Being partial to a bit of desert rock with added fuzz, I was drawn to Texan rockers High Desert Queen who certainly fulfil the description in their PR about sounding like 666 diesel horses thundering by. After releasing one song and performing only a handful of live shows, the band found themselves being sought out by Blasko, an A&R man with previous playing bass for Ozzy Osbourne amongst others). Palm Reader is their second album, coming out on Magnetic Eye Records.
After returning from a six-week tour around Europe supporting Fatso Jetson, the band were busting to get to recording this new album with an eye to just playing without constraint. Formed in Houston by vocalist Ryan Garney and guitarist Rusty Miller, the band are completed by Rusty’s daughter Morgan on bass and drummer Phil Hook.
In terms of sound these guys pull off the neat trick of being super heavy yet have a great way with melody. The album reminds me of another band, We Are Buffalo, who put out a cracking album in the same vein a few years ago. Opening song ‘Ancient Aliens’ blasts along with a head cracking riff and pounding drums, nice and chunky. ‘Death Perception’ has a laid-back bluesy verse with Morgan singing for the most part. Weirdly her voice has the emotional tremor of Björk, and she’s joined by Ryan for another earworm of a chorus. On the massive sounding ‘Head Honcho’ every seismic batter of the drums lands hefty blows to your cranium. The production is excellent capturing the magnitude of the band’s ability to create a mighty sound. Ryan’s vocals are a colossal roar in the chorus of “Heaaaaaaaaaad Hon-chooooooooo!”
Title track ‘Palm Reader’ zips along at full pelt. ‘Time Waster’ allows Phil to lay out some funky beats as the twisty riffs writhe and slip around them. There’s a sizeable nod to Black Sabbath with this song. Glad someone else finds Tuesday the foulest day of the week as the aptly named ‘Tuesday Night Blues’ finds Ryan lay out a spoken word verse before erupting into the big belting hook laden chorus. Album closer ‘Solar Rain’ is as close as High Desert Queen get to a ballad, albeit the chorus kicks any notion of being tame into touch.
High Desert Queen aren’t creating anything particularly new with this record, but that wasn’t their aim. The album was intended to feel fluid and jam-like and they’ve absolutely nailed that intent as the songs are dynamic and keep you engaged as they twist and turn. With Palm Reader this Texas band have set themselves up nicely for an intriguing future.
