Illinois-based label 4 Walls Records Inc. released this EP to celebrate its first year in operation and as a gift to those who have supported the label over the past years. It features three bands (DIRTY BIRD, GRAVITRON and BIRDWING) who contribute two songs apiece.

First up is DIRTY BIRD, the other band of THE GLASSPACK's "Dirty" Dave Johnson. They quite literally kick this off with a piece of wailing trash blues called "Brains". Sort of an even more fucked up version of THE JON SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION. 'Fucked up' also pretty much describes the second track "Little Girl". Even THE CRAMPS never sounded this psychotic. Although they're heavy enough for the stoner crowd DIRTY BIRD's rock has a kind of garage edge that could also be of interest to people into that 60's surf/garage-sound. And since I'm one of those people I'm really looking forward to their full length release this fall, 2004.

Regular visitors of this site will probably be familiar with GRAVITRON's amazingly raw fuzz rock. People who dug their first album "The Dawning of the Finite Moment of Now" won't be disappointed. The first track "The Black Wing Interceptors" features leads by 18 SPEED TRANNY's Ken Harlev. On the second track "The Young Lads of Olde" it once again becomes clear that GRAVITRON sound pretty punk rock for a so-called stoner band (the real stuff of course, not that trendy kiddie-shyte), even more so here since both tracks sound pretty low-budget. This is no wonder since they were originally recorded as demos submitted to one Mr. Dirty Dave to play bass on their forthcoming second full length. I say, bring the damn thing on guys! It's pretty hard following in the footsteps of these giants and although BIRDWING have their riffs and that plodding sludge groove together, they contribute two six-minute songs in which nothing much happens, besides some interesting leads. And the singer should go easy on those long stretched out howls. Not bad at all and certainly heavy enough, but personally I think their songwriting still needs some work. I hope 4 Walls Records will operate for many more years to come. And even if you don't like the music on this EP (which is not bloody likely... you probably will if you like the kind of music reviewed on the Peacedogman site) you should still buy it for the extremely cool cover art.

- Van Hoften

RELATED ITEMS: No related articles at this time.