Hashtronaut: No Return (2024)
Hashtronaut ... are you fucking kidding me???
With a name like that I needed just a few streams to open my wallet for this Denver, CO-based stoner rock band, knowing their debut LP, No Return (and its stunning, transparent green with yellow and blue splatter wax), had already locked up a reservation on VinylSpinning when April 20th (a.k.a. 420, Cannabis Culture Day) rolled around.
Even more serendipitous was learning that Hashtronaut were playing The Cobra, a small club right here in Nashville, this past Tuesday on a four-band bill completed by local head-bangers Dead Runes, Karma Vulture, and Electric Python -- all for the princely sum of $10.
It felt like 1997 all over again!
So does Hashtronaut's music; or did you think I would have stayed up past my bedtime (on a weeknight, no less!) if these stoned space-farers didn't deliver the musical goods to back up their titular genius and visual presentation?
Just keep in mind that, in a contradiction of its title, No Return is in fact a purely nostalgic exercise and that there's literally ZERO innovation at hand; even the anti-marijuana dialog sampled from '50s and '60s propaganda films have been used elsewhere before.
But well-written standouts like "Rip Wizard" (whose chorus shouts "Smoking it all"), "Carcinogen," "Dead Cloud," and "Dweller" offer doomy, space-themed stoner rock of the highest caliber, reminiscent of vintage Acrimony, Orange Goblin, and Lowrider.
Heck, my biggest complaint is that the fabulous "Hex" should have lasted ten minutes instead of just two!
Finally, I'll praise Daniel Smith (ex-Alamo Black) for the melancholy, haunted strain in his voice -- the kind reserved only for those of us who have been lost in space -- plus he can also roar like an alien beast on "Cough it Up" and "Lung Ruiner."
The instrumental "Marsquake" (a sequel to the non-album early track "Moonquake") and a thirty-second thrashing called "Blast Off" bring No Return to an end after barely 41 minutes, but these days I'd rather be left wanting more than stuffed to the gills.
And the sum of all this is: Hashtronaut offer much more than just a clever moniker and irresistible packaging, so I'll be waiting eagerly for their next musical mission (and Nashville show) into the stoner rock void.
More Stoner Rock & Doom: Acrimonyâs Tumuli Shroomaroom, The Atomic Bitchwaxâs The Atomic Bitchwax, Belzebongâs Sonic Scapes & Weedy Grooves, Bigelfâs Cheat the Gallows, Black Capricornâs Born Under the Capricorn, Black Rainbowsâ Hawkdope, Blue Heronâs Ephemeral, Bongripperâs Satan Worshipping Doom, Bongzillaâs Stash, Cavityâs Supercollider, ChĂŠâs Sounds of Liberation, Clutchâs Earth Rocker, Dead Meadowâs Dead Meadow, Dopethroneâs Hochelaga, Dozer's Drifting in the Endless Void, Earthrideâs Earthride EP, Electric Wizardâs Dopethrone, Eternal Elysiumâs Spiritualized D, Fu Manchuâs No One Rides for Free, The Glasspackâs Powderkeg, Goatsnakeâs Goatsnake Vol. 1, Green Druidâs Ashen Blood, The Headsâ Mao Tinitus EP, The Hidden Handâs Mother Teacher Destroyer, House of Broken Promisesâ Using the Useless ...
Even More Stoner Rock & Doom: Kyussâ Blues for the Red Sun, Lowriderâs Ode to Io, Monster Magnetâs Spine of God, The Mystick Krewe of Clearlightâs The Mystick Krewe of Clearlight, Los Natasâ Ciudad de Braham, Nebulaâs Let it Burn, Novadriverâs Void, The Obsessedâs Lunar Womb, Orange Goblinâs Frequencies from Planet Ten, Reverend Bizarreâs In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend, Sasquatchâs II, Sigiriyaâs Return to Earth, Sleepâs Holy Mountain, Sliftâs Ummon, Slo Burnâs Amusing the Amazing, Solarizedâs Driven, Sons of Otisâ SpaceJumboFudge, Spaceslugâs Lemanis, Spirit Caravanâs Dreamwheel EP, Spirituâs Spiritu, Terra Firmaâs âSpiral Guru,â Thulsa Doomâs The Seats are Soft but the Helmetâs Way too Tight, Toner Lowâs Toner Low, UFOmammutâs Snailking, Unidaâs Coping with the Urban Coyote, The Wandering Midgetâs From the Meadows of Opium Dreams, Warhorseâs As Heaven Turns to Ash, Witchâs Witch, Wo Fatâs The Black Code.
