Hermano "Dare I Say" CD
[Meteor City]
Not bad. Not fucking bad. This band features former Kyuss frontman John Garcia with Dave Angstrom and Chris Leathers of Supafuzz and Dandy Brown of Orquesta del Desierto. The result is a slew of all out rock 'n' roll that never comes off as generic or insincere in the least. "Cowboys Suck" kicks things off right away with a driving midpaced rocker that sets the pace for what's to come, albeit with more up front energy - whereas most of these songs are subtler in approach. Of course Garcia's unique singing lends a certain individuality to the material in its own right, but the music holds up its end as well. There's definitely a lot of diversity to the writing, from thick and pulsing chord progressions that have a sludgier side to slightly more laidback rock that's catchy without being explosive, as well as a lot of sort of chilled out runs that let bass take more control as the guitars swell back and forth in prominence. "Brother Bjork" is a little darker and offers more emphatic vocal lines that really grip you and pull you in against the sparsely chugging rhythms, complete with some spoken passages as well as slick vocal harmonies and lots of rising and falling layers of guitars that make for a pretty tense composition that's among the finer moments herein. After several longer and slower runs, the aptly titled "Quite Fucked" cuts loose with some no bullshit rock 'n' roll: Faster paced, two-and-a-half minutes long, calls of "Go motherfucker! Motherfucker go!, a ripping solo... the works. Great shit, too! And on that note, the unexpected "Murder One" follows with killer bluesy sounding acoustic guitars, handclaps, and softer singing for a really unique piece coming out of nowhere. "Let's Get it On" is the only song I don't care for. It's another of the more rocked out numbers, but something about the layering of the vocals and the atypical chords/rhythms clashes in a weird manner that kind of falls flat for me. "On the Desert" is an instrumental lull that, while not bad, just isn't necessary, and acts more as an out of place four-minute break just prior to the reenergized closer "Angry American", so... those are the only spots that strike me as filler. The recording's nice as well. I wish the guitars were a little louder, but the rest of the mix is dead on and the tones are all on point. The bass is super thick and pulses away right in the center, the percussion is warm and natural and holds it down in the background, the vocals are well textured, and the guitars follow suit with a nice gritty edge to their distortion that never sheds a nice and natural density. The vocals feel like they might benefit from a little more brightness to keep them in balance with the instrumentation, but it's not a problem. The layout looks damn nice to me, with plenty of awesome looking photography that's got a surprisingly artistic character to it, clean text, etc. The lyrics vary from covering typical rock 'n' roll topics in a typical rock 'n' roll fashion to being surprisingly bitter and left of center, sometimes in the same track. So one minute it might be less than intriguing lines like, "I've got you on my mind, I want to screw you blind," but a minute or two later it's, "I always like to fight, but whiskey makes it alright, I save my sticks and stones for when I must go to war, I try hard to be nice but you'll never fuck me twice..." Good stuff. Sans one or two songs that are a little lacking this thing delivers from start to finish across a range of atmospheres, so followers of the members' prior work should definitely be into this. (7/10)
Running time - 43:49, Tracks: 11
[Notable tracks: Cowboys Suck, Brother Bjork, Quite Fucked, Angry American]
Meteor City - http://www.meteorcity.com

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