Old Growth

Editors’ Notes Stoner rock trio Dead Meadow recorded their fifth studio album, 2008’s Old Growth, at an Indiana farmhouse and the legendary Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, the city where these Washington D.C. stoners decided to set down new roots. Whether the shifts in locale actually impacted the group’s approach is arguable, but several tunes seem more accessible than ever. The band works out a boogie-influenced three-minute near-pop number with “Between Me and the Ground.” “What Needs Must Be” stays in the blues-shuffle pocket with sudden subtle shades of flickering guitar jetting above its placid surface. “Down Here” whispers sweetly to muted orchestration and acoustic plucks.  But the band’s search for the eternal riff is still intact as well, as the album’s seven-minute opener “Ain’t Got Nothin’ (To Go Wrong)” strokes past with images of Robin Trower at his most multi-phased and wah-possessed. “Either Way” wraps things up with a plaintive acoustic number that stripped of the band’s electricity runs just fine on the remaining fumes.