Audio By Carbonatix
“I can’t tell if we’re running from or coming to,” singer/guitarist Jason Simon muses on the folky, eulogic “Ain’t Got Nothing (To Go Wrong),” his voice dripping with idiosyncratic weariness. He could easily be opening up to a lover, making a statement about the accelerating decline of Western civilization, or summing up his band’s lack of genre identity. When Washington, D.C.’s Dead Meadow formed, reverb-saturated stoner metal was on the menu; with 2005’s Feathers, a shift was made to reverb-soaked stoner-psychedelic rock. Now Old Growth finds the group dabbling in country, blues, and straight-up rock—Black Mountain sans estrogen, with a bigger gravity bong and more dynamite kind bud. They are fully and finally, it seems, themselves: dipping slurred platitudes and political complaints into open-armed tunes, and as bold as they are inviting. “Between Me and the Ground” takes aim at the Bush administration — “All across this great earth, you cheat and you fight/I bet you sleep easier than I do at night” — while vacillating between lamb-calm and lion-tough. “The Great Deceiver” sports a country-rock gait. Its easygoing, twangy riff crunches and pedal-steel drones move at porch-swing speed as Simon (who, I suspect, idolizes Perry Farrell) spins a sort of blues-trope yarn about a woman who finds Satan everywhere she turns.
When news happens, Miami New Times is there —
Your support strengthens our coverage.
We’re aiming to raise $30,000 by December 31, so we can continue covering what matters most to you. If Miami New Times matters to you, please take action and contribute today, so when news happens, our reporters can be there.
