Mothership - Live Over Freak Valley

Black Friday is a weird day - you feel full and shitty and then all too often you feel forced into some sort of fucked up consumerist trend. That's part of why I find this new live record from Mothership so god damn perfect for a post-Turkey day celebration. I've long felt that these Texas rockers shine most in the live setting - I've seen them a couple of times now and both times I was simply impressed at the magic of the vibe that they were able to elicit. These are rock and roll masters at their peak and Love Over Freak Valley communicates that in a beautiful fashion.

There are two things that really define any good Mothership song, and that help to guide this record forward, groove and atmosphere. Live Over Freak Valley manages to charm because of exactly that. The groove is immediately apparent, the swinging riffs and Black Sabbathian drawl of the songs gets you bouncing along and feeling the blood rushing through your veins. Meanwhile - the dialogue between songs, as well as the waves of distortion helps to create an atmosphere about the record that you only find on the truly great live albums. I am completely serious when I say that Over Freak Valley may very well be on par with an album like the MC5's Kick Out The Jams.

So dive in and let these rivers of sound soak into you. Mothership are not just the rock band we want - they are the rock band we need right now.  They encapsulate something very important about the American experience - and because this is a live album we get a much more organic sense of what the band is capable of. As they call out to a new German crowd and beg for them to come closer, and then encourage folks to hang out with them at the merch booth you realize that this is a young rock band out to take the world by storm. Perhaps Kyle Juett said it best when he closed out the record, "We will be back!"

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