Let The Mind Go

Frolicking In The Bong-Hit Heaviness of Dead Meadow's Psychedelia

originally published February 13, 2008

Upon first listen, Dead Meadow comes at the listener like a slow-moving behemoth. The guitars chug along with the drums lagging just behind the beat. First impressions suggest that the long twists and turns the band makes are the product of countless hours of bong hits and jamming, but upon further listening, something else is apparent: a genuine love for the group's psychedelic forefathers.

"Why does psychedelic music kind of form feelings that others don't? The first time I heard it my mind was blown. It's not just all about the sound and the layers, there's just so much that is super inspiring," says bassist Steve Kille in a phone interview with Flagpole.

The band, hot on the heels of the release of its fifth album, Old Growth, is traveling through the hills of Los Angeles. Much like the city Dead Meadow's members call home, the band's rolling jams and lazily recited lyrics can instantly give way to something more upbeat and chaotic. But on the new album, Dead Meadow isn't just resting on psychedelic laurels, it's continuing to grow and experiment.

"You have to come up with something new and exciting for the listeners: each record you have to up the ante," says Kille. "But now I look [at our earlier albums] as chapters in the books of our lives, and now that they're done, I can look back on them fondly. If anything, this album is the next chapter of our lives."

On Old Growth, the musicians continue their assault with overdriven guitars and plodding drums, but also are bringing more of a softer side to light. The lyrics, however, are classic Dead Meadow, showing elements of fantasy writing mixed with a tinge of J.R.R. Tolkien and some H.P. Lovecraft thrown in for good measure. But that doesn't mean that the band's lengthy jams are sprinkled with mentions of Cthulhu and hobbits.

"People say that there's references to Tolkien, but I don't think that we're like Zeppelin and talking about Mordor," says guitarist-vocalist Jason Simon, "but I think that there is a vibe and something that takes you there. With our lyrics, they're never far-out fantasy stories; they're more narratives with fantasy images."

All the harkening back to beloved authors and classic bands is a dangerous road for any band to take: with one wrong turn any band can turn into an intentionally derivative parody. But Dead Meadow somehow walks the tightrope between having a familiar sound without being derivative of bands that have come before.

"You've got to make your own spin on it," says Kille. "I think that a bunch of the boundaries with psychedelic music has already been pushed with instrumentation and in the studio, so [we] chose to go the other way and do it with limited instrumentation. When you're limited by what you can do, the challenge is to make a great record that's still new-sounding."

Dead Meadow has done just that on the new release. The three-piece band (rounded out by drummer Stephen McCarty) plods and pounds its way through a fierce set of songs that are something more than background music; they are an experience. It's bong-water-thick rock and roll that never manages to sound dated. It even at times references the punk rock the band grew up listening to without giving into that genre's rebellion-by-the-numbers aesthetic.

"When we started the band, when we started we wanted to get away from punk rock and that uptight aggression, we wanted something that was laid-back," says Simon.

"Laid-back" is possibly the understatement of the year. Dead Meadow's songs are in no hurry to unfold. This is music that gives itself enough air to breathe, and the simplest groove turns into something completely different over the course of a song. Though the members of Dead Meadow reside in Los Angeles, the land of hustle and bustle, the group's sound is anything but hurried. "What we play is far-out music that is good for letting your mind wander," says Simon.

Jason Bugg

WHO: Dead Meadow, All the Saints, The Dumps
WHERE: Tasty World
WHEN: Tuesday, February 19
HOW MUCH: $5