PEARLS AND BRASS – THE INDIAN TOWER – 2005 (US) vintage hard rock/heavy blues/stoner rock

Following up their stoner rock self-titled debut on the Doppelganger label, Nazareth, PA-based Pearls and Brass are true sons of heavy, zoned-out sludge rock. Their Drag City debut, Indian Tower, is all fire, crunch, and burn. Their arrangements are a little busy, full of semi-intricate twists and turns on the title track, but the groove is solid, hard, and fluid. The band's willingness to engage more spaced-out fare, such as chanted backing vocals and minor-to-major key shifts, is appealing. "Face of God" and "Black Rock Man" are perhaps what Cream might have sounded like had they followed Jack Bruce down into the heavy rock rabbit hole. Randy Huth's guitar playing is spectacular without being overly flashy. His and Joel Winter's vocals carry a kind of ghostly weight against the thudding crunch of the music. Josh Martin's drum kit is sheer hammer power -- slow, deliberate, and yet utterly inventive. These cats also actually write songs, not riffs. Check "Beneath the Earth," with its knotty winding structure. Indian Tower is a deeply satisfying hard rock record and stands apart form the longhaired greasy masses who sacrifice songwriting for power chords.

Randy Huth (guitar)
Joel Winter (bass)
Josh Martin (drums)
1 The Tower 4:00
2 No Stone 3:30
3 The Face of God 4:13
4 Black Rock Man 5:42
5 The Mirror 3:56
6 I Learn the Hard Way 2:41
7 Pray for Sound 6:29
8 The Boy of the Willow Tree 3:11
9 Wake in the Morning 5:28
10 Beneath the Earth 6:30
11 Away the Mirrors 4:05

Sometimes it’s important to just ‘rock out’; a concept that Drag City’s Pearls & Brass clearly understand well. The album begins with the usual chants and wails you would expect from a Drag City album which features the band members sitting around a campfire on the back cover, but within a minute we are launched into Led Zeppelin/Cream style heavy rock. Where the hell did that come from I wonder? I certainly wasn’t expecting it but I have to say it is welcome, after the scores of alt-folk/weirdness releases this comes as a very pleasant change. Admittedly there is very little here of much originality; Pearls & Brass take the 1970s blueprint and reproduce it quite accurately, but they do it damn well so who’s complaining? Pearls & Brass show us how it’s supposed to be done and if they don’t have beards they should start growing them now, everyone knows you can’t do heavy rock without some serious facial growth.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!! MONSTER!!!
Rip from CD 256@ (full artwork included)
Download link
http://link-protector.com/287205/