Filed under: Album Reviews
Release Date: Out now.
Record Label: Fakto Records.
The tagline that accompanies Naughty Mouse is an interesting one: ‘We’re the 1%. We’re stoner-rock.’
Now, where the band got these figures from is a mystery, however, what is clear, is that stoner-rock certainly accounts for a lot more than just 1% of rock’s integral DNA – you only have to look at the likes of: Clutch, Down and Kyuss to dispel this offhand statement.
So, back to the job in hand: Naughty Mouse, a French-speaking five-piece from Belgium, rarely drifts away from the fuzzy, jam-band roots of their aforementioned heroes; as the combination of windswept slide-guitars and competent chugging, evokes a drowsy listening experience, that is almost a direct nod, to the spirit and warmth, of the Coachella Valley.
Despite doing nothing to dispel the critics, who take great pleasure in ripping apart the desert-stoner-rock genre, as nothing more than: “repetitive, half-assed Kyuss-worshipping,” Staring at the Sun is a symbolic release for Belgium – and the Netherlands’ – thriving-club scene; as you only have to look at the line-up for last summer’s ‘Stoner Rockfest’ in Brussels – where Naughty Mouse were third on the bill, behind Horses on Fire and Ramon Zarate – to see that “half-assed Kyuss-worshipping,” is more than just a passing fad.
