Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Mouse Grey on Catch Hell Records



Chris from Mouse Grey out of Oxnard, CA sent me his latest single on their own Catch Hell Records. Barely a week old, these tracks are only available on vinyl for purchase as of this Saturday. They manage to jam 3 epic sounding and length tracks onto the single which has to be pressed at 33, but even then...it has to be timed out to the last second, honestly.

The title track, 'Echo in my mind', has a down tempo, lush feel with a shimmery picked guitar line. Alex on drums introduces a tom beat to foreshadow the massiveness just around the corner. They were just waiting to grab onto a stutter strum, big jam sound, using the whole space in the process. It's no secret these guys go into a cathedral with a stack of amps and write songs for that space. The guitar will always be king and they aren't afraid to get into the effects, the chained together layers of effects.
Vocally there's a lot of delay and the whole package is reminding me of that grunge big guitar era of Seattle, an Alice in Chains sound or Mudhoney, raw crunchy distortion...but with way better production than all of those recordings.
The Echo in his mind also might have a little something to do with the volume they must be delivering these power chords.

The B-Side, 'Some things never change' rips out a really bad ass giant cavernous piece of a riff. The kind of thing that can only come out at band rehearsal and just plain sounds so good, you can't help but write something around it. Lots more painstaking production, which they show off in the back and forth with that ballsy guitar and drum fill work, capturing every clear heavy hit, and that huge space around everything. I love that Shellac sound where the silence and gates add something to each hit. They even hit the wah-wah pedal and solo out...it's almost going sound-wise into prog days of completely insane 25 minute solo's, maybe it's this sense if it's worth doing then it's worth doing it as big as possible. I get that enthusiasm from their sound, minus that tedium of course.

Finally 'Lush' rounds out the single, appropriately titled. Chris's quiet chorus vocal slowly fades in and out, no drums on this one, just the hazy guitars going for the moody finish. It's good for these guys to be able to bring that cock rock sound and then take it down into a dreamy modern shoegaze, or monster rock ballad in this case. I think there's a lot of possibilities being able to make some kind of hybrid out off those two areas...like Boris. That far off, slow, building feedback sound is a talent.

Mouse Grey says:

Recorded in February 2011, Mouse Grey's newest EP 'The Echo In My Mind' was recorded on purely analog only equipment, using vintage recording techniques for a truly authentic rock record. It is for these reasons that Mouse Grey's newest release will only be pressed on 7-inch vinyl records, a numbered pressing of only 300 units


Get this one by contacting these guys direct through their site or myspace...or Saturday, this link should be up to order direct.

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