Stinkbugs on Swashbuckling Hobo Records

I don't even know what to call this stuff. You take classic '70s rock like Sabbath, Foghat or Thin Lizzy and emphasize the low end with The Melvins or Earth and you end up at Fuzz, Hot Lunch, The Enthusiasts or Brisbane Australia's Stinkbugs. These three got together six years ago and put out a self released full length since and this single on Swashbuckling Hobo Records. Another notch in Australia's belt, a ton of great stuff happening over there, it's silly to even lump it all together though. It's just another place I'm trying to get a sense of through the labels highlighting this stuff.

These guys have some crazy guitar tones dialed in on A-Side's "Mountain Man" thick crunches, a serious deep muted hum. Done to the point that these in-between silenced tones cut off the melody it's so focused on amplifying the stuff between notes. It can barely fit in the grooves of this 45. Another great touch is to have the vocals in the same room blasted through a PA over this low end rattling quake. Shaking the walls, they're one of those bands that somehow low ends everybody's space at the rehearsal warehouse. You get to know their schedule because it always bleeds through into your room. The amount of knob turning on these guitars is just crazy, it's so gated that the pieces breaking through that wall of frequency cut off are just the grossest throat clearing crunches and goes psych because of these glitched out pieces barreling into some kind of psycho motorbike LSD trip. All the guitars work on laying down layers of this wall to separate you from reality.

B-Side "Supernatural" - I love how crazy this vocal is slammed right over this heavy distorted guitar, the way these guys like to keep things loose. The way this has that live feel with the rehearsal space quality they mash this all together in one take and that's what makes this great. It's like they're doing an impression of an undiscovered classic southern metal band but then actually turn the corner into becoming one. That's the thing, this loose raw quality, they aren't bogged down in the details, they just slide up that delay on the vocal and jam a bass solo in there. A weird, thundery psych rock, loud as hell, pressed insanely huge and loud no matter what volume you play it.

Get this from the Hobo's big cartel page.