Customer Reviews

Dead Meadow (Dig)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
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Dead Meadow is one of those rock bands that feels classic -- they love vintage hard-rock and psychedelica, as well as fantasy and horror.

All those elements come into play in their self-titled "Dead Meadow," which has fortunately been rereleased after the success of last year's "Feathers." And this particular nugget of hard rock still has it blurry appeal -- a slow-burning, intense stoner-rock sound, with a psychedelic edge and eerie lyrics.

It opens with a staticky, crackly buzzing noise -- then a foghorn-like bass barges in and starts playing ponderously. The one instrument is so overpowering that I had to turn down the volume -- and the drums came in, breaking up the bludgeoning basslines. There are some murmured lyrics, but they're submerged under the heavy stoner riffs.

Having weeded out the casual, the album careens into the faster, drum-driven "Indian Bones," and the eerie, slightly awkward "Dragonfly," with its slow guitar riffs. Then it's back into dense psych-stoner-rock, which is distorted slightly to give it a surreal edge, and swirling electric guitar solos that blossom out.

There's a brief acoustic interlude -- "At the Edge of the Wood" -- which is just a folky, meandering little melody that lacks the heavy, intense feeling of the other songs. It feels a bit out of place, but is followed up by the tightly-wound, aggressive rhythms of the grand finale, "Rocky Mountain High."

"Dead Meadow" is not the best album that this band has put out -- they were all young at the time, and sometimes the music shows their inexperience. But this is also an album that most bands would be proud to produce. Their knack is in taking what seems like simple stoner rock, and twisting it into an swirling mass of "wah-wah" effects and sprawling proggy noises.

It has a pretty simple instrumental lineup -- Steven Kille plays the blunt, raw basslines, while Mark Laughlin (now no longer with the band) produces drums hard and sharp enough to blast through the foggy music. Jason Simon both plays a nimble guitar, and offers the rather drowned-out vocals that you have to strain to hear.

And their songs are beautifully written, full of nature-lovin' wise men, owls, trees and Native American imagery, like a more scattered Jim Morrison. Their knack for lyrical writing is absolutely exquisite at times ("If the lady of the morning light/Lets her hair flow down/She'd warm the frost covered ground...").

And they even homage pre-Tolkien writer Lord Dunsany, set to the driving rock tune "Beyond the Fields That We Know." It's a pretty eerie song. "Winter winds reach icy hands/into my room/carried away under gleaming/eyes of glowing moon..."

While you can hear Dead Meadow's inexperience in this album, you can also hear their raw talent and blossoming skills. It's solid and thoroughly enjoyable, and only promised better things to come.

This band's most recent album, Feathers, was one of our favorites of last year so it's nice to get this opportunity to revisit their first record which has been out of print for quite a while, the label (Joe Lally's Tolatta) that released it originally went out of business and the record was sort of lost in limbo. Their stoner-psych-rock prowess can be found here in its full glory connecting the dots between Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer, Bardo Pond and Kyuss. One of Dead Meadow's best attributes is their ability to make records that totally grow on you and seep into your skin listen after listen. This has been hitting the spot for us so much as of late that literally not a day has gone by that this hasn't been blasting out of our speakers here in the store! Such a welcome reissue, and for sure a must-have if you missed it the first time around in 2001, when we said the following about it:

Dead Meadow are a retro stoner psych rock power trio playing fuzzed out space-jams in a heavy and rollicking yet still kinda mellow mode. For fans of Blue Cheer and their fellow Tolatta act Spirit Caravan. They're also reminiscent of a more jammed-out, psychedelic Sleep, but with some gentle touches -- there's even interludes of acoustic guitar indie-pop. This one grew on us! [See!] It's definitely more "out-of-time" than most other stoner rock efforts, harking back not to the arenas of the '70s but to the garages and hippie pads of the late '60s. As such it stands apart from the current legions of Kyuss / Fu Manchu clones. The one weak point, the slightly whiny vocals, hardly matter amid the instrumental majesty of the electric fuzz guitar and bass action that dominates this album!

Well, well, well. Instead of spending upwards to $100 on e-bay (seriously, and there was a buyer) for a first pressing copy of Dead Meadow's debut album, the band has instead taken the cost-effective advice of their fans and decided to hook in with Xemu Records that will do a three part re-issue installment of the band's earliest recordings.

Their debut is much more than what you would expect from a very promising band whom was all but 19-20 yrs old when they laid these tracks down. Singer/guitarist Jason Simon, with his ever present "Rubber Soul"/"Revolver" era voice, displays some great six string electric psychedlia and works the effects pedals with proper experimentation that is well above average creativity given his age. But what becomes most evident is that much credit is owed to the producer of this album for not letting these songs fall into the kind of slop job quality that is typically suffered by many extremely young bands.

Dead Meadow has skillfully evolved more in playing than in style since this recording. While this is a good album, fans may compare it to a watered-down blend of the riffage of 2003's "Shivering Kings" and the dynamic ambience of 2005's (masterpeice) "Feathers" albums. Hearing the original version of "Beyond The Fields We Know" is a treat although a more dominating version can be found of the Meadow's 2002 one night concert album "Got Live If You Want It". Given Dead Meadow's honed sound of The Beatles being mainlined injected with early 70's hard rock (think Sabbath and James Gang), this debut album makes a testament of what was to come with the group's recent albums.

I've been into what's now called "stoner rock" all the way from the original days of the genre in the 1970's,and this album is so reverant to Black Sabbath's guitar thruuuum,and a slew of higher ranged singers of that by-gone era that this could stand right along side of the best bands of those times!

There's no "in jokes" in Dead Meadow's lyrics ,like Monster Magnet's lyrics, and the band have all the right "grooves" and changes....and this is where Dead Meadow kicks the butt of most of first run of "Stoner Rock" bands that hit in the 1980's(remember TROUBLE?).

All the songs here are quality stuff to put in your pipe and smoke.

Both this and "Feathers" are like "yin and Yang"....This one's dark,and (of course) FEATHERS is light. BOTH are well worth exploring,....and if you're into the DARK of things don't forget to check out the band WITCHCRAFT ,they are another band that does this genre VERY proud in a darker vein!

Too bad these don't come in 8-Track format for your old muscle-car's tape deck....Haw,haw! Put this on and kick that accellerator down ,MAN!

This 2006 XEMU records remaster/reissue sounds fantastic! I owned the original CD (released in 1999 I think) for many years and just recently bought the 2006 XEMU reissue and it was well worth it. The sound quality is very much improved. Sounds just like a remaster should. Each element/instrument is more clear/detailed/distinct. The fuzz sounds even better and the vocals are more clear in the mix. The XEMU reissue also includes an extra track (untitled) and a movie file of Dead Meadow playing the song Rocky Mtn High at their 2nd show ever. Even without the remaster/reissue stuff this album is great. It's not their best album but it is probably my favorite- great riffage and fuzztones and basslines and everything just fits perfectly. An incredible first album for sure. If you like drone, fuzz, stoner-rock, etc- do yourself a favor and buy this album. Not as "user-friendly" as their last two albums (Old Growth and Feathers) but it is a must-have for any Dead Meadow fan.

This album is absolutely amazing. I was looking for a band to replace Wolfmother as my favorite band since they broke up (even though Andrew Stockdale is continuing the band but I need to wait and see how that turns out) and then I came across these guys. Full on psychedelic stoner hard rock. Jason Simon has a brilliant combination of voice and guitar presence, and his guitar solos are just amazing. Hypnotizing vocals with loud distorted guitars. The lyrics are top notch, not your typical pop style but fantasy and mysticism. The track selection is just as brilliant. Opening with Sleepy Silver Door then going to Indian Bones, both hard sounding rock songs that get better and better with each listen. Then they bring it down a small notch with Dragonfly. My favorite part of the album is the ever so trippy, Beyond the Fields we know when the album shifts to a great acoustic song with At the Edge of the Wood. The album then finishes up nicely with Rocky Mountain High. They recently reissued this album and their next two so this includes an extra track that is untitled but is simply a psychedelic jam. Great to space out to. If you are contemplating on buying this album you should just do it. I haven't read a single bad review on these guys and I am not about to break that trend. I am making my way through their second album, Howls From the Hills and so far its just as good but thats another review.

There is not a weak spot on this album. Elastic blues riffs and hypnotic repetition couple with fantastic lyrics (as in castles rising out of sand and buffalo running through the door of the sun and druids in faraway places) to create a great debut.

Sleepy Silver Door is the band's signature song to this day. Indian Bones is worth it for the psychedelic guitar breakdown in the middle (and the way it rejoins the song). Lady has probably the best two-note solo in the history of music. Beyond the Fields We Know has a killer riff that is worth the wait through the No Quarter-esque detour in the middle. Rocky Mountain High puts John Denver to shame. Ignore the bonus track as it was not originally part of the album and is only included on the re-issue.

If you plunk down your hard-earned money for this fuzzed-out gem, you will not be disappointed.