#4

Comets On Fire
Avatar
(Sub Pop)

Blues based rock can be some of the worst crap you’ve ever heard (see: Jet, Johnny Lang, etc.), or can (and should) be some of the best (see: the Stooges, Stones, etc.). So while those Stooges records have all been rerecorded and redone and re-imagined and recycled countless wonderful times and, recently, even more horrendously revolting times, it’s nice to see fresh legs willing to go into the game. While they’re not new at their frank brand of blistering guitar workouts, Comets On Fire have stepped up their game considerably from Blue Cathedral. That record was a romp: a 40+ minute guitar solo with some stoned howling and organ for good measure. For what direction it lacked, it made up in sundazed glee and amplifier worship.

So perhaps it’s unsurprising that Avatar is their song record. Maybe they had already reached the top – their volume knobs were already at 11, how much louder and crazier can you get? The COF sound is still intact here – echoed out everything, near-constant drumfills, and Ben Chasny’s immaculate riffing – but nicely filtered, slowed down at times, and paced very well. The band took a page from the 70’s boogie rock brethren’s songbook and laid a foundation of a record down made for live extrapolations. But we’re not talking a half-baked Grateful Dead record here (their stuff was much too top heavy and always collapsed under pressure) – nah, we’re talking solidly drawn out chord progressions and MF-ing songwriting brotha. (Just try not to wave that cigarette lighter during “Lucifer’s Memory”.) Stuff that sticks to the ribs. We’re talking a band that can explode like an H-bomb at any time but for the sake of tension waits until just the right time to melt your skin.