Quickie Album Reviews: Wolfmother, Parts & Labor, and Mogwai

Wolfmother - Wolfmother (Interscope)
With an album that opens with the hum from a tube-amp turned all the way to eleven, followed by a bombastic Bonham drum blast with dual-riffing guitars in tow, it must be time to turn the black light on, spark a doobie, and launch into stoner rock nirvana. Steeped in the rich traditions of Sabbath, Blue Cheer, Deep Purple, Leslie West, and JRR Tolkien, this cd is as the first track claims, "Colossal."

Parts & Labor – Stay Afraid (Jagjaguwar)
P & L are the new loud ... a happy intersection of bands like Oneida, The Wilderness, and The Boredoms ... an album so cacophonous and yet so smart as to force a lecture hall full of MIT grads to spontaneously sprout devil’s horns and begin speaking only in L33T.

Mogwai – Mr. Beast (Matador)
The fact that many of Mogwai’s dirge-like post rock imitators are quite good doesn’t take away from it being the perfect time for the band to reinvent itself. Cue the entrance of Mr. Beast, an album that’s often so different from the Scottish act's past works that it’s surprising. Quiet, often pretty, rarely rocking, but still a welcome departure from the norm.

(Wolfmother review by Gabe Burger.)