Purling Hiss
Water On Mars
Drag City Records [2013]
Fire Note Says: Purling Hiss proves rock is alive in well on the streets of Philadelphia.
Album Review: Purling Hiss is a Philadelphia band that melds together the aggressiveness of the Stooges and Comets on Fire, with the somewhat poppier side of J Mascis and Dinosaur Jr, and sprinkles it with the pop sensibilities of the currently underrated Lemonheads. On their third album, Water on Mars, (their first as an actual band, and not just a solo project of guitarist Mike Polizze) the band delivers a perfectly balanced distillation of all of those influences, and have crafted as fine of a guitar album as you are bound to hear this year.
Lead off track “Lolita” is 4:27 of grunge fury, a hailstorm of squealing guitars and screeching vocals. It gets your attention right off the bat, and then the band proceeds to hold it for the rest of the 33 minutes that they have you. The band then shifts gears slightly on “Mercury Retrograde”, another stunner that comes off as Dinosaur Jr with Evan Dando as the singer or better yet, The Lemonheads with J on guitar. It’s heavy jangle pop, with roaring guitars and a sing along chorus. “Rat Race” is more of a perfect blend of the two sides of the band, hard grunge meets jangly pop. The whole record is really well balanced. Of the 9 songs on the record, 3 of them are super heavy, 3 are more jangly and poppy, and the other 3 bridge that gap perfectly, but it’s all mixed up to create a remarkable flow.
At 7:10, “Water on Mars” is a fully realized heavy psych/grunge freak-out. It’s a pummeling assault on the ears, jackhammer drums, a throbbing bass, and screaming fuzzy wah-wah guitars that sound like Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock. The band follows that track up, and ends the record with “Mary Bumble Bee” a sweet pop song that ends the record on a positive note, but also serves to calm you down and give you a breather, it’s like a glass of ice cold lemonade after cutting the lawn in July.
Purling Hiss is another band (like Big Dick) that I almost dismissed based on the name alone. Yet I was immediately glad I didn’t after hearing the first few seconds of the first song. This is a really cool record, and one that you are going to want to keep playing. Rock isn’t dead folks, it’s living in Philadelphia, and it goes by the name Purling Hiss.
Key Tracks: “Water on Mars”, “Lolita”, “She Calms”
Artists With Similar Fire: Comets on Fire / Dinosaur Jr. / The Lemonheads
Purling Hiss Website
Purling Hiss Facebook
Drag City Records
-Reviewed by Kevin Poindexter
Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, I am extremely proud of the area I grew up in and the influence it has had on the world at large, from the Wright Brothers to Robert Pollard, the area has been a center of innovation both technologically and artistically. During my college years at the University of Dayton, I found myself becoming more and more immersed in the local music scene, a period of time in the early to mid 90's that coincided with the rise of bands like Guided by Voices, Brainiac, and The Breeders, who added to the rich musical legacy of the area. Dayton is also the hometown of many giants of funk in the 70's and is also the birthplace of Jazz greats Billy Strayhorn, John Scofield and Bud Shank. I wrote extensively for The Fire Note, a great online magazine focused on indie rock, in the 2010's while simultaneously being a partner in Rockathon Records, before retiring from both in 2018. In 2024, my thoughts turned back to helping at Rockathon and more importantly to pick back up on my writing, and more specifically to write about my love of jazz. I'm always listening, always searching for something new, something great. It's been a lifelong journey, and I still feel like there is so much out there to hear.
- Kevin Poindexterhttps://thefirenote.com/author/kpoindexter/
- Kevin Poindexterhttps://thefirenote.com/author/kpoindexter/
- Kevin Poindexterhttps://thefirenote.com/author/kpoindexter/
- Kevin Poindexterhttps://thefirenote.com/author/kpoindexter/
