Awesome Color - 'Awesome Color' (Ecstatic Peace) Released 26/03/07

New Stooges stuff not up to scratch? Not to worry. Awesome Colour are here with a debut so 'Fun House' it should probably pay royalties to Iggy & the Asheton brothers. Which might not be that suprising, considering that sticksman Scott "Rock Action" Asheton himself apparently schooled the currently New York-based trio in the dark arts of action rock during their formative years in Ann Arbor. Which, of course, is also hometown for the Stooges. Even so, by the time the three-piece enlist saxophonist Wade Kergan to channel Stooges hornman Steve Mackay's feverish free-jazz honking, having already unveiled the grunting 'Grown', which clearly wants to grow up to be 'Down On The Street', the scale of the band's worship of Pop-patented Raw Power plummets from obvious inspiration to blatant mimicry, although other righteous rulers of late 60's/early 70's riffola - MC5, Black Sabbath - also make it to the band's agenda for emulation.
   
Not a platter overflowing with original ideas, then, but the derivative formula pulls it off. Perhaps the trio's garishly coloured uniforms pack superpowers that turn the band into riff-sprouting dynamos. Maybe being caught at the center of their thundering two-chord tornado has a hypnotic effect that intensifies the impact of the band's brand of pandemonium to the point where grinning in the manner of headbangers who've just gulped down their entire stash in one go is the only possible reaction. The gleeful gusto with which the troupe carve cranked-up chunks off Mount Rockmore helps, as do the loping grooves the trio cook up to boost frontman Derek Stanton's impassioned wailing and amp-busting raids on the fretboard.

The band's refreshing willingness to strip their sound down to elemental ramalama seals the deal. Whereas most hip backwards-gazing psych-fiends - Black Mountain, Dungen, Comets on Fire - look up in awe to the era's hazier, headier space cadets, Awesome Color keep it plain and simple to the extent where you'd imagine that slob-rock giants Grand Funk are much more than just Homer Simpson's all-time favourite band to these guys and a gal.

Rudimentary riffs repeated ad nauseam, engine room stuck at gallop mode, lyrics that are little more than an excuse for more testosterone-drenched barking. If there ever was a soundtrack for downing your bodyweight in beer prior to a messy night of mindless carousing at the area's grottiest rock hole circa 1974, this is it. It sounds pretty awesome in 2007, too.