Sandrider – “Mountain Song” (Jane’s Addiction Cover) (Stereogum Premiere)

Sandrider / Kinski Split

Sandrider – “Mountain Song” (Jane’s Addiction Cover) (Stereogum Premiere)

Sandrider / Kinski Split

The crushing Pacific Northwest doom-noise band Sandrider have always drawn influence from the metal-adjacent proto-grunge bands of a pre-Nevermind America. When we premiered their single “Scalpel” (from their fucking great 2013 LP, Godhead), I noted hints of stuff like Sub Pop-era Soundgarden, early Melvins, and KARP. Now, though, they’re paying more direct homage to that period. Sandrider are set to release a split EP with the excellent Seattle stoner band Kinski, and among the songs on Sandrider’s half of the split is a cover of Jane’s Addiction’s “Mountain Song” — the second single to be released off that band’s 1988 classic Nothing’s Shocking, and quite possibly the best song in their catalog. I don’t know if you’d call it a trend, but just last week, the Body & Thou paid tribute to another song from that very particular moment in music, via a cover of Nine Inch Nails’ “Terrible Lie,” from that band’s 1989 debut, Pretty Hate Machine. But where the Body & Thou changed virtually every aspect of the Nine Inch Nails song aside from the title and lyrics, Sandrider play a traditional arrangement of “Mountain Song” in the Sandrider style, which isn’t all that far removed from the style in which the song was originally recorded: propulsive, furious, joyous, hallucinatory, shamanistic, and LOUD. Listen.

The Sandrider + Kinski split is out 2/17 via Good To Die. Pre-order it here.

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