Loop - Loop 1987 (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.23)

 

It's fair to say that Loop were Spacemen 3's rivals. They were probably the only band that could pose any kind of threat to them. Hailing from South London, these noise terrorists were one of the few bands to reference the nastier end of the '60s bad trip. Many have name-checked the drugged grandeur of The Velvet Underground or the minimalist industrial noise of The Stooges, only a handful succeeded. The flame keeper of Mary Chain's early steps is kept alive by these recordings. In fact, they often sounded like a more psychedelic version of Mudhoney. (During Loop's US tour, they had Nirvana as the opening act.) Less pop, more drone. And fuzz. I mean, FUZZ! When Spacemen 3 split, the Telescopes and My Bloody Valentine stole Loop's thunder. I guess they were always thought of as outsiders, even when they reached number one on the UK indie charts a few times and even made it into the general top 40. Maybe it's better this way. 

This is the soundtrack of a vast, toxic wasteland. Proceed at your own risk.

The Heads - Reverberations: The 90s Singles & EPs (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.22)

 

This Bristol band had nothing to do with its hometown's trip-hop scene. In fact, it was a cornerstone of what was hyped to death in the '90s as 'Stoner Rock' (but it wasn't). While the rest of the UK music scene in the mid-'90s was busy dressing up for Britpop and rave parties, The Heads were holed up in a rehearsal room surrounded by their amplifiers' fuzz and cannabis smoke. Their entire output from the '90s, anchored by their legendary debut "Relaxing With...", alongside a string of singles, EPs and BBC Peel Sessions, stands as an unapologetic monument to heavy proto-punk psychedelia. 

The raw, lethal energy of the Stooges and MC5 was ingrained in their DNA and Sabbath was non-existent to them, unlike most other bands of the era. The Heads took the basic chord progression of dirty garage punk and stretched it out. Hawkwind were already there, of course, but their affection for Can and Neu!'s motorik beats was deeper and this allowed them to transform a simple blues riff into a ten-minute trance. (Am I hearing you shouting the name of Spacemen 3 as well?). The hasty comparisons in reviews from that period to bands like Monster Magnet, Kyuss and Fu Manchu may have some basis and share common elements and fans, but musically they were closer to Mudhoney and Loop or even The Scientists. I believe you have grasped the direction in which this is heading... 

As you can see, I have brought together all of The Heads' rare recordings from the '90s in one place. Their EPs and singles are now highly sought-after collector's items, showcasing their unique "one chord, three pedals" space-garage-grunge aesthetic. Before releasing at least three essential albums, they spent years producing raw, short-run vinyl pressings with staggering, monolithic and psychedelic results, as well as distinctive, high-contrast, pulp-heavy sleeves inspired by cult classics from the late '60s/early '70s such as Russ Meyer's films.

In brief, here are some of the initial chapters of the Stoogian Bible and their chaos theory, as well as instructions on how to appropriately abuse a guitar and an amplifier.

Blue Cheer - Vincebus Outsideinside (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.21)

 

I don't have a problem with the term 'heavy metal' itself, but I do have a problem with people confusing anything with a more heavy approach as heavy metal. Black Sabbath were the only band to invent this genre. Blue Cheer, Motörhead or the MC5, for example, never considered themselves to be metal and of course they weren't. Sorry, not sorry. Like any other band of the era, Blue Cheer's monolithic debut was rooted in rhythm & blues and their first single was an Eddie Cochran cover. However, it was their sheer volume that set them apart. They delivered a 100% rock'n'roll onslaught that bullied the hippies in their home city of San Francisco. 

"Vincebus Eruptum" is the epitome of primitive musicianship elevated to the level of artistic expression by mistake. Focusing on feeling over form, it directly foreshadowed the punk movement that emerged a decade later and along with Sabbath and Stooges influence, created what was called later 'stoner' or/and 'grunge' in the 90s. While "Vincebus Eruptum" was a brutal force unlike anything ever heard before (and probably never to be equalled), "Outsideinside" was a more polished effort, blending high decibels with psychedelia in a less mature way, but it still carried a high risk of damaging your home stereo speakers.

Both LPs were released in 1968, which makes it logical to me to combine them for a post. Together, these two records represent the brief and intense peak of Blue Cheer's original power trio line-up. Still unmatched.

Mudhoney - March To Superfuzz, 1988 - 2006 (White Trash Soul Real R'n'R No.20)

 

Mudhoney is one of those bands that helped shape my musical taste when I was young. I never really understood why the Seattle scene was called 'grunge' or why so many different bands were lumped together under that label, but nevermind. Nirvana, for example, had more of a soft spot for indie pop or the Pixies than for punk (I am not saying this as a bad thing, of course) and Soundgarden clearly drew inspiration from Black Sabbath. Mudhoney, on the other hand, were unmistakably a garage band. In sound, attitude and image. From the first chords you could hear the Stooges and the Sonics as the main influences and they never got any heavier than Motörhead or Blue Cheer - both of which are pure rock'n'roll bands anyway.

So, if any band deserves the grunge tag, it's Mudhoney (and Tad). To me, grunge was always about the sludge punk sound of superfuzz bigmuff pedals, not the whole cardigan and jeans and pretending I'm sad and lonely middle class trend/fashion thing. The story of Mundhoney is also partly the story of Sub Pop. Without them, none of what followed would have ever happened and yet they remained outsiders and never had a problem with it (Mark still works in the back room at Sub Pop, where he personally addresses all the packages sent out!). Mark Arm and Steve Turner first formed the legendary Green River with Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament (who would later go on to form Mother Love Bone and Pearl Jam - I can't stand them really!). When former Melvins bassist Matt Lukin, who claims he was fired for "not having a pussy" and drummer Dan Peters joined, the group came to life and took its name from the 1965 Russ Meyer film. The rest is history. 

Mudhoney is one of the greatest rock'n'roll bands of all time, and I don't take seriously any other opinion on the matter. Laid-back lads, cool and down-to-earth musicians, the kind I have always been fond of. For this WTS compilation, I paraphrased the Sub Pop one about them - because I can - and used the fonts from the Australian (Au Go Go) pressing of "Superfuzz Bigmuff". Naturally, I used the pedal as the sleeve's main character. 

The Seattle quartet has never had to face the indignities of a reunion because it has never broken up. The only change to the group's line-up in its entire history was the departure of bassist Matt from the ranks in 2001 (and they were still friends!). When the band secured a major deal with Reprise in the '90s, they didn't spend their advance on luxurious recordings, they continued on a budget, kept the surplus and used it to make deposits on properties. And as I wrote already, the group never actually stopped being, despite a few occasions when they could have. In the early '90s, Turner returned to college and Peters joined Nirvana and Screaming Trees for a while. Even though they were not making records or touring, they continued to write songs, as well as starting equally amazing bands like The Monkeywrench. Perhaps the last truly independent American band. 

Electric Wizard - Supercoven 667

What if I told you that there's a band that sounds like Black Sabbath when Ozzy was behind the mic but with Ron Asheton on guitar and the rhythm section from Blue Cheer, who are obsessed with everything occult, acid and weed, S&M erotica, motorcycles and '70s horror flicks? Or imagine if Venom had formed a side-band that was really into Jimi Hendrix and performed satanic rituals to the sounds of the Stooges' 'We Will Fall'. Would you want to check them out? What if I added that they recorded all their music using vintage instruments and studios, giving it the sound of a long-lost '70s acid psych demo from some evil unknowns? And that they're actually the heaviest group of the last thirty years? Well, this band does exist and they hail from the Old Albion. They perform under the Electric Wizard marquee. And yeah, it's pretty bloody doomy. Weighty riffs, sludgy distortion, tons of fuzz. If you're not prepared, then stay away. I've fuckin' warned you...