Customer Reviews

Got Live If You Want It

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If this is "stoner rock," then let the stoning begin.

Just saw these guys do essentially the same show represented on this disc last weekend in Chapel Hill, NC, as they opened for Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks. Prior, I had never heard of "Dead Meadow." Wow. What a show. Great guitar and Neil Young-ish vocals . . . dirge-like space-blues and excellent band interplay. And I found all of this on the live disc, too.

Most surprising was the beauty in much of the music. Has a strong emotional pull; similar in a way to " . . .Trail of the Dead" - not so much sonically, but in the strong emotional passages interspersed with the sledgehammerish attack.

I haven't heard any of their other albums (but I plan to remedy that). This one, however, I highly recommend. And, if you get a chance to see Dead Meadow live, do it.

...These guys are the real thing, and this obscure album is their masterpiece. (Why no photo of the cover, Amazon??) If Jimi Hendrix were still around, he's be trading licks with these guys and buying them beers afterwards. Can you say PYCHEDELIC???

How this dweeby trio from D.C. became the inheritors to the 60s acid rock tradition is a mystery best left to Madame Blavatsky or the Amazing Kreskin. But they rule the universe of stoner rock the way Neo rules the Matrix.

Get this album!!!!!!

What an impressive live album. I have few concert records, and fewer that I like. This crests and floats wonderfully, thanks to well-sequenced and thoughtfully arranged songs. Only a few, but this is not an e.p. but a generously lengthy record. Unlike many groups trying to ape the sound of 1969, Dead Meadow (great band name) combines, as their name symbolizes, the gloomy, forbidding sound of proto-metal with a lighter touch of hope in the untutored but appropriately earnest vocals, the ability to keep the guitar from being mired in sludge, and a nimble rhythm section able to keep the songs churning rather than wheel-spinning. They take the time when heavier acid-rock was evolving into hard rock that was metal as it was known in the early 70s, a more experimental approach before more assaultive rock turned into prog, punk, or all the later permutations of "metal." Dead Meadow keeps it solid without becoming opaque, and fluid without sounding light-headed--a powerful combination.

By the way, neither "Rocky Mountain High" nor "Lady" owe anything to John Denver or Styx. For better or worse I presume. But "Good Moanin'" is a great song title! The album title seems to be as far as DM will go in any direct reference to the past. [I should add for any potentially bewildered buyers that this is not the Stones' first live album.] This band plays it straight, as opposed to Oneida's post-grad sensibility, and unlike Steve Malkmus who seems lately to be drifting back to the same period from which DM takes its spirit.

While Dead Meadow's two later albums (their first one's very rare and apparently out-of-print) after this one show a more varied Led Zep-meets-Blue Cheer-mixed with acid-folk blend, this one, which records their earlier sound on stage, shows the trio already quite assured of their goals and their craft. The similarity of the tracks somehow does not make this album samey-sounding, but akin more to German krautrock of the early 70s or disciples of experimental rock like Japan's Acid Mothers Temple today: it reminds me of what you might have heard at a jam session at the Fillmore if the band was trying to play not the cosmik blooz again but an inspired and stripped-down version of rock that draws from the blues without imitating it, don't ask me how...just listen. They do not make a false move here.

This live recording of Washington D.C.'s pychedelic/early 70's rock 'n' roll throwback Dead Meadow was recorded in 2002. Since then, the group has released two of their most musically complete albums (2003's Shivering King & 2005's Feathers). This one-night set highlights The Meadow's early material in a full fathom furry fashion, true to thier form - effortlessly experimenting and stretching out solos. While the setlist's arangement could have been tweeked to give a sense of flowability, the performances are near perfect examples of catching this group on an 'on' night.

Don't miss a Dead Meadow concert if it is convienient for you. With the band playing some of its more recent material, their live experience is just that much better.

For me, the highlight is the 9+ minute version of "Beyond The Fields We Know".