Dead Meadow - Shivering King and Others - Matador

Live music is incredibly important to any rock n' roll band. Those who commit themselves to creating music as a living simply must survive by touring. It is the only way for many bands to make money. Of course, touring can be a double edged sword. People get exhausted from incessant travel, egos collide due to limited space, and songs become worn out through daily play. Sometimes touring is the reason for a band's demise. After all, a floor or a van can become the home of the professional musician--certainly not the glorious Cribs vision of rock superstardom.

While some bands may fall apart because of touring, some seem like not touring will tear the group apart. Dead Meadow is one of those bands. Each of their albums seem like warehouse jams that just happened to fall upon rolling tape. They thrive in the live atmosphere. I have seen the band twice: once in New York City and another time in the lovely, tiny Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Each time the band had a no-holds-barred performance. That is, they fucking floored me. Not only were their songs stretched out to the breaking point, but the power trio created a wall of sound that the Grateful Dead only could have hoped for. I couldn't imagine Dead Meadow ever just putting records out. They simply wouldn't hold up to the live experience.

For Shivering King and Others Dead Meadow have finally made an album that adequately transfers their live performances to tape. From the opening thud of "I Love You Too", Dead Meadow drop bass heavy psychedelia that commands to be cranked at maximum volume. Fuzzed out guitars and bass creep their way patiently overtop of Mark Laughlin's gigantic drumming. Heavy emphasis is placed on reverb and echo, especially with Jason Simon's otherworldly squeak and rocketship guitar. The song results in a journey through the past 30 years of hard rock, without recycling any ideas or sounding stale in any way.

While heavier Dead Meadow recalls early Blue Cheer and Black Sabbath, their slower and (mostly) quieter songs are recognizible as no one but themselves. Songs like the droning canyon jam "Everything's Going On" and the acoustic "Good Moanin'" fill the gaps between the sludge with beautifully organic gems of songs. The natual factor cannot be emphasized enough--these songs breathe like a living being and are definitely some of the best material on the album.

Shivering King and Others only weakness is its length. All of the songs seem to arise out of the great monolithic powerchord, so after 62 minutes (average track length: 6+ minutes) sometimes the jams can get tedious. Ironically, this never happens live, as their songs can stretch to lengths over 15 minutes without any sense of boredom setting in. Apparently the sheer volume that they accomplish live is not as captivating on tape.

Once Dead Meadow learn how to hone their songwriting chops a little better they will become unstoppable. As of right now, they have not yet learned the difference between a live performance and a recorded version. For now we'll just have to settle for this close approximation of their live capabilities. I think its a good deal.

Rating: 8