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The Company Band: The company band

26/05/10 || Habakuk

“The Company Band is a rock supergroup featuring Clutch frontman Neil Fallon, Fireball Ministry frontman James Rota, CKY drummer Jess Margera, Guitarist Dave Bone, and Fu Manchu bassist Brad Davis.”, says Wikipedia. U-huh! Never heard Fireball Ministry or CKY, but I sure love me some Fu Manchu and Clutch. Nonetheless, this album had remained under my radar until it was mentioned on the GD forums in the best-of-2009 discussions. And while the recent Clutch output received my valued “disappointment of the year” trophy, The Company Band stepped in for the rescue and did what Clutch used to do best. And since they include Neil Fallon on vocals, we’re talking about a replacement to the fullest extent.

What does this mean then? Whiskey-fueled, laid-back southern Grooveosaurus riffage, backed by solid drumming and tasteful bass-playing that further enhances the relaxed vibe this album creates, no matter what the tempo’s like. Not that these guys push the pedal through the floor or something, but they are still far from floating easy-listening beats, thanks to a solid southern rock grounding. And catchy, too, as the warm-sounding instruments leave enough room for Fallon to shine and chant his mostly cryptic lyrics (“The alchemical comic stoned again in his class/ Old quantum mechanic says it’s just out of gas.”) that with the exception of “Hot Topic woman” are impossible for me to decipher. I just tell myself it takes an American to understand them, but thanks to hints to, for example, Greek mythology (“Lethe waters”), that probably isn’t true. I guess it’s just due to me thinking everything about this album is rather American, starting with the Dollar-note style cover, which I might add is pretty damn cool.

Neither Dave Bone nor James Rota are a Tim Sult on guitar, but the result is a less fickle overall feeling and much more consistent flow. The result is lacking ingeniously creative riffs like Clutch used to have (see “The Soapmakers”), but since those were practically absent on the last disc, I’ll take a fail-safe approach like on “TCB” over misguided, thin-sounding experimentation any day. The Company Band know exactly what they do and what they can do, and they rely fully on their strength through groove meets catchiness in various shapes, from the slow “All’s well in Milton Keynes” to more upbeat tracks like “It’s a confusing world” or “Inline six”.

In summary, this debut really is what Clutch should have put out in 2009 if they still would have had it going for them. And by “it” I mean Teh Awesome of their past albums. Or various types of sizeable genitalia, if you prefer the GD categorization. “TCB” avoids all the weak-sauce snoozefest moments “Strange cousins from the west” featured prominently and replaces them with a smooth flow and catchy, ballsy American rock music. Nothing more, nothing less. Focken A, roish? Roish.

In case of doubt, check it out for yourself, as they have the whole album available for high-quality streaming . Ace move, made me buy it. Score + 0.5. Too bad it comes in a shitty all-cardboard fold-out slipcase. Worse than a Digipak. Score – 0.5.

7.5

Information
Released: 2009
Label: Restricted Release
Website: The Company Band MySpace
Band
Neil Fallon: vocals
Dave Bone: guitars
James Rota: guitars
Brad Davis: bass
Jess Margera: drums

Tracklist
01. Zombie barricades
02. It’s a confusing world
03. Djinn and pentatonic
04. Inline six
05. Hot Topic woman
06. All’s well in Milton Keynes
07. Who else but us?
08. CD&W
09. Love means never having to say you’re ugly
10. Lethe waters

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