A couple of weeks ago, I reached out to a friend to ask about job opportunities. Lucky me, he runs a music website dedicated to what’s known as “Stoner Rock.” Now, I’m not a stoner (not anymore, anyway), but I do listen to Stoner Rock bands quite often.
It’s a bit hard to define Stoner Rock. It’s a weird name for a subgenre. One of the first bands from the genre I fell in love with was Clutch, an American band that’s developed a cult following over the years.
My friend’s website (Monster Riff) is dedicated to bands like Clutch and all the other bands that fall under the Stoner Rock umbrella. Queens of the Stone Age is another band sometimes hit with the label, though they much prefer the term Desert Rock.
Anyways, my first article (hopefully of many) for Monster Riff was an album review. All Them Witches, a Nashville band, released a new album (Nothing as the Ideal) earlier this month. Here’s a link to the review.
Writing the review was a lot of fun. I spent about a week listening to the band’s discography almost nonstop to get a feel for them. Then I focused on the new album, did some research, and wrote it up in a few hours.
I’m not a musician, but I’ve always been a music lover. I had a lot of musician friends when I was younger, and my cousin was a drummer. My cousin is now a DJ and steeped in electronic music. Growing up, we’d spend hours listening to albums, talking about them, breaking them down.
Writing this review for Monster Riff reminded me of those days with my cousin – really listening close to an album, going through the lyrics, digesting it. Good times.
If you like hard rock music, check out Monster Riff at this link. I’ll add this new writing gig to the list of good things going on in an otherwise crappy 2020 pandemic year!
