Black Pussy - "MagicMustache"

Whether adopting the band name as an homage to the original title to the Rolling Stones "Brown Sugar" (and thus by extension as a linguistic insurrection to the affront of corporate intrusion on artistic integrity) or merely as a provocative joke sure to incite the giggle fits at the thought of all the people Googling the band and ending up in BangBros pornoland, the titilatingly monikored Black Pussy can be assured that the stereophonic offerings of these Portland-based stoner pop empresarios will not go unnoticed. On their seminal debut, On Blonde, the music was created almost exclusively by Dustin Hill, resulting in a wonderfully claustrophobic feel. Now fortified with a full armament of musicians (guitarist Ryan McIntire, drummer Deann Carroll, bassist Aaron Poplin, and keyboardist Chief O'Dell) Black Pussy have returned with the full frontal musical assault of Magic Mustache. 

The invasion of this newly enhanced and more fleshed out incarnation begins on "Let's Start a War". With its oscillating interstellar intro, reminiscent of an old Outer Limits episode, the song transports the listener to another dimension. "Let's start a fuckin' war, let's burn this planet down" chant the invaders over the cosmic debris of notes sailing past. It all segues perfectly into "Into Your Cosmic", a fuzzed out manifesto of insistent cadence and ethereal design that highlight what is evident on the album as a whole and in this song in particular, that Black Pussy is content to let other bands duke it out for the title of being the next Black Sabbath while they instead aspire to be the Hawkwind for the new millennium. Reinforcing the left of center vibe is "Protopipe", a hippie freakout of a tune wherein a blistering solo holds center stage before stuttering to a stop and surrendering to monolithic riffing that heralds a jam by the band of almost orgiastic proportions.

Hawkwind comparisons notwithstanding, other clearly discernable influences include Monster Magnet circa Spine of God as well as vintage Queens of the Stone Age, most evident on the quirky and poppy "For the Sake of Argument". Easily the coolest track on the album is "On Top of the World", which is propelled by a chugging riff shrouded in a hallucinogenic cloud so thick it sounds almost on the verge of stumbling over itself at all times, adding a sense of subliminal danger to the festivities. That off-kilter nature continues throughout on tracks like "Butterfly", the song most reminiscent of the lackadasical On Blonde, that is until it startles you with a note-for-note recital of the coda from Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast". Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, as Black Pussy laments on the the title track with the laconic refrain of "let' roll the hell out of here, let's get the fuck out of Dodge". However, as the song builds to its space rock jam session climax, the melancholia gives way to aspirations for immortality, with an overture of "let's never die, let's live forever on the edge of time".

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