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The Old Haunts
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Fuel On Fire
Kill Rock Stars
Release: 5/09/2006
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Rated:
Review by:
Jason Warner
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The press release from Kill Rock Stars for The Old Haunts says
they are an amazing swamp rock band from Olympia, WA. I'm
not sure what swamp rock is, but I'm reckoning there aren't
too many swamps in Washington State. Maybe they should be
called Sasquatch rock? Whatever they are, they make music
that is interesting, exciting, and greasy. After listening to
Fuel On Fire for the first time I felt like I needed
to wash my ears out with Drano, but that is a good thing. I
love the primitive rock, be it rockabilly, swamp boogey,
garage, psych, it's all exciting and it's all raunchy, and best of
all, if I had been blasting this music down in my basement
bedroom my parents would have hated it.
To me The Old Haunts sound like a mix of early Modest Mouse,
Talking Heads, The Von Bondies, and Television, but with a
wholly original sound of their own. The sound is just thick and
sludgy and delicious. The guitars cut, the bass is fuzzy, and
the drums are nice and full. The production does a good job of
preserving the raw energy of the band while still sounding
good. I hate when an album is so lo-fi that it is hard to listen
to. This album eats like a satisfying meal, just enough
rawness, but not too much. It's a balance many of today's
bands would be well to take notice of.
Fuel On Fire, the sophomore release from The Old
Haunts includes 41 minutes and 11 tracks of boot stomping,
spasm inducing rock and roll. There are no weak songs here,
but particular stand-outs for me were "Culture of Prey," which
features a very bouncy guitar riff and a marvelous fuzz bass
accompaniment, "Paradise," which is a kick ass song all
around, but for the particular part of the song that begins at
2:48 into the song… one of the strongest and most rocking
passages of rock and roll I've heard in a long time and finally,
"Filled In", which begins with a great bluesy riff and then turns
into a very danceable swamp boogey number. Basically I
could say nice things about every song on Fuel On
Fire. The whole album is worth listening to, absolutely
no filler. |
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