Hermano Album Reviews

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… Only a Suggestion (2002)
Dare I Say… (2004)

… Only a Suggestion (2002)

8

The Bottle / Alone Jeffe / Manager's Special / Senor Moreno's Introduction / Senor Moreno's Plan / Landetta (Motherload) / 5 to 5 / Nick's Yea

... Only a Suggestion Straightforward, muscular hard rock doesn't get much better than this. It's the kind of album you like immediately or will detest with a vengeance. Not that there's anything repulsive about it - it's not overtly misogynistic, racist, badly played or produced - but retro-rock like this certainly seems to divide people in camps. As the rating implies, I'm always happy when an album like this comes around. Hermano was "formed" (if that's the right word) in the late '90's by Dandy Brown (Orquesta del Desierto) who wanted to bring together a few musicians he thought would make a great unit. He already knew ex-Afghan Whigs drummer Steve Earle, Dave Angstrom - whose former band Black Cat Bone he'd produced -, Mike Callahan and vocalist John Garcia (Kyuss, Slo Burn, Unida), because he'd done some backing vocals for the Black Cat Bone-album Brown was producing. The band opted for the same method as Orquesta del Desierto: with the members living that far apart, they started sending CD-R's back and forth, and that was before Garcia and Brown even played together. Pretty soon, the album was recorded, but that's when one of the modern era's most ridiculous disaster stories begins, as the band at first couldn't release the album for contractual reasons, then their first label went bankrupt and their new one really fucked 'm around, refusing the band royalties, etc (full story ). Anyway, it was definitely worth the wait, as the album practically smokes from start to finish. From the crunching riffs, fiery solos, crawling bass lines, ballsy sound of "The Bottle" to the climax "Nick's Yea" is, …Only a Suggestion is exactly what Brown called it when I interviewed him a while ago: "a powerful heavy blues record." Less jam-prone than Kyuss (I had to make that reference), it's quite similar to Unida's groove-rock, with Garcia's vocals really topping it off. This is no criticism towards the music, but even more than during the time Kyuss were around, Garcia has become a fantastic hard rock singer. He may not have the technical virtuosity of a Chris Cornell, but his testosterone rasp and unique mix of classic hard rock roaring and peculiar phrasing ensures he again steals the show. Listen to "Nick' Yea," for instance, in itself not very special (I mean, it's basically a heavy take on classic Cream, right?), but just listen to the way he keeps and roaring and screaming. Classic. Other highlights on the album are "Alone Jeffe," which in fact comes pretty close to the heavy/catchy sound of QOTSA's debut album and the hypnotic groove-based rock of "Landetta (Motherload"), which deserves a place on the car mix tape you're gonna make for next summer. The other songs are less impressive, but none of 'em is less than good: "Manager's Special" is fast & raunchy hot rod rock, "Senor Moreno's Plan" (preceded by a mine-long instrumental) a cooler-than-thou update of struttin' '70's rock à la Aerosmith, and "5 to 5" is basically heavy, heavy blues (and check out Garcia's vocals - rowdier than ever). All things considered, …Only a Suggestion sounds pretty much like your standard desert rock-album, albeit a very good one, but how else could it be, with a member of one of the genre's pioneering bands giving his all, in the meantime aided by top-notch rockers. In fact, I have only one bone to pick with 'em, and that is that SEVEN SONGS (BARELY 27 MINUTES OF RAWK) IS NOT VERY MUCH, OR IS IT?

Dare I Say… (2004)

7.5

Cowboys Suck / Life / Roll Over / Quite Fucked / Is This O.K.? / Brother Bjork / On the Desert / My Boy / Angry American / Murder One / Let's Get It On

Dare I Say... Considering the tough luck (especially with labels) of few of Hermano's members have been through, it's almost a miracle the band actually stuck together to record this highly anticipated second album, which many predicted would be their true debut album, as opposed to the scattershot affair that Only a Suggestion was a few years ago. And indeed, Dare I Say… does feel more cohesive, even though the band repeatedly steps out of the stoner/desert groove mould, and it actually is a full-length album (the debut only contained 7 actual songs and was usually treated as a long EP). However, good intentions do not always result in worthwhile material, and this sophomore album definitely has its flaws and share of less impressive material. What the band does have in heaps, is energy, as the brash "Cowboys Suck" immediately makes clear with a middle-finger raisin', scorchin' groove that'll burn off your eyebrows and sideburns. The lyrics contain too much clichéd imagery and the music's too straightforward to tower above their contemporaries' releases, but of course there's John Garcia, and very few singers out there can bellow and holler like this guy, whom many still consider to be the ultimate stoner vocalist. There's certainly a case to be made for that statement, as his delivery (often seething with energy) and the diversity his displays is quite impressive: during the rumbling "Life," which seems to reconcile late-period Kyuss with early QOTSA, for instance, his vocals switch from mellow whisper to righteously nasty scream in a split second.

The QOTSA-name actually rears its head regularly during the course of the album, most of all during the typical robot-rock of "Is This O.K.?", which needs a Garcia shifting into a higher gear to find its truly own voice. Despite the similarities to the releases of former band mate Homme, Hermano contains to exude their own brand of energy again. Looser and bluesier than QOTSA, they come off as more spontaneous and more traditional: you'd never find anything as direct as "Roll Over" or as simple as the acoustic blues of "Murder One" on an album by the Queens. The hostile atmosphere of the latter pops up throughout the entire album (and the cover art), turning it into quite an angry, even bitter, document. While this not always works to their advantage - in fact, the endlessly repeated "Go, motherfucker, go" of the metronome-raunch of "Quite Fucked" gets fucking annoying after a while, and so does the adolescent, humourless ranting of "Angry American" - this indignant energy also infuses the album with a stubborn pulse that keeps it from becoming a bore. As such, the mildly enjoyable "On the Desert" and quite generic "My Boy" are easily redeemed for by excellent tracks such as "Brother Bjork" (a dramatic, almost pompous anthem that gives Garcia the opportunity to show what he's got) and the vicious album closer "Let's Get It On" ("I'll make a motherfucking mess out of you"). On the one hand, the band definitely comes off as a determined unit, which pays off in the energy department, but on the other hand, Dare I Say… also contains too much unexceptional songs to smack you against the wall - which is exactly what you expect from this band. Nothing less. Other bands would probably sacrifice a limb or two to come up with an album like this, but I can't get rid of the opinion that these four troopers could and should have achieved something even better.