Virginia:
Pontiak
CITY: Warrenton
SONG THAT GOT US: “White Hands [mp3]”
ON THE TUBES: MySpace, Web site, YouTube
RECORD LABEL: Thrill JockeyWHY THEM? These bearded riff merchants have emerged from the hinterland of NoVa with a craggy discography of experimental epiphanies that, for all their wandering, never forget tunesmithery and pure bloody heaviness. “White Hands” is a greedy monolithic monster that nonetheless has moments of speedy rush, folky campfire harmonizing, and Floyd-y eternal-void-gazing that break the metal into digestible chunks. In the same way that the band hails from halfway be-tween the Shenandoahs and the big city, their newest long-player, Maker, seems most at ease between wide-open canvases of sound and tight, fast action.
BONUS BIT! Three summers ago in France, a couple of members of the band, drunk, scaled a tall stone wall at 3 am and dropped into a brightly lit courtyard. They were immediately arrested. That’s what happens when you break into the local neighborhood police academy.
