In music, as in life, it's a good idea to have a plan B when life derails you.
Chad Ubovich of
Meatbodies had a good one in place when the group's third album was delayed due to the 2020 lockdown. With unexpected time on his hands, he delved back into the band's archives and found a demo recording he and drummer Dylan Fujioka had worked on a few years earlier. He figured with a little bit of at-home mixing the songs would work just fine as a stopgap release until the real album was ready. He was more than right, and
333 not only fills the gap, it takes the group to uncharted territory. Some of the tracks hit the same sweet spot between garage rock swagger and almost-metallic heaviness where their work has set up shop in the past. The grinding, slow-motion jam "Reach for the Sunn" and the rippling rocker "Cancer" are examples of classic
Meatbodies-style songs, played with a loose and rambling vigor that's refreshingly unstudied. Knocking those pins down was easy enough; elsewhere,
Ubovich takes some stylistic chances and gets all strikes. The instrumental "Eye Eraser" brilliantly drops some classic shoegaze guitar work on top of plinky drums, "The Hero" is a psychedelic ballad worthy of pre-freakout
Syd Barrett, and "Night Time Hidden Faces" is a stunning departure. The first half of the track comes across like
Stereolab if they were members of a biker gang, juxtaposing hypnotic guitars and organs with a motorik groove and some blithely sneering vocals. Once the groove really starts to pick up steam, the song abruptly switches to low-slung blues-rock, the likes of which one might hear on a
Royal Trux album. It's experimental, it's fun, and as with the rest of the record, it works like a charm.
333 might be a side trip for
Meatbodies, but it's a fascinating one. Not only does it show how versatile they can be, it also cements their place as one of the great underrated rock bands of their era. ~ Tim Sendra