A Black Mountain High

Someone lives in this house.

Its cement floor founds a hobbling station of walls, distinguishable only by its tattered paintings-it might seem like a shooting gallery, full of holes. In the kitchen sink pots are a leaning tower of long-forgotten meals. They reach for the ceiling, water-stained and sunken like a suspended belly, full and ripe to burst.

Light bulbs haven’t been replaced for months; the small swatch of carpet in the corner grabs onto spills and vomit. A stream of sunlight adds a poignant hue to the mess, illuminating the dizzy legs of furniture ready to break at one more bottle set on their tabletops.

It is a typical setting for the chronically poor, the mentally ill and the drug addicts. In the Downtown Eastside streets of Vancouver, infamously known as North America’s drug capital, an organization called Insite meets the living requirement for the afflicted. It is a “safe-injection site,” where users or heroin, cocaine, and morphine can go to inject illegal drugs in a safe, controlled environment.

The sites are controversial: arguments include the misuse of taxpayer’s dollars to fund illegal drug use on one end of the spectrum, while others argue that the sites provide a clean environment that encourages recovery, fewer deaths, overdoses, and crimes.

Three of the members of Black Mountain volunteer at the site, as part of a collective of artists and musicians from various bands in Canada. The official “Black Mountain Army” consists of bands Jerk With A Bomb, Black Mountain and The Pink Mountaintops, the latter two which are headed by Stephen McBean.

The five-piece band’s resume, heroin addicts excepted, includes opening for Coldplay, a stint on Conan O’Brien, a broadcast session on NPR, and two full-length LPs. Canada’s burgeoning indie-rock scene leans to the driving fuzz-rock end of the scale.
Black Mountain, along with other “black’ named bands sounds like the noise of The Black Keys and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, with a synthesizer and occasional vocals of a neo-Patti Smith. Not sure if the addicts listen to this when shooting up, but fulfilling full stereotype of their assumed choice in music, this would be appropriate.

“Tyrants,” off the band’s latest release “In The Future,” is an epic eight-minute monologue of the falsetto voice of McBean woven through a resonant 70s-style guitar loop and heavy, militant and unwavering drums. Amber Webber’s vocals subtly carol in the background until taking over with powerful trills. Pink Floyd and Queen might have been jealous if the band had formed 35 years ago.

About five minutes into the song, drums and synth face-off in banter, guitar melodies and flutes tuning out the end of it, softly receding back where it came from. Their first EP, “Druganaut,” features a song of the same name which does no more than loop the first four measures of what sounds like a psychedelic roller derby anthem.

Slow keyboard-focused tunes, with Webber crooning along, stop abruptly, entering into a wild bridge of semi-focused rhythm not unlike Zeppelin segues or jam band techniques. But it is Webber’s voice that ties everything into a beautiful end-despite the gregarious instruments marching along behind her.
“Heart of War,” from their self-titled, widely acclaimed debut, features a snare drum and lyrical chants of “superstar”-guiding another epic song onto familiar turf with its model, 70s “Jesus Christ Superstar” soundtrack.

“In The Future” is a mature version of these, offering a new look at the influence of environment-uncontrollable drug use, rock canticles for a doomed youth-reminiscent of the reputation of the 70s psychedelic and time-tested rock gods.

However the Insite controversy pertains to their music, Black Mountain adequately assume their role as exemplary superstars in any regard.

If You Go:

WHAT: Black Mountain
WHERE: Aquarium
WHEN: Tues., March 25
WHO: 21+ID
HOW MUCH: $7
INFO: (701) 235-5913