Awesome Color
Electric Aborigines
(Ecstatic Peace, 2008)

It’s interesting to note how little it means to be “from Brooklyn” these days. There are clearly more transplants than natives banding together in that most populous and artsy of boroughs nowadays, the best of which then generally strive to defy and/or redefine the “indigenous” sound du jour. In the best possible way, Awesome Color is a fitting example: A self-proclaimed “Brooklyn power trio” that’s got Michigan oozing from every amped chug and saw-toothed reptilian yawp. Former Ann Arborites Michael Troutman (bass) and Allison Busch (drums) migrated to the Apple with rock in their veins in late ’04 to join fellow Great Lake expat/guitarist/vocalist Derek Stanton in forming the Cerberusian beast of Awesome Color, hound of the same Hades that spawned Iggy and the Stooges and the MC5. Stanton allegedly grew up across the street from Stooge drummer Scott “Rock Action” Asheton, and if there was something in the water, Rock Action put it there, and it worked.

Electric Aborigines kicks right off with “Eyes of Light”, a pumped, grungedelic twister of Iggy-type vocals, a steady Swervedriver rhythm section, and broad, nearly Mascis-caliber guitar. The song establishes the mode of tide-like repetition that the band rides over its swells and crashes consistently, a sort of mono-riff hypnosis that, upon entering track two, “Already Down”, seems immediately knocked off the table by a more dynamic melody, but not entirely—give it a full verse and you realize the repetition’s still there. It’s primal, and it grinds away at that point where stoner rock and proto-punk meet for a beer.

This is Awesome Color’s second LP, and inevitably it bears a hallmark or two of sophomore-itus, mainly a cleaner sound and slightly longer songs than their first go-round. The gonzo sax and lo-fi muddiness of their ’06 self-titled debut are replaced by guitar and vocal overdubs and some serious psych-studio effects, yet with Awesome Color, these added distortions are actually refinements of their vision. With deft production and consistent energy, the load-bearing heavy-rock trio hits every bit as hard with their second at-bat, and in some ways, even harder. As they mature as a band, they seem to gravitate away from the obvious reference points (Stooges, MC5) into a zone a little more their own, or at least spread out to other reference points, which they still do well. The spry, mini-solos spangling “The Moon” couple ‘70s/Southern Creedence-style twang with a bit of brutish, ‘80s indie-skronk, only to be blasted through a wall at the song’s halfway point into an entirely new zone, half Sonic Youth–caliber noise and half Sabbath-spirited rhythm section, guitar chugs, and soloing.

This is followed by album closer “Evil Rose”, which really feels like the closer, almost to the point of raising suspicions that it might have been tacked on solely as a number that brings the album home to roost. “Evil Rose” swaggers with a sort of kicked-keg gait behind a hairy chestful of guitar soloing that, while righteous, soulful, and steeped in southern ‘70s panache, could benefit from a little rhythm guitar, or maybe a change or two. It’s a comparatively barebones production that, objectively, comes across as more of an exercise than a complete song, yet with its perfectly simple lyrics and its generosity of garage-style reverb, I can’t help but love it even while ruing its lack of anything more.

For their first album, the Color toured as opener for Dinosaur Jr, in which context I got a kind of Mudhoney feel from the set that I witnessed, though it may have been the power of suggestion created by reliving the ‘90s headliner. At this point, I think they’d be much better billed alongside Comets on Fire, though if the tricephalic juggernaut of Awesome Color continues down the burly warpath that’s brought their Aborigines out from down underground, they’ll be packin’ ‘em in on their own rawk merits in no time.

Listen: Various Tracks [at myspace.com]

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