Music / Reviews
Review: Radio Moscow/Groundhogs, Exchange
“The Groundhogs? On that bill? Really?”
Yep, unlike so many of their contemporaries, these veteran ‘hogs (founded in 1963, lest we forget) have by-passed the comfort of the nostalgia circuit to find an enthusiastic younger audience in today’s stoner/metal scene, rubbing shoulders with their spiritual grandchildren Sleep, Bongzilla, Candlemass and Satan’s Satyrs on this year’s Desertfest bill. Sure, drummer Ken Pustelnik is the only remaining member of the original trio, but he’s assembled an impressive band of fellow Bristolians led by Chris D’Avoine, formerly of proggy ’80s NWOBHM act Shiva, on vocals and guitar, with Gonga bassist Latch Manghat and additional guitarist Sol Latif.
On stage, their popularity among the stoner yoof makes perfect sense, as the Groundhogs’ brand of menacing extended psych/blues wig-outs sits as comfortably in 2017’s underground as it did in the freak scene of the late ’60s. D’Avoine contributes plenty of blistering Tony McPhee-style slide guitar – now something of a rarity in this genre – while Manhat’s bass playing is the very definition of ‘driving’. They revisit 1970’s Thank Christ for the Bomb album extensively for Soldier, Garden and Eccentric Man, ending with a frenzied Cherry Red (the song that inspired a record label) from Split.
is needed now More than ever
It’s a brave band that’ll take the Groundhogs out as tour support, but Iowa trio Radio Moscow are clearly fanboys. Indeed, mainman Parker Briggs joins them for Cherry Red, though he actually just hides at the side of the stage and lets them get on with it. Still, these non-Russian Muscovites are clearly on a high right now thanks to a deal with the Century Media label after years of slog. Alas, their aptly titled profile-raising first album for the label, New Beginnings, isn’t released until next month, which means that we’re being used to road test a fair bit of new material.
On first listen, this isn’t a major departure, putting perhaps a tighter, tauter spin on what went before at the uptempo end of the stoner spectrum, with lashings of Briggs’s fiery, Hendrix-style wailing psychedelic guitar layered on top of the propulsive rhythm section of bassist Anthony Meier and drummer Paul Marrone. Blue Cheer is the other cool comparison to draw, but this reviewer was repeatedly reminded of Canuck rockers Mahogany Rush, who ploughed a similar furrow back in the seventies. And could that be a brief tip of the hat to the Allman Brothers during the instrumental section of Dreams? The Allmans did, after all, have a stage favourite of the same title.
There’s just one rather jarring moment: the Sabbath-isms of Broke Down, while unquestionably enjoyable, are so utterly blatant that one half expects Sharon Osbourne to pop up on stage and hand them a writ (or, indeed, The Writ, ho ho). But it’s easy to see why Century Media have chosen to invest in Radio Moscow: on this form there’s no reason why they can’t match the success of former bassist Zack Anderson, who’s now a member of Blues Pills.
Our top newsletters emailed directly to you
