Gallery Of Mites--Bugs On The Bluefish
MeteorCity 2003
MeteorCity took their first step into the garage arena with the release of last year's Ribeye Brothers CD. With Bugs On The Bluefish from Gallery Of Mites, the label presents a second installment of their genre expansion from the grooved, downtuned heaviness they're most known for. Much like last time, the results are solid and sure to broaden the horizons of more open minded doom 'n groovers.
Gallery Of Mites is comprised of the same nucleus as the Ribeye Brothers--Monster Magnet fellas Tim Cronin and Jon Kleiman. The difference between these two outfits lies in a slight stylistic shift--while the Ribeye Brothers were rooted in rockabilly and traditional country music, Gallery Of Mites are, for the most part, straight-up modern East Coast styled garage rock, marked by an emphasis on organ-driven material and an overall poppy edge. So, where does Bugs On The Bluefish fall within that framework? Somewhere in the middle--that is to say, this isn't as raw as the Lyres at their best, but it also isn't the overpolished disaster of In Heat-era Fuzztones. This is a very good album which should certainly appeal to fans of a band like the Swingin' Neckbreakers, though Gallery Of Mites are a bit darker sounding than that. Longstanding fans of this style will find plenty to like about Bugs On The Bluefish, as should newcomers.
As with the Ribeye Brothers CD, Bugs On The Bluefish is jam packed with great song after great song. On organ-driven pounders like "Headless Body, Topless Bar" and "Chocolate Rabbit," Gallery Of Mites manage to resemble the aforementioned Lyres a bit. Taking audience analysis into account, "100 Days (Heron)" may be the most well-received of this material, though. There are two reasons for this: one, because musically, this track is the most "stoner rock" sounding of the bunch, but also becasue John Garcia's (Kyuss/Unida/Hermano) guest vocals bring a Jack White-like quality to the song which should appeal quite a bit to fans of the current crop of "mainstream garage" bands. Besides the out of place (though good) psych instrumental jam "A Man Called Shit," everything is perfectly in order with Bugs on The Bluefish.
The Cronin/Kleiman duo should be applauded once again for producing another slab of solid garage with this Gallery Of Mites CD, as well as MeteorCity for stepping out on a bit of a limb to release it. However, Bugs On The Bluefish leaves all the parties involved with a couple questions hanging. For the band, will "stoner rock" fans be able to let go of the Monster Magnet association and embrace Gallery Of Mites fully for its own merits, as it should be? For the label, will they be willing/able to release more music from this genre without having people from revered "stoner/desert/groove" bands involved to justify the releases to their core audience? Time will tell on these questions, but for the here and now, everyone involved in this production deserves a hand for a job well done.
Score this CD directly from METEORCITY
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