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As far as I'm concerned, any
band described as a "velvet draped hand grenade"
deserves a second look. The group in question is
Norway's WE. The stoner rock crew (and I use that term
loosely!)have been around for nearly a decade,
and, having achieved recognition in their
homeland, are now seeking to take their psychedelic
retro-rock further afield.
Having toured with Queens Of The Stone Age and
another Kyuss offshoot, Masters Of Reality, WE defiantly
have stoner roots. However, they have seized their
influences and proceeded off in a different
direction; their sound is somewhat comparable to other
'70s garage rock revival groups such as The Datsuns or fellow Scandinavians The Hives but WE sound much more authentic in their efforts. Essentially they are a Beatles / Stones super-group on acid. Lots of acid.
It should not, however be
assumed that WE's music isn't accessible. Their songs
are infectiously tuneful, big on melody, and most
definitely faithful to all that is rock and roll.
Kickin' is a very memorable little number which you
will find yourself humming along to for days, despite
the immensely plagiarised Brown Sugar introduction.
Last track Freak Capital Of the
Universe makes up one-third of the 30-minute mini-album's
length, and is a blizzard of tripped-out solos and
space-like samples, strangely reminiscent of stoner
legends Spiritual Beggars. The epic number is
drawn out like a space shuttle taking off in slow
motion; awesomely powerful guitar and bass roll along
in true "doom" fashion before the song transcends into
a very stoned jam with guitar licks and drum rolls a
plenty, reaching climax after climax for 13 and a half
minutes!
As if to prove that there is most
definitely such a thing as "too many drugs", the inlay
notes proceed to tell a fantasy (I hope!) story of
"The Fall of Spaceport 22 Benfric" and "The Annals of
Freakweb" (your guess is as good as mine!). Very
confusing, very frightening, and very much a Norwegian
thing I guess!
"Light years ahead" they may be,
but it looks like WE have a while to go before they
are embraced by the mainstream market, at least over here. This is a shame because their catchy (if
slightly left-field) sound deserves much more
recognition than it will probably achieve. I have no
doubt that WE would be elevated to their most
effective in a live setting. With a captive audience,
I can see these Norwegian druggies holding every
single gaze.
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