Big Rock Candy Mountain

Just the first minute of opener "Rocketship" reveals a band with a drill bit intensity and creative moxie akin to At The Drive-In, Jane's Addiction and Nirvana, with a similar mixture of complexity and beautifully ragged elements. By turns celestial and intensely earthy, Big Rock Candy Mountain is a modern band with seemingly equal enthusiasm for classic rock and angular, post-Pavement flavors, with each tune on this saucy debut slapping these currents together with smashing results. Full of interesting switchbacks and dramatic dips, BRCM also credibly screams, "Give me all your goddamn money!" At points, like the jagged strut of "Lover," they have a British tinge - straight trouser smart rock deluxe – but they quickly muddle any simple portrait, squirting fired up power chords and Queen-esque vocal nuances all over, yet never in a way that seems messy or random. The voices chirping in their heads may be manic but they harness the buzz into a truly compelling song cycle. Capable of the giant amp stack, prog-metal chunkiness of "I Am The Storm," the gnarled delicacy and harmonic sophistication of "Fire Song" and the thug force hymn "Bang Bang," there seems vast oceans for Big Rock Candy Mountain to explore, but based upon this opening salvo it's going to be interesting wherever we land. - Dennis Cook

Truly fun music. In this 7-track EP BRCM brings forth a big howling presence. Influenced by the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Flaming Lips, and equipped with a T-Rex attitude, Big Rock contrasts the gentle and rugged in persistent switches from quiet to forceful in titles like, “Rocketship” and “Bang Bang,” showcasing their sparkling melodies and a playful aggression. And they still manage to bring a little psychedelic into the mix! There is a rolling fluidity to their energetic sounds and a tension that really works.



- Vanessa Ta

“Big Rock's sound is defined by both by its sparkling, effervescent melodies and its raw rhythmic sensibility. They demonstrate their drama by whipping back and forth between frenetic, distorted charges and delicate, self-aware passages that aren't afraid to retreat a little. It is a pinpoint reflection of their New Orleans home town, a city that wears all of its colors on its sleeve, from vibrant highs to grittiest lows.” - Brett Cooper

While their name may allude to it, New Orleans-based indie outfit Big Rock Candy Mountain are anything but a group of folk-obsessed idlers in search of an idyllic hobo’s heaven. These gonzo rockers have got their own warped visions of paradise. Their debut album Hey Kid is a frenzied reverie swept up in a world of bliss, bedlam, spiky new wave and knifing prog rock. After luring you in with a liquid guitar and a chorus of “aahs,” it’s off to a world of ringing sirens, spacey synths, grinding guitars and explosive drums. The opening number “Rocketship” is pure sensory overload—chaotic, euphoric, overpowering and inescapable. The rest of the songs on Hey Kid are just as maddening. The hysterical opus, “I Am the Storm,” swims through a sea of feedback and trippy art punk, while the pulsating distortion of “Hey Kid Give Me Your Money” erupts into a vehement, overdriven freakout. Singer/keyboardist Michael Giardot orchestrates this histrionic voyage. His feverish drone and unhinged cries often shatter the insular world his “cooing” falsetto nearly creates. Giardot’s mates all match his mania. Bassist Stephen MacDonald’s punchy surges keep things danceable, and drummer Leo DeJesus’ Bonzo-meets-Stewart Copeland barrage rattles home the ricocheting riffs and jarring virtuosity of guitarist Andrew Hartstock. Check out the madcap closer “Bang Bang;” it’s sure to leave the sense reeling.

After seven frantic blasts, Hey Kid clocks in at just under 35 minutes. And while that may seem short, it’s hard to image that the brain could handle much more. Loud, audacious and unrelenting, in relatively no time at all you’ll either be teetering on the edge of psychosis or shaking your limbs uncontrollably. Beware! - Aaron LaFont

Now, try not to think of T-Bone Burnett’s musical score from the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou?—instead imagine Rage Against the Machine sitting down at Café du Monde in the French Quarter of NOLA with The Cure—and you’d have something close to Big Rock Candy Mountain.

BRCM, a little but feisty band from NOLA (New Orleans) popped up for the weekend to play a gig at Trophy’s (not quite a trophy atmosphere) just off the main drag of South Congress—and I have to say, as hackneyed as hyperbolic descriptive tendencies are in our musical descriptions, it was quite a show. Anytime you have a band close their set with a cover of “Bulls on Parade” by Rage Against the Machine, I think you have to admire their ambition and energy. Not just anyone can pull that off—and they did.



Though it doesn’t take a musician to appreciate music—I think that musicians can get underneath some of the musical nuances upon which we depend—those syncopated beats and rhythms that help us distinguish good-good and bad-bad. Yes—there are other factors such as mood and moment that aide in this process—but, there’s a difference between ‘tap-your-foot’ and ‘shake-your-ass-wiggle-your-hips-bend-your-knees-shrug-your-shoulders-bob-your-head-white-man-overbite’ (if, you know what I mean).

In this case, here’s what Big Rock Candy Mountain (BRCM) does well—more than most: musical vision. I know—I know, what the hell does that matter to me? Well, musical timing is about taking you on a musical journey. Sometimes we just want to stroll—other times we like to autobahn—and, other times we like to mix it all up. And, though it was just one show, for me, BRCM mixes it up and they’ll take you most anywhere you want to go.

Bottom-line, musical vision is about expressing the old with new forms—it doesn’t have to be drastically new, just enough. Clearly, vision implies sight—and, musically speaking, vision gives everybody a little something. You see—most pop songs fall into the standard 4:4 time frame, a training-wheels form, a housewife ass jiggle form (no doubt in ‘mom-jeans’)—and then, well, you have your ‘mosh-pit’ mom, knocking over pots and pans—upending the latest sugar based cereal concoction over her head, flailing her arms about as she tosses her streaky blonde like a wet mop—that’s musical vision. That’s BRCM.

Finally, what BRCM does well in mixing it up, is that they ‘get you off’—like the old AT&T slogan, they ‘reach out and touch someone’, like Calgon, ‘they take you away’. Right where you are—they entertain, but they find you. They don’t ask you to find them. If this attitude could be incarnated, it’d have to come from Jeff Bebe (Jason Lee), brilliantly muttering insecure dribble in Cameron Crowe’s incendiary film Almost Famous, “I get people off. I find the one guy who’s NOT getting off and I MAKE him get off.”

At times, you have your great musicians who can’t get past themselves—how great they are and how underappreciated they seem to be (self-exuded of course)—and they caustically berate the fans with ‘appreciate me’. At others, you have your good musicians who seem bigger than they are because of their musicality and contagious artistry.

What we should realize, is that regardless of what kind of musician we’re listening to, we, the corporately lulled audience, don’t care if you feel appreciated the way you feel you should—we want to be entertained—we want to forget about our asshole boss—or our tortuous cubicle. A good band—will find you and get you off, regardless of where you’re at. In that respect, I’d give BRCM a confident vote.

Big Rock Candy Mountain will mix it up for you—give you a spin on life from a variety of gears, and ‘get you off’. They’ve got a contagious energy that permeates almost every bar of their musical profundity. So, if you have some rage and need a cure, try Big Rock Candy Mountain. - Raymond

New Orleans based gonzo rockers Big Rock Candy Mountain have released their new EP, Oh Snap… Mah Back, for free on their website. A nerve-wracking amalgam of lo-fi, hysteria and high-flying histrionics, this prog-pop treat is sure to drive you batty… and straight to the dance floor. And for all you like-minded comrades out there in the Big Easy, you can catch BRCM along with many other frenzied do-it-yourselfers live this weekend at the NOLA Indie Rock Fest II. - Groovescapes

i happened to catch new orleans own big rock candy mountain open for roadside graves and the blue party at the blue nile a few months back. honestly, i didnt expect much, but this was judging em based on looks. they were just very unassuming, and they didnt look like the fit together as a group. im not above eating crow, and in this case of big rock candy mountain, i gotta eat my fair share. first off, they’re loud, but loud with a purpose. they’re not just wailing on guitars and hopefully making some kind of sense. they’re loud but the melodies remain fully intact. secondly, they were fun as hell. im a curmudgeon, admittedly, and if you can get my head bobbing and a shit-ass grin on my face, hats off to you. but really, who am i? noone really, but everyone in attendance, that night, seemed to be in agreement, these guys fuckin rock.

they got a new record out entitled, hey kid, which you can pick up on their bandcamp page. they’re also doin a little tour and if you happen to be in athens on the 12th, they’re playing at tasty world. check their myspace page for the dates. - Captains Dead Blog

"Is it too early to call this the post Dirty Projectors era? If so, Big Rock Candy Mountain carries the curious dischording harmonies to its own world of alternating power riffs and introspective blank spaces. This is certainly not simple music." - IndieFeed