Ahh Manchester! Where it all was all happening in the 1980s and 1990s; where names like the Inspiral Carpets, JAMES, the Happy Mondays, and the Stone Roses helped to move British music slightly to the north of its hitherto centre. And to continue in the Mancunian tradition of the unexpected with songs like Namaste Dickhead and King Shit of Fuck Mountain, I give you Ten Foot Wizard.
Formed in 2009 as a stoner rock outfit, “Get Out Of Your Mind” is their third album following “Sleeping Volcanoes” (2015) and “Return to the Infinite” (2013). A special split single with Bad Kush of Night Witches from 2017 is also included on their BandCamp site; their contribution being the song Get Fucked that featured Gary Harkin’s talents.
But what is the TFW story, you ask? They bandy terms like cat rock and fruit metal and “Return to the Infinitee” had them being described as a “package of dynamite and nitro wrapped in a big fuzzy ribbon” … Whoa! That’s some reputation to live up to! So let’s just check that record out for a second … and meat meets chunk meets Gene Simmons-on-“Hotter Than Hell”-styled vocals on Rise from your Grave, followed on Vulture Bitches with a Green Day-punk anthem. TFW brought it with them, screaming, from the outset! More than a second needs to be spent on this back catalogue!
So to current business, and “Get Out” opens with the aforementioned Namaste Dickhead. A greeting, perhaps, on the front line of the left-wing demo when having a right-wing placard waved in your face. The chunky grooves, already sampled on Infinite, burst from the opening riffs with a screamed chorus chanting the mantra, perhaps trying to get over the chant from that right-wing crowd!
Broken Man takes it back with a 1990s-styled funk-rock number complete with a wah-wah-effected Strat through the verse, and that now-trademarked metal-funk chunk, reminiscent of RATM at their peak, eases back to a stripped-back second verse, building to the bridge and second chorus. Some of those that work forces…. But I digress…
The style of Queens of the Stone Age, established on 2002’s “Songs for the Deaf”, greets us for Noble Lie, Summer Love, and How Low Can You Go, with the Gene Simmons-gravel coming back on How Low. I can’t see where the “stoner rock” comes from but this is not what I would expect from stoners at all! This is more the fun and good times you get from bands like The Big Dirty whom you would love to see share the same stage on a summer festival bill. Maybe not this year, though.
Straight-ahead rock is delivered next with ultra-death growls and screams on the title track, slowing to all-out stoned-rock for the middle-eight in a style not dissimilar to that which Wolfmother were touting on their eponymous 2005 debut. The form established for Namaste and How Low returns on Working for a Better Future that includes a Matt Bellamy / “Queen II”-inspired all-out jam; while the whole effort is rounded out with more RATM on King Shit of Fuck Mountain: aptly named and performed in the same vein.
I will be revisiting the back-catalogue as soon as my current schedule allows, even if it means dialing up the data-usage for the month, because these ten tracks are not nearly enough TFW at any price! If you like it loud, chunky, and metallic (whether it be stoner, pop, death, fruit, feline, or fantasy/concept-oriented), “Get Out Of Your Mind” will leave you screaming with the rest of the punters for much, much more!