craig Regala

Def.: a “sand vs. swamp” stomper. Dali’s Llama swipe any guitar riff they loved forever and put the band on “grit hum” cruise and drove that dumb fuck Kiss, Danzig, Sabbath, Bang riff as hard as it would bear up under the clear desert moon in the biggest carport God’s ever thrown up. A buddy said this is what he’d would expect a Pentagram-influenced Stoner Rock (not metal) band to be. Kinda the cobwebs behind grunge’s purported “metal/punk” fusion itself, duh-media shorthand for the exploded extrapolation upon SST records ’80s hoopla. A time and feel which head Llama Zach Huskey has to be intimate with. Hell, this is LP # six! I threw these words at # five: “This disc is full of chugging tense rock and roll with a non-denominational punk ethic curling under hardened boogie cum cock rock guitars/rhythms all riding commentary from a gritty-eyed libertarian position.”

Considering the fluid, stylistic swerve between the two, I’d like to know what’s up with the others, as well as the “roots rock” work he’s done the past decade. It’s cool when a band can move around within “rock” without overtly changing tact. Generally, it’s a commercial move, not musical one. These songs hide nothing: Garage simple tubs/bass support riffy ker-chug with vocals sharing that sliding haze best known via Alice In Chains. If they suck, you know immediately. They do not. Will “Creosote” sit between Kyuss’ “El Rodeo” and Jucifers’ “Four Sons” for a mix disc made for, say, a nine hour red-eye ride to catch a show? Yes, it will.
(www.dalisllamarecords.com)