Nebula, The Atomic Bitchwax, Wisdom Tooth, and Red Shift Ruler
May 17, 1998, at Coney Island High
NYC
 
This was supposed to be the first in a series of "stoner rock" nights at Coney Island High called "Headshop", but as far as I know, this was the first and last night. Which is a shame, because there was a good turnout by the end of the night, but I'm guessing there simply aren't enough "heavy" bands to make this a regular thing.

I got there a tad late and missed Red Shift Ruler completely, which is an embarrassment to the guy who writes these reviews. Sorry!

Wisdom Tooth was a three piece with two guys playing homemade guitar and bass, and a guy drumming on "found" percussion. The guitars resembled two by fours with strings and hardware, and they looked cool as hell but actually sounded pretty much like regular instruments. The drum kit also looked cool and was played very physically in the "stand-up" fashion, but a couple of the things he was using for drums sounded a little dinky. All in all though, I was very impressed. The rhythm section played in a pounding, repetitive style, and they would go off on these extended, tripped-out jams, then reel it back in to the structured parts of their songs. It definitely wasn't the 70's rehash that a lot of "stoner" bands do. It was like psychedelia as filtered through the sensibilities of the New York "downtown" sound of the late 80's, bands like the Swans, Sonic Youth, and Of Cabbages and Kings. The whole set had a menacing feel that reminded me a bit of "Careful with That Ax, Eugene". Only a lot more jarringÉ After the set I had this insightful exchange: "Those are cool guitars, did you make those?" "Yeah, we made them." "Are you guys from around here?" "Yeah, New York, the New York area." "Do you guys have any recordings available?" "Yeah, we have a CD on the Knitting Factory's label, but we didn't bring any with us tonight."

The Atomic Bitchwax was a three piece featuring Ed from Monster Magnet on guitar, and they were awesome. They played a raw, high powered blues-based riff rock, and peeled off massive, complex fret runs that built up into heavy, inventive phrasings. Vocals were a bit neglected in that half the songs seemed to be instrumentals, while the songs with lyrics had extended instrumental sections. The guitarist was handling leads and rhythm pretty much simultaneously, and had an extremely powerful sound. The drummer was sensational, going off on his kit with a Keith Moon-like frenzy, embellishing every moment with cool fills, rolls etc. These guys generated some serious heat, and in my opinion stole the show.

Last up was Nebula, a three piece with former members of Fu Manchu. I really wanted to like them, Fu Manchu is a personal fave, but I have to say I was pretty disappointed. First of all, I thought their sound was really muddy. I know that this was the band's problem and not the P.A. because The Atomic Bitchwax was clear and powerful. I'm as big a fan of the fuzz tone as anyone- these guys just had a muddy sound. They reminded me a bit of early Mudhoney with more of a 70's style, but the same kind of frenzy. They had a good amount of energy. However, I thought their riffs were only so-so, and lets face it, in this day and age if you're doing riff rock your riffs had really better kick ass. The guitar player yelped out the vocals and they pretty much suckedÉHe did bust out some cool leads which would actually cut through the aural muck, but other than that it was sort of underwhelming. The crowd, however, seemed to be into it big time. So maybe I just don't get it. I'm not writing them off, they're a new band and I hope they can develop their thing a little more, because I think their hearts are in the right place.


[KENNY 2000 1/15/99]
 
 
 
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