THROTTLEROD

PIG FARMER

SMALLSTONE RECORDS

When a band has been kicking around as long as Richmond Virginia band Throttlerod they usually have two choices. They either call it a day or sink into the abyss of re-writing the same album over and over again in order not to upset the fan base. There is a third option, which is to re-invent yourself with every album and constantly push your band as musicians and artists. Few follow the third choice, which makes a band like Throttlerod that much more of an ass-kicking venture. The band’s newest studio offering “Pig Charmer” is a huge rock record, a weird indie album and a swirling noise jam being played on ten in an abandoned elevator shaft.

With Pig Charmer Throttlerod is essentially saying “We don’t care what you or the genre want, we’re here for the f**king music!!” The band kicks the album off with “Clean” a song that moves from noisy and chaotic to huge and riff oriented without ever sounding forced. Throttlerod seem to be able to play fast and loose with the rules of song writing and get away with it clean. Take a song like “Serenade” that sounds like something Killing Joke would play until it stops cold into a mellow spacey tune that invokes thoughts of Sonic Youth. Those two things shouldn’t work together but Throttlerod not only makes them work but makes them rock. No matter what they do this band can’t write a song that doesn’t rock your face off even with all the weird experimentation going on. 

Two of my favorite songs on Pig Charmer stand at opposite ends of the musical spectrum as far as sound goes. “Baton Rouge” feels like Motorhead and Blind-era COC while “Buffalo” comes across with a furious Helmet meets Unsane vibe. With all of these varied sounds and influences the songs manage to always remain Throttlerod songs. No matter what their writing or playing the band puts their signature on it and make sure it always sounds like them. Pig Charmer is a personal statement from a band coming into their own not a batch of songs thrown together just to prove the can play.

The center of this storm is songwriter/guitarist/vocalist Matt Whitehead who holds the reigns of Throttlerod with great ease. Whitehead is a songwriter with an obviously large palette to draw upon. No matter what kind of fevered dream is happening inside his brain when he funnels it through his hands Whitehead is focused on creating Throttlerod music only. Take a song like “The Sweetness” which comes across like four different tunes crammed into one jam.

In the hands of a lesser songwriter “The Sweetness” would be a mess but Whitehead manages to bend and force it into a cohesive tune that stands out even against an album this complex. I also dig his voice which sounds like a grizzled old rock singer that only stops chain smoking in order to gargle with broken glass.

Producer Andrew Schneider (who also plays bass for Throttlerod) does a brave thing by allowing the production to be as natural and live as the songs themselves. Sometimes you can hear the amps crackle and fuzz out as they reach higher and higher volumes, even the vocals over-bias but all of it works, it all adds to the epic voyage that is Pig Charmer. With so many bands letting me down and so much music out there sinking deep into the bog of mediocrity an album like Pig Charmer and a band like Throttlerod are more than a breath of fresh air they are a revelation.