Stone Machine Electric – The Amazing Terror [2015; self-released]

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Excerpted from a series of recording sessions for a full album, the four tracks of this EP bob and weave through fuzzy feedback and gnashy riffs, with the guitar providing texture and the disarmingly active drumming controlling pace and punchiness.  Though the songs have an enjoyable energy, and the musicians bring some interesting expressiveness out of their instruments, the EP hits its end with so little build-up that it winds up hobbling the preceding material to an extent.

New Riders of the Purple Sage – Who Are Those Guys? [1977; MCA Records]

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Easy-going humor and twangs both vocal and stringed fill this album, the eighth studio LP by the NRPS, with stoner-baked treatment of honky-tonk across ten tracks.  Originals and covers (including Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue”) mingle freely, and while solid technique is shown in the playing, the band rarely pushes itself out of their relaxed comfort zone.  Combined with a run-time of just under half an hour, the album ends up feeling inconsequential, and though the musicians seem to relish the country-fried cornbread flavoring, it’s otherwise pleasant enough for its short duration.