Dead Meadow

The third studio album from Washington, D.C., power trio Dead Meadow clocks in at 62 minutes of organic stoner rock in a classic vein (think Sabbath meets Blue Cheer fuzz-riff school). Originally recorded by Joe Lally (Fugazi), the trio combines its love of ’60s psych rock, ’70s hard rock and writers J. R. R. Tolkien and H. P. Lovecraft with a dose of modern DC punk energy. Singer/guitarist Jason Simon drones on with a faintly melodic croon, while simple but hard blues riffs swell behind, incorporating Moogs, sitars, drone boxes, vintage tape echo and spring reverb for an altogether “heady” effect. (As an older co-worker said when I was trying this out, “Sounds like they were recorded in the ’60s.” Yep.) I’m losing track of retro bands these days—but with the state of modern popular music, maybe that’s not such a bad thing.