I remember driving in my old Mercury Capri through the streets of San Antonio, Texas, in the early 90s with the radio tuned to KISS-FM and hearing a haunting guitar progression coming through the speakers. The guitar was soon joined by a tom-heavy drum rhythm, then the power chords came in… then all hell broke loose. I remember reaching to turn the volume up and thinking ‘Who the heck is this?!’ I soon discerned by the chorus that the song, with its flawless musicianship, chordal ebb and flow and soaring keys and leads, was called ‘Pull Me Under’… and such was my introduction to Dream Theater.

It is fitting that almost 20 years later I would have a similar reaction when I first heard ‘On The Backs Of Angels’ from the band’s new album – A Dramatic Turn Of Events. Having followed the band only peripherally over the past two decades, it was striking how much the new song felt like a song that could have been on 1992’s Images & Words. Making it more remarkable, the band has had its fair share of turnover over that span, including the most recent and likely most shocking departure of drummer Mike Portnoy.

The new effort offers glimpses across the band’s career, but it is in Images & Words where it finds its most direct comparison. So much so in fact, that one web fan has already dissected some structural similarities of songs on the new and classic albums. Be that as it may, the aggressive ‘Build Me Up, Break Me Down’, the tribal and anthemic ‘Bridges In The Sky’ and 12-minute plus ‘Breaking All Illusions’ solidify this Dream Theater as every bit the peer of the original line-up. New drummer Mike Mangini (Extreme, Steve Vai) is up to the task of filling Portnoy’s vacancy on the skins. Petrucci, Rudess and Myung are rock solid throughout the 70-plus minute onslaught of tempo changes and melodic, progressive lines.

Historically, it seems vocalist James LaBrie caught a lot of heat for being the band’s weak link, but I believe his voice, and particularly his delivery, suits the music well. There are spots where his delivery could use more urgency, but that’s a minor quibble.

Another bit of cool regarding Dream Theater… Everyone is present… always. In every song, you get the full spectrum of instrumentation in near perfect balance. No one is drowning anyone else out. It is all there… and A Dramatic Turn Of Events is no exception. It is also no exception that the assault of precision and dexterous riffage on the part of all members can cause a bit of ear fatigue during some of the more lengthy passages. Fleeting examples of too much of a good thing, so to speak.

If you are coming into the new one a fan of the band’s more metal tendencies, you may be disappointed. This is a prog record. Heavy, no doubt… but prog nonetheless. If you give it a chance… try ‘Outcry’ or ‘Build Me Up….’ out for size. They are good marriages of the styles and somewhat symbolic of the way forward for Dream Theater. Given the material and performances here, I’ll be very interested to hear where the band goes next.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for trios. Being from Houston, that typically meant two things – ZZ Top and King’s X. In my teenage years, I was known to trend towards Triumph and Rush to fill my headphones with guitar rock from the Great White North. Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Police, Nirvana… all had a spot in my CD collection. Heck, while the wife was listening to John Mayer croon about ‘swimming in a sea of blankets’, I was thoroughly enjoying his JM3 work with Pino Paladino and Steve Jordan. 

One of the most infectious rock trios I’ve come across in the past few years is Chicago’s The Steepwater Band, consisting of guitarist/singer Jeff Massey, bassist Tod Bowers and drummer Joe Winters. Turned onto the group by a music store owner and friend, I sought out their current album at the time – 2008’s Grace and Melody – and immediately ‘got it.’ Part blues, part boogie and part roots rock, the guitar-driven songs resonated like that favorite summer-time album that you always put on while heading to the beach. On Clava, the band’s new release, the boogie, blues and rock-and-roll continues to fill that niche of ‘good time’ music that insists you tap you foot, bob your head and sing along.
 
The album opens with ‘Remember The Taker’, a slow-building, 6-minute plus blues stomp showcasing Massey’s command of delivery and fuzz tones as a Leslie swirls in the background. A little tremolo across the chorus sections and a few vibraphone accents add to the uncertain mood of the song. The last 1:30 is a solo breakdown that represents what the The Steepwater Band is about as good as any encyclopedia entry could ever accomplish.
 
Next up is the single, ‘Vanishing Girl’… where a bluesy, Zeppelin-esque riff (think ‘How Many More Times?’ derivative) takes center stage. ‘Come On Down’ is a more up-tempo, straight-ahead blues shuffle that houses a deft slide solo that brings the boogie.
 
‘Love Never Ends’ is one of those ‘top-down, sunny day, beach-cruising’ songs – a bouncy groove is the foundation for some fairly light vocals and a heavily-modulated solo. ‘Bury My Burden Deep’ is almost Beatlesque in its playful delivery and ‘60s-era chorus.
 
‘High & Humble’ is quintessential Steepwater at work. Its catchy, slide-accented main riff pretty much runs throughout this song about weighing the trials of life on the road against those of being at home. Massey’s lyrics warn of the dangers of disconnect that come with life on the move… “The devil’s got no home. Got no place to rest his head. And the pull of wanderlust, leave you lost without a friend.”
 
Plodding blues is the recipe for ‘Won’t Be Long For Now’, while an uptempo boogie/shuffle is the engine of ‘Out On Love’.

‘Off The Rails’ is a little bit of hand-clapping soul mixed in with a whole lot of blues and some of the album’s best fuzz tones… during the solo section.

The album goes out on a more pop-oriented note. ‘Meet Me In The Aftermath’ recalls the chord-driven jangle of bands like The Wallflowers, but still has its roots in the blues, thanks to Massey’s vocal delivery and slide work on the solo.

Clava is The Steepwater Band at its best. It is more focused than the band’s last full-length studio record – the aforementioned Grace & Melody – and more mature than 2006’s Revelation Sunday or any effort before that. Clava could, and should, be the one that gets this very popular regional band a shot at the national spotlight.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Cincinnati’s Buffalo Killers are one of those regional bands that the whole country should probably know more about. Maybe you’ve seen them? They’ve been out on tour with The Black Crowes. Ever hear of The Black Keys? Guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach produced Buffalo Killers 2008 album Let It Ride. Brothers Andrew and Zachary Gabbard man the guitar/vocals and bass in the trio, which is rounded out by drummer Joseph Sebaali. The band sprang from the ashes of a garage rock outfit called Thee Shams in 2006 and harnessed a unique take on a retro sound. The band’s latest effort is simply titled 3, and is a collection of vintage guitar tones and tight vocal harmonies spread over a series of rootsy stomps and good, ol’ fashioned ballads.

The album starts off with the jangly ‘Huma Bird’ – a laid-back piece of Americana that is one-third Black Crowes and two-thirds James Gang. ‘Circle Day’ is straight out of the late ‘60s with its subtle fuzz, three-part harmonies, driving drums and heavy, vintage overtones.

The album downshifts back into mid-tempo Americana with ‘Mountain Sally’. Loaded with more electric/acoustic guitar jangle and vocal harmonies, the song again invokes a rock and roll past populated by bands like The Band rather than than anything current.

‘Spend My Last Breath’ is a haunting ballad built on the foundation of ‘brushed’ drums and an eerie keyboard flutter.

The album centerpiece comes at the mid-way point in the form of ‘Lily of the Valley’, another keyboard infused ballad with faint steel guitar accents and the seemingly ever-present urgency of Andrew Gabbard’s vocals.

‘Jon Jacob’ takes a more upbeat turn, before more steel guitar and banjo drone slow the pace again on ‘All Turn To Cloud’.

The rest of 3 is more of the same, with highlights coming in the blues and shaker-accented ‘Time Was Shaping’ and the time-shifting ‘Everyone Knows It But You’. The album wraps with ‘Could Never Be’, a rich, harmony-filled tune, which sports some guitar flavors reminiscent of Abbey Road-era Beatles.

Buffalo Killers 3 is one of those albums that begs to be heard through headphones. While simple in structure to the casual listener, and almost completely devoid of riffs, there is actually a lot going on here texture-wise. It’s not perfect. It does get rather sleepy at times and the band’s sound is definitely a throw-back to the late 60s/early 70s mellow psych-rock scene, but they pull it off in a way that is noteworthy. This record sounds like it came out in 1971, not 2011. If nothing else, consider 3 tasteful mood music for fans of the era.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

UK-based Stone Deaf FX currently has only one pedal offering available – the PDF-1. The ‘Adobe-esque’ moniker stands for Parametric Distortion Filter. The pedal is based on the old Maestro Parametric Filter MPF-1 that was designed by Bob Moog back in the 1970′s for Gibson Norlin. In a nutshell, the PDF-1 is a parametric EQ, clean/dirty doost, and overdrive distortion effect that boasts a switchable clean and distorted circuit inside. The pedal also enables the user to cut and boost by 20dB of a selected frequency from 65Hz to 3000Hz.

Stone Deaf set out to redesign the original Maestro circuit to be virtually silent when it is switched on when you are not playing your instrument, surpressing the legacy stomp’s known issue with hum/frequency whistle. This unique looking box is the sort of pedal that should excel in its ability to brighten single coils and add an organic growl to humbuckers. So, does the PDF do the J.O.B.?

The PDF-1 is housed in a sleek, slope-fronted enclosure sporting three knob controls and a single toggle switch. The knobs are labeled Height, Freq and Bandwidth. The toggle switches from Clean to Dirty, with the latter engaging a soft clipping distortion circuit. The Bandwidth knob is a selectable five-position switch that tailors your sound from ‘Thin’ to ‘Fat’, which will give you fat bottom end and thin, needle point highs on your guitar. Kick in the overdrive and you can select a multitude of sounds that can get you from dirty overdriven/fizzy guitar dirt and nice square wave soft clipping. The pedal also has a true bypass Aux output mounted near the top-mounted Input and Output jacks. The Aux out can go to a second amp and acts as an internal A/B switch when in bypassed mode. Once the pedal is switched on the distortion will go to one amp and once bypassed the clean will go to another.

Let’s check out the PDF-1′s boosting ability with the Strat, neck pickup first. We roll the Height and Freq knobs full right, and the Bandwidth selector full right or ‘fat’. The toggle selector will start out on the Clean side, but we’ll switch over the Dirty during the second half of the clip. Here’s the pedal… clean amp tone first, then the PDF-1′s Clean side, then its Dirty side.

With the Clean side engaged, you can hear the PDF-1 brighten the tone with some glassy, high-end accents across the strings. The Dirty side adds a bit of gristle that is neither too polite nor too offensive. Over the the bridge pickup, here is a quick little riff for the twang-lovin’ crowd. With Height at 3 o’clock, Bandwidth centered, and Freq pegged, here is the PDF-1 in action again. Amp clean, pedal clean… then pedal mean.

The PDF-1 not only adds boost, but with it comes an acute articulation adding the ability for strings to sing out beyond conventional amp sustain. With the Les Paul, we roll everything full right… and tune down to standard C, like something Josh Homme – an avid user of the PDF-1 – would do! It’s simple, meaty chords… first amp only, then Clean channel followed by Dirty channel.

The Stone Deaf FX PDF-1 is a fairly versatile box that offers both clean and dirty boosting and the ability to hone in specific tonal definition via a large frequency sweep. For low-to-mid gain junkies with a little patience, that means you will get the sound you want. The sweep can be used to sharpen the edges of notes as well as round them off… whichever you desire. At about $185 with the current exchange rate, the PDF-1 is an affordable tool for those looking to add a bit of flare to – or have more control over – their sonic palettes. That’s our take anyway… your mileage may vary!

PLEASE NOTE: All YMMV Review clips are played through a Fender ’65 Princeton Reverb RI using Lava Clear Connect cables. No reverb or other effects were added to the clips. Guitars used in this review include a 1979 Gibson Les Paul Custom and a 1998 Fender American Deluxe Stratocaster.