#sweatmaster

Priestess: Prior to the Fire (2009)

Today's introduction almost overwhelmed the review itself, so bear with me ...

Wolfmother's unexpected and quite inexplicable success in the mid '00s caused numerous labels to rush out and sign their own hipster-endorsed hard rock bands -- e.g. The Sword, Witch, Burning Brides, Graveyard, and today's subject Priestess.

Mind you, most of these bands had no idea why Pitchfork Media and other webzines had decided to anoint or reject them for the "hipster metal" or the equally vague "millennial retro rock" tag, but, as usual, there was little they could do about it other shrug and play along.

Hailing from Montreal, Canada, Priestess was formed in 2002 by singer/guitarist Mikey Heppner after the demise of his punk rock band, The Dropouts, and also featured guitarist Dan Watchorn, bassist Mike Dyball, and drummer Vince Nudo.

Their first album, 2005's Hello Master, was initially released through Canadian independent Indica Records before major RCA swooped in and offered a worldwide deal, then reissued the LP with new artwork (reminiscent of Rainbow Rising!) the following June.

Abundant touring opportunities in the U.S. and U.K. followed, and Priestess gained valuable exposure opening for everyone from Mastodon, to Megadeth, to GWAR, to Black Label Society, to Dinosaur Jr., to Nashville Pussy, to Motörhead.

I myself saw the band live at least three times between '05 and '06, in Brooklyn, New York (at CMJ), and Austin (SXSW), playing with Witch, Early Man, and The Hellacopters, and, while they weren't as entertaining as Danko Jones or The Darkness, Priestess usually held their own.

However, aside from placing the song "Lay Down" on the popular Guitar Hero III video game, RCA didn't know what to do with the group, and their second album, Prior to the Fire, would spend the next few years in A&R Purgatory (*) before both sides agreed to part ways.

When it finally arrived, almost four years after the band's debut, Prior to the Fire delivered much the same caliber of modern hard rock and metal as its predecessor with a sound that fell right in between The Sword's intricate riffing and Wolfmother's catchier revival act.

Heppner's gritty higher registers suited infectious standouts like "Lady Killer," "The Firebird," and "Sideways Attack," while his and Watchorn's inventive riff constructions enhanced extended numbers like "The Gem," "It Baffles the Mind," and "We Ride Tonight."

Yes, Priestess totally missed the mark on the acoustic intro to "Communicating Via-Eyes," which sounds like bad Jethro Tull (if you're gonna go there, at least bring a flute, boys!), and Nudo's lead vocal turn on "Lunar" was underwhelming, at best.

But it's still impossible to excuse RCA's unrealistic expectations based on these results and their reasons for signing Priestess in the first place -- and I say this as an RCA employee who would have worked the band in '07 and '08, had they not been dropped.

Alas, like countless bands that faced this sort of corporate impasse, Priestess were never able to recover, and after struggling to complete a third LP, announced an open-ended hiatus in 2012 from which they have yet to (and from which they will probably never) return.

* Meaning that RCA kept pressuring the band to write more songs in search of a "hit" -- like anyone can pick a hit -- until the label/artist relationship was damaged beyond repair.

Young Heart Attack: Mouthful of Love (2004)

It seems like only yesterday (well, maybe last week) that I saw Young Heart Attack play a SXSW showcase with great verve and gusto, then decided to seek out their now 20-year-old first album, the suggestively named Mouthful of Love.

But the year was, in fact, 2004 when I saw the quintet of Chris Hodge (vocals/guitar), Jennifer Stephens (vocals), Chris 'Frenchie' Smith (guitar), Steven T. Hall (bass), and Joey Shuffield (drums) playing their home-base of Austin, TX.

However, the group did have to "reach" across the Atlantic (or vice-versa) to find a champion in music journalist and Gay Dad founder Cliff Jones, who would go on to produce their first set of 7-inches and this full-length for XL Recordings.

Molded on classic '70s hard rock, with a nod to the MC5, whose "Over and Over" is covered here, Young Heart Attack distinguished themselves from the competition with the two-headed frontline of Stephens and Hodge trading microphone hysterics.

And I do mean "hysterics" (but in a good way), because both the gravelly Stephens and the strident Hodges tear through their bandmates' frantic three-chord barrage on the title track, "Tommy Shots," "Sick of Doing Time," and "In Luck" like a flame-tipped Q-tip through ear-drums.

But don't panic!

Young Heart Attack stop just short of instigating full-blown cardiac arrest on slightly-less-crazed rockers like "Starlite," "Misty Rowe," and "(Take Me Back) Mary Jane" -- one of numerous marijuana references here, in lieu of genuine stoner rock characteristics.

Well, there's also the GTO parked on the album's cover, but these references are why, as an avid supporter of the era's underground stoner rock scene, I was somewhat suspicious of hipster-endorsed hard rockers like Y.H.A., Burning Brides, The Sword, et al.

Call me a contrarian and a nitpicker (I am both!), but it always irked me that certain bands earned automatic indie rag coverage just because maybe they bathed a little more often, or sported better haircuts, than stoner rock's true ugly ducklings.

But this debate was rendered moot when, despite decent media attention and U.K. tours with The Darkness and Motörhead (*), Young Heart Attack broke up in '06; only reforming two years later long enough to record a second and final LP called Rock and Awe.

All this being said, this is a fun little record from a fun little live band.

* Incidentally, Lemmy Kilmister made a guest appearance on Y.H.A.'s cover of AC/DC's "Get It Hot," found on the B-side of their "Tommy Shots" single.

Sweatmaster: Sharp Cut (2002)

Looking back at my near-twenty-year-old description of Finland’s amusingly named Sweatmaster, I have to laugh at my choice of words, saying that they “specialized in raw, vigorous garage rock.”

How vigorous, you ask?

Well, as I proceeded to elaborate in the All-Music Guide, “the perpetually ebullient trio performs charged up, stripped down, electrified rock ‘n’ roll right out of the Nuggets garage,” so THAT vigorous, I guess.

Formed at the turn of the century, in the city of Turku, by Sasu Mykkänen (bass and vocals), Mikko Luukko (guitar) and Matti Kallio (drums), Sweatmaster released a number of 7-inch singles leading up to 2002’s full-length debut, Sharp Cut.

The album no doubt came to my attention via one of the countless stoner/retro rock websites (mad props to the now defunct StonerRock.com!) that I followed religiously, at the time; and while it was definitely an outlier in such dazed-and-confused company, it has stood the test of time quite well.

Its key track was the perfectly named “I Am a Demon and I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll,” which delivered vocals with soulful depravity (and trilled ‘Rs’), guitars that walk a tightrope between distortion and twang, drums that snap, crackle and pop, and bass that does what a bass should do in these situations (stay out of the way). 

Imagine The Hives with better songs and a smidgeon of authenticity, and you'll get the gist of crotch-squeezing, booty-shaking and, yes, SWEATY freak-outs like “Hold It!,” “Well Connected” and the stutter-riff masterpiece “Precious.”

No, not every track here meets the highest standards, but Sharp Cut’s lively, perfectly condensed half-hour never lets up, and it wraps with another pair of effusive hand-clappers/foot-stompers in “Nothing to do but Win” and the downright rowdy “Tonight.” 

So I’ll go ahead and wind down this blog just as I wound down my All-Music Guide review: “as long as Sweatmaster’s amps are giving off smoke and glowing orange, there'll be no snow too deep, or winter too dark to keep Finland from rocking tonight.”

Alas, though they apparently released a few more albums through to 2010, Sweatmaster obviously didn’t amount to much outside their homeland and the deepest hard rock underground, although it’s kind of fitting that they have fewer followers on Facebook than they do on MySpace!