DEAD MEADOWS

The Nothing They Need XEMU

LA stoner rock veterans celebrate 20th anniversary.

Formed around 1998 out of Washington DC’s punk indie scene, Dead Meadow cut their stoner swathe by referencing Pink Floyd, Sabbath and Led Zep before such influences became a hipster mainstay. Led by Jason Simon’s sonorous croon collision between Syd Barrett and Peter Perrett, his guitars crackle with overloaded natural static or shimmer in the ether before joining bassist Steve Kille’s lumbering rumble. Touring incessantly and changing drummers as often as their underwear, they’ve now released eight albums, two live sets and a Peel session set, capturing the first time a band recorded for the show away from the BBC’s studio. This celebration of Dead Meadow’s 20 years of existence, recorded at their Wiggle Room rehearsal studio in LA, calls back every drummer who’s played with the core duo. It’s a feast of bulldozer riffing, psychdosed stoner reverie and axe fireworks, all bathed in plumes of drifting sonic smoke that encourage horizontal listening, though the sprightly I’m So Glad tosses some bouncy sausages onto the blues rock grill and may even inspire some vertical take-off action.