stoner witch

Witch
"self-titled"
Tee Pee Records, 2006

Coming soon to a turntable near you: Witch. J Mascis decided he wanted to do a stoner rock band and play drums in it, so he made it happen. The result should probably have been terrible since he got a couple of folkies from a band called Feathers to play, too. But DAMN. This record is great!

The record has 7 tracks, but it is definitely a full length. The songs are a bit sprawling; they definitely have a "jam" feel to them but they keep it cohesive. "Seer" starts off with a nice chunky riff, and when the band kicks in you realize that any doubt about whether it was going to be good is done. Massive Sabbath-y riff after Sabbath-y riff fills this sucker up, but it's not as derivative as most "stoner" bands tend to be.

I was nearly sure upon first listen that the singer was a woman, but after a few spins it became clear it's a dude with a Stevie Nicks voice. Normally I'd hate that, and in some ways I hate myself for liking it (questioning of my sackitude, dig?), but it's damn good. The recording is also quite great itself, done by John Agnello, who has recently done the Early Man record.

So yeah, now I'm respinning this on the computer and must say "Changing" is a supersweet jam. It talks about black magic and shit...haha. If it didn't sound straight out of the '70s, I'd wanna kick the dude in the balls. But it holds to the Pentagram/Sabbath food group and the fact that Mascis is in the band is not at all distracting. There are also touches of more modern stuff like the Burning Brides and, ahem, Dinosaur Jr., but this is a '70s rock record. This shit will rule my car's stereo for more than a minute.

-Mike

www.teepeerecords.com/bands/witch/