Peanut Butter Lovesicle - 'Heavy Daze Wildcat Craze' (self released) 4/5

Now this is a strange one. I will admit that I had never heard of New York / New Jersey power trio Peanut Butter Lovesicle until this five tracker arrived unsolicited at the BCFM studios last week.I picked it up and thought I would give it a listen and I'm glad that I did.

Basically on first listen this is a good solid stoner / blues ep in the same vein as the likes of Mos Generator and Stone Axe. All five cuts are slow and ponderous, riff heavy slices of fairly sparse retro rock with some spaced out psychedelic overtones. Lots of delicious wah wah guitar work, Groundhogsy rhythms and Stone Ground style song structures. But once you've given it a good play or two you begin to find there is more to this ep than first meets the ear.

You begin to notice other influences and constructs floating around the mix; little hints of modern alternative rock, pinches of indie shoegaze, a dash of grunge or two: nothing you can really put your finger on and pin down, but its there all the same. The opener Colorblind has a distant voice over section that wouldn't sound out of place on a Gorillas track Sicamore Trees has a Tom Waits style vocal and Commodore has a touch of the Lou Reeds to it. In fact the more you listen then more hidden depths you find.

All of which makes for a very interesting listen and shows that PBL are an outfit with an awful lot to offer and an interesting future ahead of them. Worth looking out for.

For Fans Of... Mos Generator, Lou Reed, The Groundhogs, Stone Axe....