Only forming about a year ago, Boston’s own Nomad Stones have pretty much everything on their eight song debut record—heavy guitars, raw aggression and energy, wild solos, and all the distortion one could need. On their Bandcamp they even describe their sound as being “haunted by electric guitar and FX neon-distorted dreams”—which is unequivocally true. It is overtly reminiscent of ‘80s alternative music, which makes it almost an ode to these older bands—it is has as much intensity as the Melvins, the punk sensibilities of Minor Threat, and is just as fuzzy and crunchy as Dinosaur Jr.
Courtesy of Brutal Panda Records, the Nomad Stones’ self-titled album is twenty minutes and thirty-seven seconds full of pure shredding and cacophonous tunes. On the first track, “Dead Batteries,” singer/guitarist Adam McGrath (of Cave In) comes out strong with baritone, Danzig-esque vocals. When I first saw the title of the second song, “Dirty Boots and a Friend Named Goo,” I had to wonder if the song had any relation to Sonic Youth? Single words in the lyrics include the name-dropping of various Sonic Youth songs and album titles—“teenage riot,” “daydream nation,” “washing machine,” etc. On the chorus McGrath sings “what happened to my Sonic Youth?”— a phrase which could have multiple meanings.
“The Frugal Yankee,” shows the versatility of McGrath’s vocals— moving from a deeper tone to a higher-pitched one. The song itself is probably my favorite track on the album, all thrashing riffs with a great punk urgency.