#small stone

Tell me the story of lonely

Mike Ford - "Table top" phaser

“ElectroHarmonix small stone with the univibe mods and an optical strobe light to control the rate ... not realy 'true bypass',lol! But a phaser with bells n whistles galore. An omage to David Lynches Dune movie,I reckon!”

The Glasspack: Powderkeg (2002)

By 2002, I’d been writing All-Music Guide bios and reviews for a few years and had pretty much figured out how this rock critic racket worked ...

All you had to do was contact record labels you liked, ask for music you wanted to listen to as a fan, and free CD promos would soon start landing in your snail-mailbox, on their way to earning a spot -- if they didn’t suck -- in your already bulging CD racks.

That was certainly my nefarious end-goal when I approached Detroit-based stoner rock specialists Small Stone, but I got a lot more than top-notch, ear-bleeding rock ‘n’ roll; I got a cherished friend in label owner and fellow retro music nut Scott Hamilton.

I also held up my side of the bargain and loaded up the All-Music Guide with a bunch of rave (but well-deserved) Small Stone reviews, including this one ...

As the Glasspack's Powderkeg checks in, the band is already heard in full flight, crushing through a wild cacophony that would suggest the ending rave-up for the previous year’s, Man’s Ruin-released debut, American Exhaust.

Formed in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1999, and featuring singer/guitarist ‘Dirty’ Dave Johnson, lead guitarist Andrew ‘Lil’ Bucky’ Garret, organist Brian ‘Reverend’ Foor, bassist David Wright and drummer Brett ‘The Cap’n’ Holsclaw, theirs was a spirited, high-octane brand of stoner rock, piled high with glorious distortion and an almost hardcore-like frenzy. 

Led by Johnson, howling at the moon at all times, out-of-control barnstormers like the sardonic “Mrs. Satan,” “Whiskey House” and “The Heebeegeebees” emphasized the band’s healthy sense of humor, and what they lacked in civilized finesse, they more than made up for in raw exuberance.

And, as you lay there dazed, trying to memorize the license plate of the monster truck that hit you, the aptly named “Demolition Derby” locked into an immense, unstoppable doom metal riff that stomped you into the dirt to the sounds of breaking glass and ripping metal.

All that was left after that was for the self-explanatory feedback serenade “Jim Beam and Good Green” to lull the listener into a pleasant bedtime buzz -- a welcome, if unusual, finale for a motherfucker of an album that exploded with all of the loose, brute swagger promised by its title.

p.s. -- Yes, that’s band leader ‘Dirty’ Dave Johnson’s John Hancock on the album’s front cover.

p.p.s. -- Also note that this 2008 pressing from Sleeping Village Records lists a MySpace URL on the rear sleeve -- a sign of the times -- and that The Glasspack’s account was called “Kentucky Motherfuckers,” YEE-HAW!

Five Horse Johnson - Fat Black Pussycat

Small Stone Recordings - SS-013LP

2017

One day a good friend who really meant a lot to me gave me a black small stone and said

' This stone will leave all bad far away from you'

One year later:

We aren't friends, don't talk anymore and I lost a lot of people,'friends' which I thought were my friends and cared about me.

Isn't it ironic?

That person who gave me the stone was the worst person I was surrounded with.

Sometimes your enemy is closer than you think and right next to you.