Megan's Top 70 of 2010: #51 - Dead Meadow

Why I Decree it to Be So:

DC is a pretty transient place, with people moving to and moving from around here all the time. This revolving door even extends to our bands, and one of my most dearly departed, DC-rooted bands is Dead Meadow. Their latest offering, Three Kings, gives you all the Dead Meadow you can handle, what with all that crushing, swirling guitar and intoxicating velvet curtain of rich, heavy psych lushness. The record is actually the soundtrack for the band's DVD of the same name, making it feel slightly indulgent and extravagant. Quite possibly mind-altering.

mp3: I'm Gone (bonus track) (Dead Meadow from Three Kings)

The Untitled Interview #46: Starring Steve Kille (Dead Meadow)

I think it’s entirely possible that I’m still in recovery mode from the wickedly amazing Dead Meadow show here in DC back on my birthday last month. Their transcendental, triumphant swirl of stoner rock, psych rock, post rock, and rock rock both cleared my mind of cobwebs and filled it with still more, though much more interesting, cobwebs. It also might have cleared out my sinuses, so there's medicinal qualities to be found in Dead Meadow, too.

They possess one of the loudest, biggest, fullest live sounds I’ve ever come across, and a big piece of that extraordinary sonic puzzle comes courtesy of bitchin’ bassist Steve Kille. Profuse thanks to Steve for answering some queries for LET. Read on as Steve waxes on and off about Fugazi, Thin Lizzy, and yes, Chuck Norris, and make sure to throw on some Dead Meadow while you read. It’s the perfect accompaniment.

Les Enfants Terribles: What was the last song you listened to?
Steve Kille: “Superstition” - Stevie Wonder.

LET: Playing music is:
SK: No choice.

LET: What album most made you realize you wanted to make music?
SK: Oddly enough, Fugazi’s Repeater. I figured, "I could do this."

LET: Beatles or Stones?
SK: Neil Young or both!!! It really depends on the mood.

LET: Top 5 albums (of now, of this month, or of ever):
SK:

Thin Lizzy – Jail Break
Neil Young – Zuma
Beatles – Rubber Soul
Guilded By Voices – Alien Lanes
Best of Don Ho (I love the tropic escape)

LET: Favorite music-related movie?
SK: Rock N Roll High School. No question.

LET: Half-full or half-empty?
SK: Broken.

LET: Which of your peers do you think is making the best music these days?
SK: Nick Cave.

LET: What’s the first thing you think when you wake up in the morning?
SK: How to pay bills.

LET: The greatest record store in the world is:
SK: Amoeba.

LET: Shaken or stirred?
SK: Poured with rum, an umbrella and splash of pineapple, I don’t like martinis.

LET: Little-known Dead Meadow fact?
SK: We have a guilty tour pleasure of watching Walker, Texas Ranger. No joke.

LET: If you weren’t in a band you’d be:
SK: Rich?

LET: How often do you make it back to DC? And what, if anything, surprises you about the city when you’re back here?
SK: Hardly ever. I am surprised that there is nothing to do there anymore.

LET: If you were so inclined, whom would you form a tribute band in honor of?
SK: Thin Lizzy!!! No question.

LET: Best song ever written?
SK: “Dancing in the Moonlight” by Thin Lizzy.

mp3: Darlin (Dead Meadow from Three Kings)

100 Shows of 2010 - #36: Dead Meadow @ Black Cat, 6/15/10

I knew weeks ago that this show would be killer. I mean, Dead Meadow playing my favorite bar on my birthday night, how could it possibly be anything other than amazing? But oh, sweet friends. I was just not prepared at all for how very much I would be rendered speechless by the sheer fucking fantasticness of it all. Dead Meadow took all of my lofty expectations for my first time seeing them live and absolutely shattered the hell out of them. Happy goddam birthday to me, indeed.

MINI RECAP: Dead Meadow = Have Mercy on Me! Overall score: A-.

The band was raucously wonderful from the get go, and I’m not just talkin’ about that moustache sported by drummer Stephen McCarty, either. The backstage at the Black Cat was pretty full to witness the former locals in their return to the city. “It’s good to be back here in DC, our hometown,” said Jason Simon, in between waves of killing me with that guitar of his, a feat that happened all night long. Showing serious axe skills and shredding and careening all over the place, he won a place in my cold, black heart. Simon can wail for days, my loves. For days. Throughout the set, the Dead Meadow sound was absolutely mammoth, colossal even. Song after song was heady and loud and totally transfixing.

Also transfixing was the dude in a brightly-colored mu-mu wandering around at the show. Gotta love a guy with the cajones enough to go out decked out like a lost member of The Polyphonic Spree. Simon’s insane guitar skills snapped me out of my mu-mu gazing right quick, and I was once more drawn in like a kid listening to the Pied Piper. It was a lusciously loud set, just how I like things. Dead Meadow may or may not be classified as stoner rock, but there sure were some folks in the crowd who looked a little on the stoned side. For their part, the trio comprising Dead Meadow looks a little throwback, and they sound a whole lotta throwback. And again, for me it all goes back to Simon’s guitar. The guitar, oh have mercy that guitar. Jason Simon, you officially killed me not-so-softly with your songs.

I loved the big, bad bastard wolf rockness of it all, the sweet mercy drone and murky hum and pressing weight of it all, and how it felt as though we had all time-warped back to the mid-70s for a brief, beautiful time. I love me some Dead Meadow, I can tell you that much for damn sure. It’s music to take a slow ride to, or take a magic carpet ride to, or to be dazed and confused by. Spending my birthday with Dead Meadow turned out to be one hell of a present.

mp3: Such Hawks Such Hounds (unreleased Dead Meadow from Three Kings sessions)