Don't let the cock-rock bluster fool you: While Magic Wolf isn't trying to intellectualize rock 'n' roll by any means, the band's not as mindless as it may pretend to be. The trio's brand of hard rock incorporates a lot of earlier influences, with obvious references to chuggy metal a la Sabbath and cock rock like AC/DC, but also more complex and noodley guitar parts that perhaps betray prog influences.
"Lots of [current popular] bands don't know what happened before Nirvana's Nevermind or whatever," guitarist and vocalist Dave Wheeler says. "I like to be able to put it in context -- go into the music history. Finding out about one band leads me to other things."
Wheeler and bassist Mike Rensland began Magic Wolf in 2004 with drummer John Roman in the wake of their former band, 70,000 BC. After Roman's departure in 2005, they joined up with Jake Leger (formerly of Pikadori, currently also in the Karl Hendricks Rock Band).
Leger's drums, huge in size as well as sound, turned out to complement Rensland's rumbling bass, the tone of which recalls the doom-y brooding of former band Brown Angel. Wheeler's guitar flails and screams, but what sets Magic Wolf apart from many other bands playing the same brand of rock is his soaring vocals.
Wheeler sets loose the vocal cords that have garnered him the status of karaoke legend on a body of lyrics that might not lead most listeners to enlightenment. But that doesn't mean they're not clever: Try to not crack a smile when you're told in one apocalyptic lyric to "Sit back, relax, and get your ass destroyed / By the disasteroid."
Magic Wolf is releasing its first record, No Brainer, on June 22 at Gooski's, and there's no denying that this is a record with a party vibe. "[Lyrically,] it's a regression to a state of mind that you had in eighth or ninth grade," Wheeler explains. "I feel like there's a whole new group of slackers now -- maybe 'slackers' isn't the right word -- but yeah, slackers, who are 25 or 30 now." Thus, the lyrical observation in "Don't Fix It": "You can get up, but it's too hard / You can get a job, but it's hard too."
What's apparently not too hard for Magic Wolf is making rock that would've gone over well with thrashers in the mid-'80s but doesn't sound stale today. The message: Even in 2007, don't be afraid to just rock. You never know when you'll get your ass destroyed by the disasteroid.
Magic Wolf CD Release with Ludlow and Midnite Snake. 10 p.m. Fri., June 22. Gooski's, 3117 Brereton St., Polish Hill. 412-681-1658
