All Time High – Friends in High Places (Small Stone)

Back in the bad ol’ days of the late 80s and early 90s, there was a musical mini-movement dubbed “grunge,” after the fuzz-encrusted guitar tone favored by its practitioners. Grunge mixed the dissonance and anger (if not the energetic propulsion) of punk rock with the in-your-face riffs and dinosaur stomp of classic 60s and 70s hard rock/metal for a sound that, if not exactly new, at least sounded fresh. It’s a sound that is much maligned these days, but for those of us who grew up in small towns without access to underground rock radio, who were the same age as grunge’s avatars and who shared the same sense of confusion, rage and ambivalence for what was being offered us by mainstream culture, grunge made perfect sense. More practically, it also served as a nice bridge between classic rock and more alternative noises.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that Friends in High Places, the debut from Seattle quartet ALL TIME HIGH, hits me right in my sweet spot. Not as pop-minded as NIRVANA, as psychedelic as SCREAMING TREES or as weird as SOUNDGARDEN, ATH nonetheless bears echoes of all three. The band’s riffs fly fast and furious, whether banging against each other like radar-confused bats or joining in harmony for some heads-down boogie, while the rhythm section keeps a rock-steady hand on the wheel. Frontdude ADRIAN MAKINS‘ lyrics strive for new ways to express the usual concerns, while his raspy croon sounds created specifically to float over melodic-yet-bruising passages. Given an appropriately clearheaded, loud mix by Pacific Northwest grunge mentor JACK ENDINO, cool tracks like “Earthquake Bee,” “Pollyanna” and “Nice Guys Laugh Last” are well-crafted songs given enthusiastic performances. Given its locale and obvious influences, All Time High could be accused of a retro fixation. But to my ears Friends in High Places sounds less nostalgic than timeless.

http://www.myspace.com/alltimehighrock
http://smallstone.com