Imagine John Lennon playing heavy metal without the tasteless soloing. Bowie and Ronson doing Soundgarden covers. A great big devil boogie with beards and make-up. You're almost there.
Caustic Resin's The Medicine Is All Gone is packed with loud, heavy rock music, but their guitars are dipped in as much glitter as sludge. If songs like the (perfectly titled) "Dripping" are awash in sinister, metallic moods and singer Brett Netson's perfect rock 'n' roll howl, the waltz-time "Cable" and the almost sugary "Man From Michigan" prove Caustic Resin can reach beyond The Rock.
Not that they need to -- "Once and Only" is a righteous, grooving monster bolstered by so much multi-tracking and/or echo that it sounds like a thousand-strong choir of guitars and voices. Not bad for a three-piece. "Half Step," meanwhile, takes off on a riff as devilish as Syd Barrett's "Insterstellar Overdrive," hammering at the descending pattern like a band possessed. "Laugh out loud!" Netson shrieks, perhaps not realizing that his band's committment to scary backwoods glitter stomp devil music may be admirable, but it is not funny. Not at all.
If you like Caustic Resin, check out:
T. Rex Electric Warrior
Pink Floyd The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Soundgarden Badmotorfinger
John Lennon John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band
psst...you might wanna check out our indie rock abode for more features on (guess what) indie rock bands.
-- jf
