I recieved an email this afternoon, asking for some Sheavy, hell, I would have guessed I had done a post long ago, but a quick investiagtion reveals that nope, I never have, and especially since the request comes from long "missing in action" stoner rock guru Mark Eveligh, we'll get on this with quickness!......a great band who deserves a full-feature-length post, I am happy to present them in all their greatness! Hopefully I have all thier releases here, Dime has no boots or rarities, nor does the Bay, so we will see if any of the minions surprise with a live disc, or something obscure, Sheavy cerainly have enough material and a hard-core enough following that there should be SOMETHIN out there......
So, Sheavy, formed in Canada in 1994, (they were originally "Green Machine", but changed when another "Green Machine" objected"), consisted of singer Steve Hennessey, guitarist Evan Chaulke, bassist Glenn Tizzard, and drummer Jason Williams (This is the most RECENT lineup, there have been many changes, Hennessey is the mainstay).....over the years they have cooked up a perfectly wonderful stoner/doom sound on several fine albums, perhaps of the Kyuss school of stoner rock BUT maybe a bit more structured, and a bit more their "own" band......
They debuted in 1996 with "Blue Sky Mind", a pretty fair piece of hard rocking stoner stuff, "Mountains of Madness" and "Cosmic Overdrive" being typical bangers of the era, stoner fans of course are aware of ALL early Sheavy material, as it is on par with th work of Fu Mau, Orange Goblin, Electric Wizard, and the rest of the greats of that genre that most of the population does not even know exists.....this is why YOU are SPECIAL!
1998 saw the release of the fine "The Electric Sleep", a certifiable classic of the stoner rock genre.....check the hard rocking title track, "Virtual Machine", "Stardust" and all the rest, a fine album that ranks with the best of 1990's stoner rock.
In 2000 they released "Celestial Hi Fi", also a great album known well to fans of stoner rock, similar in sound to their previous work, but for fans of the scene/sound, a not-to-be-missed effort....."Hyperfaster" and "Strange Gods, Strange Affairs" stand out, but lots of hard rocking moments here.
So, in 2005, they released "Republic?", which updated the sound a bit, to their credit......harder, punkier riffs, shorter songs, I assume MAYBE some kinda "concept" although don't ask ME what it is......once again, though. "Republic?" is a great album, in the world of stoner rock, another classic!
These guys tredged on....."The Machine That Won the War" is yet another fine album, again, I ASSUME some "concept", buo lazy/dumb to figure it out......rather, I prefer to just groove to the hard rocking of tracks like "Demon Soldiers" and "One of Us MustBe Dead" among other rocking numbers which DO NOT sound transposed from the 1990's, but rather, serve as nother notch in the growth of this wonderfully under appreciated. hard rocking band.
They have since released yet another pair of albums, listenable but NOT spectacular, "The Golden
age of Daredevils" and "Disfigurine", these are both include here, and are for fans of the band/sound, not as great as some of the earlier stuff......also we have a demo set and a rarities comp, see below for details of those, and I think that PRETTY MUCH summarizes Sheavy.......a great band that gets forgotten, see, even I forgot about them, thinking I had already done a post about them (Spiritual Beggars fall into the same category, awesome and forgettable stoner rock)......
Lotta stuff here.....links as quick as I can get em to ya.......going to the casino with my lady for a couple nights, I will take the kindle and TRY to get posts up for you guys and gals when I'm gone, hope I can get it done, we shall see if not, stay busy with these recent good posts, and I will be back soon, I promise, after all, obviously I love hooking you guys up with a sound or two you may not ahve heard before!
THE ELECTRIC SLEEP-01 Virutal Machine/02 Velvet/03 Destiny's Rainbow/04 Electric Sleep/05 Born In a Daze/06 Automaton/07 Savannah/08 Saving Me/09 Oracle/10 Stardust/11 Last Parade
CELESTIAL HI FI-01 Hyperfaster/02 What's Up Mr. Zero/03 Stingray Part II/04 Solarsphere/05 Strange Gods, Strange Alters/06 Celestial Hi Fi/07 At the Mountain of Madness/08 Persona/09 A Utopian Interlude/10 Gemini (The Twins)/11 Tales From the Afterburner
SYNCHRONIZED-01 Firebird 350/02 Last of the V8 Interceptors/03 Next Exit to Vertigo/04 Part of the Machine/05 Synchronized/06 Invasion of the Micronauts/07 Kill Queens Go Disco/08 Ultraglide/09 AFX...Thrown For a Loop/10 Set Phasers to Stun/11 The Time Machine
REPUBLIC?-01 Spy Vs Spy/02 The Rook/03 Hangman/04 Standing at the Edge of the World/05
THE MACHINE THAT WON THE WAR-01 The Sleeping Assassin/02 Demon Soldiers/03 Humanoid/04 Dawn of the Black Orchid/05 Aboard the Mothership/06 Rings of Saturn/07 Here Falls the Shadow/08 Lords of Radiation/09 The Dark Carnival/10 Where Earth Meets Sky/11 One of Must Be Dead/12 The Gunfighters
DISFIGURINE-01 In the Shadow of Vesuvius/02 Waking the Bloodbeast/03 Disfigurine/04 Echo in the Skull/05 Dead Since Birth/06 Clutching at Straws/07 The Book of Lost Time/08 Beyond the Black Waves/09 Eyes of the Demon Lord/10 War on Titan/11Voices From the Star Chamber
THE GOLDEN AGE OF DAREDEVILS-01 The Golden Age of Daredevils/02 Sunday Morning Suicide/03 For Those Who Chose to Stay/04 Lucifer at Sunset/05 Loving the Abyss/06 The Black Tower/07 The Orphaned Sky/08 Neutron Star........./12 Rings of Saturn (Hidden Track)
So, there are their EIGHT regular studio releases, not really a bad one in the bunch!......But, i the words of Blue Oyster Cult "Wait, There's MORE!".......since this is my "welcome back!" gift to great friend of the blog Mark Eveligh, here is everything else I can scrape up. Mark, since these lads are from your great-white neck of the woods, do you have anything else to share with any old or new Sheavy fans? Thanks for the reqeust mark, and DON'T be a stranger, LOTTSA great stoner bands I still haven't dealt with: Dozer, Fu Manchu, and Spiritual Beggars, just to name a few!
RARITIES DISC-01 Junior's Eyes (Black Sabbath Cover)/02 The Electric Sleep (demo)/03 The Electric Sleep (Live)/04 Country Parade (Dan on vocals)/05 Fishin For Chicken (Dan on Vocals)
BORN TOO LATE (SPLIT WITH CHURCH OF MISERY)-(Tracks 1-4 Church of Misery)-01 Spahn Ranch/02 Road to Ruin/03 Reverend/04 War is Our Destiny/ (Tracks 5-10 Sheavy)-05 Destiny's Rainbow/06 Suitcase blues (Live)/07 Mountains of Madness (Live)/08 Blue Sky Mind (Live)/09 Domelight (live)/10 War Pigs (Live in the Studio)
REPUBLIC? LIVE AT THE MASONIC TEMPLE (DVD AUDIO)- 01 Spy Vs Spy/02 Solarsphere/03 Hangman/04 Kill Queens Go Disco/05 Stingray Part III/06 Imitation of Christ/07 Last Chance Gremlin X/08 Destiny's Rainbow/09 Standing at the Edge of the World/The Man That Never Was/10 Tales From the Afterburner/11 Tales From the Afterburner/12 Electric Sleep/13 Firebird 350/14 Last of the V8 Interceptors/15 Persona (LOL Remix)/16 A Phone Booth in the Middle of Nowhere/17 The Rook
OK......that's a LOT of material, more than I thought maybe I had, but this was a good and underappreciated band.....never really had a bad album, and if you are a fan of the stoner "sound", don't forget these guys.......thanks again for the request Mark, it really surprised me that i had not done a full post on them , one is "needed", really......and, again, if you can add anything to it (I know all about that great stoner rock stash YOU have!), please make it even more complete! Thanks a lot my stoner-rock loving brother!
Lotta links, gotta new internet servie, HOPEFULLY quicker uploads but we'll see! I'll get what I can tonight, the rest tomorrow!