Black Mountain

Stephen McBean loves mountains. The leader of both Vancouver bands the Pink Mountaintops and Black Mountain, McBean explores the boundaries of psychedelic indie-rock with the latter of the two bands.

Black Mountain plays solid, 70s-inspired rock, and has two acclaimed albums under the Jagjaguwar label. They released a self-titled debut in 2005, which featured much more mellow, almost borderline pop-rock sound at times. “Set Us Free” is just pure, melodious, psychedelic rock, while “Druganaut” maintains the chill but is more upbeat – in almost a reggae sort of way.

In comparison, their newest album, In The Future , which was released this January, is hard-hitting, loud and aggressive – Foo Fighters style. The first song off the album, “Stormy High” sets the tone for the rest of the album – declarative and mature with complex, rhythmic guitar riffs – while still creating anticipation for the songs that follow. This more aggressive, guitar-driven style is carried throughout the album, like in the song “Tyrants.” Yet, Black Mountain also finds time to contrast with “Stay Free,” a single that ended up on last year’s Spiderman III soundtrack featuring TV On The Radio-style psychedelic howling over acoustic.