Wolfmother, 'Cosmic Egg'

Andrew Stockdale continues to refine stoner rock with new lineup

By Wade Tatangelo

Special to Metromix

Release date: October 27, 2009
Record label: DGC/Interscope/Modular
Official Web site: http://www.wolfmother.com/
 
The buzz: Enthusiasts of crushing classic rock smiled broadly when Australia’s Wolfmother reached the U.S. in 2006. The battle-tested power trio—formed in 2000—delivered a consistently engaging self-titled debut that brilliantly bit from numerous early-'70s titans; the wickedly catchy hit single “Woman” won the band a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. All seemed good in Wolfmother’s world of throwback thrills until last year, when the threesome was reduced to just frontman Andrew Stockdale. He quickly formed a fresh quartet to record “Cosmic Egg.”
 
The verdict: Singer-guitarist Stockdale—armed with his awesomely super-sized hairdo and talented new bandmates—returns with another totally sweet sack of stoner rock. It’s Black Sabbath brutality that swings like AC/DC, gets all Led Zeppelin mystic and Jimi Hendrix trippy. Sure, Wolfmother wear their influences on their leather sleeves, but the band’s execution and synthesis of these timeless sounds proves nearly flawless. The propulsive opener, “California Queen,” reads like a paean to one seriously gifted groupie. The spacey closer, “Violence of the Sun,” recalls a fantastic flashback. On the wonderfully peppy “White Feather,” Stockdale playfully pleads, “Dancing feet/I can’t compete with your dancing feet,” in-between monster guitar solos. A magnetic, multi-colored verve courses through every track here.
 
Did you know? Stockdale wrote each song on “Cosmic Egg,” with “Pilgrim" inspired by Dead Meadow’s "Everything’s Going On.”