Though he was just a newborn during Woodstock and only got his driver’s license two years ago, the spirit of psychedelia, independence, and youthful rebellion has always been front and center for Stephen McBean and his rock outfit Black Mountain. The Vancouver quintet has been going hard since 2004 but in light of his newfound horsepower (in the form of a 1985 Dodge Destroyer fixer-upper), singer and guitarist McBean needed to push the group’s musical tachometer to its redline.
This fifty-going-on-sixteen scenario paved the way for Black Mountain’s fifth full-length, Destroyer, an album that puts you in McBean’s shotgun seat while he pops the clutch with heavy riffs and scratches paint off the labels “stoner rock” or “space rock” like the bumper stickers they are. Destroyer is out now and Black Mountain joins us at the Mohawk this Fall, so let’s ascend the peak with “Pretty Little Lazies”!
–Jack Anderson
Photo: Olivia Jaffe
