Don't Mess With The Midnight Ghost Train

It's funny how a band's name can throw you for a loop. As it was when Karate Body Records sent me Buffalo, the new album from Kansas-based group The Midnight Ghost Train. For whatever reason, I was expecting at best rockabilly blues act, at worst some MOR indie bluster or folk bore. Not the unholy progeny of a menage a trois between Young Widows, Kyuss and Tom Waits. There is probably a better reference here - there's a song that is licking my earlobe, but I can't quite remember it, it's bloody annoying - but where blues, desert stoner rock, riff-tastic solos and some gruff mewling with an evil glint in the eye fuse together, I will surely follow. It's pretty great all round, bottom heavy to hell and back, and the slow chug of 'Tom's Trip' that explodes in the final third is worth the price of admission alone. And possibly the best covers-based about-turn in 2012 is here too in the guise of an acappella rendition of Lead Belly's 'Cotton Fields' as done by a traveling freakshow. I shit you not, Buffalo is white-hot, jampacked full of ferocity, twists and turns, worthy of a face-melting.


You can grab Buffalo here and here. Seriously, you won't find many bands with thicker rock riffs this year.

Mercy Beating A Shampooed Yak

A few weeks ago I went along to the Step Inn here in Brisbane to watch Front End Loader. As always they were impressive - really got off on the new track 'Decisions Decisions Decisions' - but was equally enamoured with the support acts, one of which was locals The Mercy Beat. They didnt really appear to fit in on this bill - their modus operandi is aggressive stoner rock stylings that straddles both Kyuss and Queens Of The Stone Age - if Josh Homme took over the creative duties whilst John Garcia still ruled the mic, so to speak. That's a lofty summation of their sound, but they pulled off an electric show, really balls out rock with enough meat hanging off the bones to choke the vegans of this world.

The Mercy Beat arent new to the scene though, having released debut album How To Shampoo A Yak last year after playing incessantly all over the shop. They supported The Bronx, Trash Talk and H2O earlier this year, and with these touchstones the ferocious engine room that propels and pummels in equal measures will only rise in strength and (hopefully) arrogance. This is the type of sound that deserves to be flaunted with a recklessly flailed fist, raising a smile to your face even as they successfully pulp it to bits.

The Mercy Beat are off on a national tour later this month, playing in Sydney, Newcastle, Melbourne, Woolongong, and (R)Adelaide, and then doing a few coast shows as well - get out and see what they are dishing out.

Latest tracks by The Mercy Beat

Welcome To Sky Valley...Again...

Here we are another reunion what the fuck moment. With every band under the sun travelling down the reformation to pay the bills and drug habit route, it was a matter of time before gods of desert stoner rock Kyuss decided to reform. Im not sure what to think - ok, Ill drop the pretense - IM MORE THAN A LITTLE FUCKING EXCITED!! Founding members John Garcia, Nick Olivieri and Brant Bjork are back, and are bring their mammoth back catalogue to the UK in March/April next year! Under the moniker Kyuss Lives, they will be visiting then suitably destroying Nottingham, London, Wolverhampton, Manchester and Bristol.

Hmmm - no Josh Homme? He is a guitar wizard and really drove the later tracks of Kyuss forward - but why am I a smidge glad he hasnt attached his name as of yet? Maybe I have reached my limit with him for the moment - hello Jack White? Yes, they do some amazing stuff, but its been a bit on the decline in my opinion, and they are on the verge of disappearing up their own backsides if they dont just shut up and play. OK, rant over - excitement overdrive ramps up again!

Kyuss - Conan Troutman

Tweak Tweak!

Tweak Bird are a band that are generating quite a bit of buzz in the past few months. Laying on the grooves over a sunbaked desert, this Illinois(e) duo have the audacity to combine Kyuss level drones and growls with 70s classic rock vocals and horns - and then make it all work like these sounds were invented just to be together, and all uses beforehand have been bastardisations of the norm. Furthermore, Tweak Bird do it all in soundbites of 5 minutes or less! Eat that Mars Volta!

Their debut album Reservations will be out in August via Souterrain Transmission, watched over by Melvins maestro Dale Crover (ah, so is there method in the madness?), but they have released a 7" that is a perfect taster to what Tweak Bird brings to its sonic palette, and one cant help but imagine that this just the opening to an endless portal of possibilities. Grab the single below, then try to jazzercise to it.

Tweak Bird - A Sun/Ahh Ahh