Your name is Mead. You are the bass player in Swansea stoner rockers
Acrimony. You are playing a gig in Birmingham. You are on acid. You look
around and don't recognize any of your band members. Neither can you
remember any of these songs.
"I was thinking, 'I wonder who these guys are'," recalls Mead. "The someone
backed into my bass, and set me out of tune. Our roadie guy offered me a
spare bass, but I didn't recognice him so I wouldn't accept it."
Just one reason for going to see Acrimony: you never know when one of them might go badger mad.
New LP "Tumuli Shroomaroom" is a worthy soundtrack to such madness,
launching huge Sabbath riffs up into a Hawkwind-ruled multiverse.
"We are not trying to go back and sound like Motörhead or Sabbath," Mead
notes, "We're just trying to bring that classic sound up to date man. We
want to keep it heavy, but bring in other influences like tribal and
shamanic stuff."
Acrimony are part of what you might loosely call a stoner scene,
nationwide, with bands like Orange Goblin, Electric Wizard and Mourn.
"Bands like Cathedral have definetely started turning people's heads around
to this tyle of music," nods Mead. "All the bands are linked more by a vibe
than a sound."
Acrimony's lyrics are...out there,. 'Mother Slug' anyone ?
"I can't remember what any of the songs are about," says Mead, "and I was
dreading you asking me!"
'Tumuli Shroomaroom' ?
"'Tumuli' is an ancient Welsh Celtic word for an underground burial
chamber. A 'Shroomaroom' is just a room where you go to take shrooms and
voyage out. We thought it would be nice to have a little underground Indian
sweat lodge. A shroom lodge!"
Perhaps Acrimony can build one , when they've sold some records.
"Actually,", he laughs, "I'm just off down the garden with a spade now!"
Jason Arnopp
ACRIMONY's "Tumuli Shroomaroom" is out now on Peaceville.
