Sunday, April 3, 2011

Black Mountain "Wilderness Heart"


I heard good things about this band when the record was released last September, but I never seemed to be motivated enough to investigate further.  Second track released, more positive vibes, still didn't bother to sample.  Kept it on my list, though, waiting for a soft spot in the new releases.  So when the yearly "dead zone" for new music hit in early December, I picked it up, then promptly relegated it to back-of-the-line status once again.  Two more months pass and it's time in the changer finally arrives...what the hell was I waiting for?!  This is vintage Mad Rocker music!  Let's run down the obvious influences; Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, early Scorpions w/ Uli John Roth, UFO, and Rainbow.  Now factor in the male and female lead vocals and you get one track that easily could have been a lost song from early Jefferson Airplane.  I was also reminded of Atlanta's great Swimming Pool Q's, some of the Zutons where the cute little saxophonist got to sing (bummer, I guess they've called it quits), and the last couple of Decemberists records which feature guest female vocalists.   

Impressed enough to dig into the band's background, I learned a couple of things.  One, they are Canadian (who am I kidding, they're too good to be American), and two, I already had a connection to them.  Seems that band leader Stephen McBean has another project called Pink Mountaintops, which I became a fan of during my "community volunteer" stint at WPRK a few years ago.  Sonofabitch, now I'll have to try to find what I have in the archives.  Let me link a couple of the new videos for you.  They are the first two tracks on the record.   

So all you old-timers like me out there bitchin' that there's no good old school Rock 'n Roll anymore, you're wrong...

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