Labels: Crooked Direction
Review by: Andy Malcolm
Weed Hounds snuck up on us not too long a go, a song on Myspace, 15 people going gaga… a few months later, we get their demo tape to enthuse over, whilst we endure the wait for some much needed vinyl. This tape consists of 4 kinda badly recorded jams, reliant on big, swirly shoegaze jangles and punchy, heavier guitars grinding out these awesome, kinda lazy, stoned parts. This makes for a sweet collision of sonics. To me it sounds like Dinosaur Jr met the Swirlies, but on the way they bumped into Chune. Which probably doesn’t happen that often. The male and female vocals are buried in the mix, with the female vocals soft and sweet and the male vocals deep and bored. It’s a combination that always works well. Opening track “Embrace (More or Less)” careens off into the distance with a Mascis inspired (surely) guitar widdle to wind down it’s 5 minutes of superbness. Following that is the drifting “In The Afternoon” which is rather slumberful, repetitious and quite a delight. It builds and builds for almost 6 minutes, exploding at the finish. “Save Me From Lethargy” is the shortest track on offer, and perhaps the “poppiest”, crashing headlong on a sugar rush of dual vocals and the fuzz heavy guitars that feel like a particularly satisfying hangover, going nowhere on a Sunday. Weed Hounds bring this all to a close on “Best Friends”, possibly saving the best for last, piling on killer melody and harmonies to die for. I particularly love the part where it all slows down to a crawl and everything drops out, “I’ll be just fine, we’ll be OK” before rolling back again.
Great track, ace demo, MORE SOON PLZ!