Album Review: Hind Legs - Pleasure Cave

Review by GDK 

What happens if someone took a jazz rock drummer with grunge ambitions, added an angry John Frusciante (RHCP), and a blues bassist with a hunger for the groove? Hind Legs. Filled with soul, angst, and some unstoppable rhythms Hind Legs is composed of howling vocalist/guitarist Halloway Jones, groovin’ bassist Brad Braaten, and master of the beat Ben Deinstadt.

Truth be told I didn’t know much about Hind Legs other than Halloway Jones has a particularly funny web series called ‘Question/Time with Jones’ (which can be found on YouTube) where the vocalist invites local HRM musicians into her apartment and chats with them about upcoming shows, musical adventures and releases/recordings. That being said one doesn’t need to know much about this band to have their ass kicked by this album.

Pleasure Cave has 2 diamonds in the rough that pulled my attention the most –Diamonds and Father’s House (featuring Chief Thundercloud). While Diamonds sounds like something the Rolling Stones would of wrote if they had a little more passion and not so much cocaine, Father’s House is filled with dissonant, eerie sounding chords reminiscent of much darker and emotion filled version of Bush.

Packed with frustration and passion, Hind Legs blast out Pleasure cave with a raw, unpolished, and angry sound. While the sonic quality isn’t a masterpiece the musicianship is definitely right on the money. Each musician plays off of one another while vocalist Halloway Jones howls over it all with a dissonant yet soulful voice. Pleasure Cave is the type of album that if it was released in ’94 or ’95, would now be looked at as a defining moment in grunge history.

Even though this isn’t an album I would put in my CD changer or iPod on a regular basis, it is still an easy album to enjoy by fans of any genre with the ability to broaden their horizons. If you can dig a psychedelic grunge album then this is the way to go without question. However I wouldn’t recommend operation of heavy machinery while listening to this album as without a doubt you will zone out and be transported into a realm of emotion created by Ms. Jones.

Any band who can put this much effort and emotion into an album that clocks in just under 21 minutes is definitely a band worth checking out.

Hind Legs – Pleasure Cave gets an easy 3 strums out of 5.