Mr. Plow - Cock Fights and Pony Racin'


I don’t really ask for much.

When it comes to stoner metal, all I ask is that you pummel me senseless, hit me with a detuned chord so damn bottom heavy that it makes my lower intestine spasm, bring on the bass in massive rolling waves of cortex melting riffs, wash the bastard in a thick miasma of feedback fuzz and sing over the whole mess with a voice, rich and textured, deep and raw. Oh yeah, and make the whole thing groove. It’s got to groove, baby.

Mr. Plow is a metal collective from Houston leaving their mark on the stoner world with a handful of CD’s that wear their influences proudly on their sleeves. Tones of stoner-rock God’s Kyuss, meld with Fu Manchu, Nebula, Monster Magnet, and of course the whole disc is painted in the great thick colors of Black Sabbath. That’s not to say that Mr. Plow is derivative. Rather, the guys dig deep into their roots, suck down their bongwater and belch out a fantastic, spaced-out, sci-fi ode to the Stoner genre.

“Festivus,” sets off Cock Fights and Pony Racin' with all horses blazing, hammering the riff right out of the speakers. Bottom heavy and thick, the fuzzed out tones should’ve been the mandatory anthem at every abandoned-barn beer party I attended during high school, blaring out of the Jensen tri-axle speakers mounted in the back of a sea of’67 Cameros. It really is that good.

“Electric Sheep,” pays the most homage to Sabbath, the opening riff sounding as if it would have been comfortable on any one of the classic Ozzy albums. “Autozone,” brings out the more Fu Manchu-esque tones in its head-bobbing riff and car-obsessed lyrics. Soloing is sparse but tasteful, feedback drenched and pointed, not flashy.

Truthfully, I hear more Fu Manchu than Kyuss in Mr. Plow’s blend of stoner bliss, but whereas Fu mines a familiar mid-tempo seventies vein, Mr. Plow have a clear progressive artery running through their pounding heart. “The Only Reason You Got in Front of Me was Because I Let You,” intones a slight sci-fi-ish guitar tone to its tale of an urban drag race, bringing to mind a touch of Monster Magnet. Mr. Plow’s prog tendencies, however, are on best display during the twelve minute instrumental, “Ode to Gandolf,” a festering stew of fuzz guitar, drum solos and jazz breaks that somehow manages to hang together for the duration without ever coming across as filler or self-indulgent. Other songs like, “Louder than Larry,” and “The Dude,” just simply rock.

The low-fi production works well for the overall fuzzed texture of the work, but one can’t help but wonder what these guys would sound like with a budget and a big name producer that “gets” them. I’d love to hear the bass brought out more into the light and the vocals more prominent in the mix. But these are minor suggestions, really. In the end, Mr. Plow does everything I ask of a good stoner band, hitting it hard and heavy, but never losing sight of that all important groove.

These guys deserve to be heard. Now will some one please refill the bong. That last riff made me spill the damn water all over my rug. –Racer X

www.Mrplow.com

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