Reunited Oakland hard rockers Drunk Horse play the Ivy Room in Albany
A leading light of the Bay Area heavy rock underground during the late 1990s and 2000s, reunited Oakland band Drunk Horse plays the Ivy Room in Albany Saturday night.
Formed in 1998 by guitarist/singer Eli Eckert (formerly of local garage-punk outfit the Pants), drummer Chris Johnson (aka Cripe Jergensen), guitarist John Niles and bassist Cyrus Comisky, the band eschewed the Sabbath-worship of countless stoner-rock bands trying to retrofit '70s metal sounds for the modern era with a unique approach.
The band's original label Man's Ruin Records -- the imprint run by noted poster artist Frank Kozik -- released plenty of albums that genuflected before guitar giant Tony Iommi, the Oakland quartet dealt out a unique style of Southern-fried boogie that evoked the chugging tempos and muscular six-string heroics of early ZZ Top, the Allman Brothers, Foghat, and more obscure blues-rock bashers like Cactus on the band's self-titled Man's Ruin debut in 1998. Their subsequent sophomore effort, Tanning Salons/Biblical Proportions in 2001, would add touches of experimental blues skronk indebted to the fractured sound of Captain Beefheart as well as the blazing guitar heroics of fusion master John McLaughlin's seminal '70s band Mahavishnu Orchestra.
When Man's Ruin dissolved, Drunk Horse was left looking for a new label to partner with and -- before too long -- the band had teamed with SoCal hard rock and psych mainstay Tee Pee Records for their third album, Adult Situations in 2003.
With the departure of Niles after that album was released, the remaining members reached out to a pair of friends to help, enlisting the F--king Champs guitarist Josh Smith and multi-instrumentalist Joel Robinow to fill in. The band built on its Bay Area following with tours of the U.S. and Europe and several appearances at South By Southwest in Austin. Their 2005 offering In Tongues stood out as their most focused effort yet with a set of blinding tunes like "Strange Transgressions" and "Priestmaker" spotlighting furious slide licks from Smith, with shades of Thin Lizzy audible in Eckert's vocal swagger and his adroit harmonized interplay with Robinow on "Self-Help" and "Vatican Shuffle." But despite the album earning the band some of the best reviews of its career, Drunk Horse would cease regular activity not long afterwards outside of occasional live performances in the Bay Area.
The musicians involved would move on to new projects. Comisky recorded and toured with noted Oakland metal stalwarts Saviours for several years, while Eckert and Robinow joined Comets on Fire guitarist Ethan Miller's more roots-minded psych band Howlin Rain, filling out the line-up that recorded 2008's Magnificent Fiend for producer Rick Rubin's American Records. By the time the group was working on its ambitious magnum opus The Russian Wilds that finally came out in 2012, Eckert had left and Comisky had taken his place in the powerful quintet version of the band that also included drummer Raj Ojha and Earthless guitar virtuoso Isaiah Mitchell.
More recently, Johnson has been playing drums with punk crew Andy Human and the Reptoids as well as another band fronted by Miller, the fuzzed-out power trio Feral Ohms. Meanwhile, Robinow and Eckert (now playing bass) have teamed with Ojha in their celebrated prog-pop outfit Once and Future Band, releasing two albums and an EP and touring with such notable acts as Tool and Chris Robinson's As the Crow Flies, while Comisky has been working with a new group of Oakland vets in the punk band Smokers.
Still, with Drunk Horse never actually announcing a break up and all the members on good terms, it was only a matter of time before circumstances and the steady badgering from friends and fans would bring the quartet back together. In 2019, the band was invited by the organizers of annual Portland, OR heavy psych celebration Stumpfest on 4-20 weekend (the three-day festival that included performances by Elder, Kinski, the aforementioned Earthless and Once and Future Band among others), leading Drunk Horse to play a warm-up gig at Eli's that marked the first time the band played a hometown show in over a decade.
While several additional shows would follow that year, the group has largely been quiet since 2019 with Eckert and Robinow focusing their attention on Once and Future Band, though Robinow also spent extensive time on the road touring in the latest line-up of the Black Crowes with former bandmate Mitchell. The band reunited once again to play Stumpfest last year, this time performing with original guitar player Niles.
That line-up once again takes the stage this Saturday night at the Ivy Room Saturday night, where they will be joined by heavy experimental power trio Terry Gross. Contrary to what one might expect from a band named after the unflappably calm NPR interviewer, the threesome bashes out a bruising, kinetic style of krautrock-influenced groove displayed on their debut recording Shameless Imposter, a two-song 10" vinyl EP released on Valley King Records in 2018.
Featuring the six-string heroics of the Champs and Trans Am guitarist Phil Manley, Terry Gross came together three years earlier when he started playing with his El Studio co-owner, bassist Donny Newenhouse (Film School, Hot Fog, Buffalo Tooth). The split of Newenhouse's band Peace Creep with talented drummer Phil Becker (Pins of Light, ex-Triclops! and Lower Forty-Eight) and Triclops!/Anywhere guitarist Christian Eric Beaulieu led to some informal jam sessions with Manley and the rhythm section at the studio, sparking the new project.
Digitally recording their freewheeling improvisations at El Studio, the trio began developing its unique chemistry that found the musicians exploring hypnotic extended grooves that at times recalled the droning motorik workouts of German rock experimentalists Can and Neu, but with the added heft of modern rock titans like the Melvins. Terry Gross started playing live shows on both sides of the Bay, sharing stages with the likes of Big Business and Hot Lunch while establishing a reputation for dealing out their unusual style heady, muscular extended tunes.
The band released a number of tunes via its Bandcamp page during the pandemic, drawing from rehearsal recordings and finding a number of extended pieces to offer fans in order to tide them over until their next official effort. Manley's connection with indie label Thrill Jockey -- which had released albums by Trans Am and Life Coach -- led the trio to a record deal. Using their studio as an editing tool much in the same way Can would piece together its songs by drawing from raw recorded material, Terry Gross distilled its best sonic exploration into the three sprawling tunes heard on it first full-length album for Thrill Jockey, Soft Opening, in 2021.
The group continued to track live sessions at El Studio as it pieced together material for a follow-up while playing a steady string of local shows (most notably supporting a reunited Steel Pole Bath Tub at the Great American Music Hall last February) as well as appearing at Stumpfest in Portland and playing the band's first East Coast dates with British noise-rock band Part Chimp.
In September, the group unleashed its latest effort, Huge Improvement. Featuring a trio of propulsive prog-punk tunes clocking in at over seven minutes bookending the extended droning menace of "Full Disclosure" that captures one of the threesome's instant compositions as it happened live in the studio without overdubs or editing, Terry Gross continues to refine its unique sonic chemistry. The band recently celebrated the release of the new album with a headlining show at the Bottom of the Hill. Opening the show is Haardvark, a new group featuring Hot Lunch, Mensclub and Wig Torture guitar wizard Aaron Nudelman and his Hot Lunch bandmate and onetime Harold Ray Live in Concert member Charlie Karr on bass backed by Jamie Sanitate (guitarist for the defunct Annihilation Time, Very Paranoia, Cronander and bassist for Owl) on drums.
Drunk Horse with Terry Gross and Haardvark
Saturday, Dec. 7, 8 p.m. $15-$18
The Ivy Room