Song of the Week: CO2

CO2 - Colour Haze - CO2

There is something about Colour Haze that screams summer to me. They always seem to play so loose with a rolling quality to their songs which don't feel forced when they tend to go on long. The great musicianship of all three also helps make an 11 minute song an enjoyable experiences, Following the drums and guitar while being swallowed by the fat bottom the bass provides on the sound is simply amazing. I love listening to all three especially when they ditch the riffs and go right for the over the top soloing. The drums move so well, and the guitar takes on plenty of tones and textures, blending of blues, psychedelia, and heavy heavy distortion, each style flowing into each other seamlessly. As far as recording I love how they don't compress they're music, its recorded all in analog and meant to be played loud. Enjoy!

Song: Here

P.S. For this song in particular the beginning is very reminiscent of Space Cadet (another great summer song, also recorded live!) but really steps into its own form pretty quickly with a heavy riff.

Monday Night Special: Return Trip

Return Trip - Electric Wizard - Come My Fanatics

Well it's been a while since I reviewed an Electric Wizard track (let alone listen to one) and Return Trip really brought me back to what I first loved about them. They really should have been featured in the March Madness piece and it's a shame I didn't write anything about them because they are without a doubt one of the most maddening bands I've ever heard. While they're not exactly doing much new with the content of the genre (satanist imagery and slow dark jams about drug use have been around for a while) they do something special with where they take the sound. This weekend I was listening to some old Black Sabbath song's and their Electric Funeral stuck out to me as the forerunner to Electric Wizards earlier stuff. The distortion, the slowness and repetitiveness of the entire melody, except of course for the jazzy fun tempo change at 2:17. Thats the true "innovation" (if you could call it that, devolution might be more appropriate) of Electric Wizard. They do away with most concepts of lyrics, melody, and tempo change, and opt instead to sink the listener into a black pit of fuzz and distortion with an occasional rising guitar solo eventually falling back into the muck. I wouldn't say Return Trip is a song for people with long attention spans, it's more for people with no attention spans that just like to sink back and fall in. Enjoy.

Friday Special: Out of the Blue

Out of the Blue - George Harrison - All Things Must End (Apple Jam Disc)


An 11 minute "Jam" recording with Eric Clapton, Out of the Blue doesn't bother with slow introductions it just jumps right in with thumping steady driving drums, powerful saxophone and of course the bluesy duo of Eric Clapton and George Harrison. I find it particularly fun when a long song like this one manages to not just be the individual players showing off, but also building off of each other to create different melodic lines, it makes the song much easier to listen to the whole way through.