I didn’t realize it until just now, but Archaic Volumes was also my number four album for the top half of 2010. Sheer coincidence, but it should say something about the quality of Fatso Jetson‘s latest work that it has held its position while other albums have fallen out of favor or gotten shelved. The core trio of guitarist/vocalist Mario Lalli (also Yawning Man), bassist Larry Lalli and drummer Tony Tornay, joined on Archaic Volumes by saxophonist Vince Meghrouni, crafted probably the year’s most solid rock album. In every move it made, it was assured, mature and blindingly confident, and like a guy who says he can walk sideways up a wall and then does it, all of Fatso Jetson‘s showiness was backed by chops.

As the year has worn on and my appreciation for Fatso Jetson‘s Archaic Volumes has transcended the honeymoon period one often has with killer records, I’ve sat and admired each single performance on the album. The two Lallis, Tornay and even Meghrouni all delivered in a huge way on these songs, be it the sax-soaked instrumental “Here Lies Boomer’s Panic” or the underrated desert vibes of “Back Road Tar,” and the resulting total listening experience was stronger still. It was a striking balance of hard-fought talent and creative songwriting.

I’ve said before that I knew going into Archaic Volumes that I would like it. That was no mystery. The album still took me by surprise, however, in that I didn’t know I would dig it as much as I did, and moreover, that I would return to it as much as I have throughout the rest of the year. But the more I hear these songs and the more familiar I become with the turns Fatso Jetson makes — as from the aggressive gutter punk of “Garbage Man” (a The Cramps cover) to the soothingly psychedelic closer “Monoxide Dreams” — the better I want to know them. Even with as much time as I’ve spent hearing these Archaic Volumes, I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface.

What a question. Understand, I’m not talking about a grouping based on sound. I mean bands from the desert in California. It’s a limited bunch of musicians, centered around a few interconnected acts that have had a tremendous impact on stoner rock the world over. Although I think they’ve made some of the most important contributions to the genre, I’m including no outside bands here. It’s all about location.

Five bands  you need to know, and which album to get. Here goes:

1. Yawning Man: Most often credited as originators of the desert scene, an instrumental trio with Gary Arce, Mario Lalli (also Fatso Jetson) and Alfredo Hernandez (also Kyuss). Their new album, Nomadic Pursuits (review here), is fantastic and a great display of the influence they’ve had on those who’ve followed them, but recommendations for 2005′s Rock Formations are valid.

2. Kyuss: They’re the hallmark act of stoner rock, with import not just limited to the bands former members have launched (Queens of the Stone Age, Unida, Slo Burn, Brant Bjork, Mondo Generator, etc.). Welcome to Sky Valley is an all-time classic. As necessary as oxygen.

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It’s unreal how many bands they packed into the Roadburn festival. It could have been three separate killer fests and no one would have complained. Being there was like being at the Metropolitan Museum in New York — you couldn’t possibly see everything on offer in one day. Though it was fun to try.

Walter and the good folks at Roadburn have made available more live audio streams, and they sent me the links to share with you. I remember Fatso Jetson‘s performance was especially killer, but I wouldn’t count out any of these bands, because I’ve yet to hear one of these streams I didn’t think was awesome. Enjoy:

Fatso Jetson live at Roadburn 2010

Sons of Otis playing Templeball live at Roadburn 2010

Ahkmed live at Roadburn 2010

Night Horse live at Roadburn 2010

Well friends, it looks like there’s a technicality issue with this year’s TFFH. I thought I’d be all set to go with Clamfight‘s righteous Vol. 1 at number five, but I got this comment from guitarist Sean on the original post:

To clarify, the CD has not been officially released, we are aiming to have it out for a release show in Philly on August 13th with some incredible bands. We’ve been doling out home-burned copies to a select few and some songs will be up for download on the various sites shortly.

August clearly is not June, and since this is the Top Five of the First Half of 2010, Vol. 1 is hereby disqualified.

Controversy! I’ll give you a second to gasp…

Now that the shock has (hopefully) subsided, we can deal with the issue on a practical level. We all know Clamfight‘s Vol. 1 will be seen again at the end of the year, so it’s not worth crying about that, and obviously this change is no value judgment on the record — which, let me emphasize, fucking rules — but if I include a record that won’t be out until August on this list, then I’d have to include stuff like the new Zoroaster too, which comes out in July, and that’s not really what the TFFH about.

Without further ado, here is the revised Top Five of the First Half of 2010:
1. Asteroid, II
2. Solace, A.D.
3. Ufomammut, Eve
4. Fatso Jetson, Archaic Volumes
5. The Wounded Kings, The Shadow over Atlantis

There. Now we can all dance like Ewoks and be happy that the list is fair and only includes albums which were released in the first six months of the year. Honorable mentions go out to Apostle of Solitude, The Brought Low, Sasquatch and Brant Bjork, any of whom could have been on this list easily.

With that cleared up, that’s it for the 2010 TFFH. If you’ve got a list of your own, leave a comment and let me know what I’ve been missing.

Few and far between are the albums I’ll hear these days and have to listen to on repeat over and over again the way small children watch Disney movies. Not that I don’t like what I’m hearing, it just doesn’t happen that often. You get older, your tastes change and the way you listen to music changes.

Fatso Jetson‘s long awaited Archaic Volumes, however, is a record I just can’t enough of. I don’t doubt that it would be higher on this list had it come out earlier in the year, but even so, for the sheer amount of times I’ve been back and forth from “Jet Black Boogie” to “Monoxide Dreams,” I feel like my feet have worn in the path.

I’ve already reviewed Archaic Volumes and posted an interview with guitarist/vocalist Mario Lalli, but I think if there’s anything left to be said about the album, it’s in the area of the tightness between players, especially drummer Tony Tornay and bassist Larry Lalli, who comprise one of the sickest rock rhythm sections I’ve ever heard. Not only are they in lockstep as regards the songs, but each player presents a unique personality in what they do that just pushes Archaic Volumes head and shoulders above other records that have come along in 2010.

If you haven’t heard it yet, consider this yet another recommendation to do so (that’s pretty much the point of this list anyway, right?), because Fatso Jetson‘s Archaic Volumes is one of those right-idea-right-time albums that you just won’t be able to leave alone. Definitely one of this year’s best releases, and well worth the seven years it took to get it out.

It’s nearly midnight Saturday night on the East Coast when Mario Lalli calls from the land-line at Cafe 322, the restaurant he co-owns with cousin and Fatso Jetson bandmate, Larry Lalli (bass). Mario talks quickly and says much, which is a relief. After trying to make the interview happen for a couple days, I’m glad he’s a talker, though from what I understand, you have to be in his line of work.

Eight years have passed since the 2002 release of Fatso Jetson‘s last studio album, Cruel and Delicious, but their newest work, Archaic Volumes (review here), is perhaps their most vital, balancing their love of Southern Californian hardcore punk with the staple rock of the desert in which they formed and bringing to it all a sense of maturity that can be heard in more than just the saxophone playing of Vince Meghrouni.

As we speak , I can hear the hustle, sundry crashes, conversations and millings about at Cafe 322. Just past the halfway point in our conversation, a live band starts up. But if this is the chaos out of which came Archaic Volumes, the rampant go-go-go of which is ceaseless from front to back, it’s well matched.

In the interview that follows, Mario Lalli opens up about owning the restaurant and how it has changed his life both practically and creatively, in Fatso Jetson (rounded out by Tony Tornay on drums) and in the trio Yawning Man, in which he joins guitarist/vocalist Gary Arce and drummer Alfredo Hernandez, playing bass. Yawning Man also has a new record up for release — more on that to come, hopefully — and we get to the heart of making it all happen while also charged with keeping a life together.

Q&A is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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No doubt it’s with a characteristic tongue in his cheek that Fatso Jetson guitarist/vocalist Mario Lalli sings “These archaic volumes won’t ever really be heard” on the title track of the band’s sixth full-length, Archaic Volumes (Cobraside Distribution), but there’s something about the use of the word “really” that sets the line up for multiple levels of interpretation. The “volume” pun is one thing, but the line also seems to be saying those of us hearing the album aren’t really hearing it. There’s more behind the music and words than a surface listen can reveal. This is, as repeat visits to Archaic Volumes reveal, the complete and utter truth.

Fatso Jetson’s first studio album in eight years’ time since the release of Cruel & Delicious — there was the vinyl-only Fatso Jetson Live in 2007 – is rife with complexity, whether it comes in the tight, careful riffing of the infectiously catchy, harmonica-laden opener “Jet Black Boogie” or the casual surf influence topped off by Vince Meghrouni’s saxophone on “Back Road Tar.” Fatso Jetson has always been a complex band, meshing the members’ love of early ‘80s SoCal hardcore punk (read: Black Flag) with the more open tones consistent with the desert they call home, but the maturity on display with Archaic Volumes goes beyond genre meshing into individual expression, as the lyric-heavy near-psychedelia the band manages to fit into closer “Monoxide Dreams” would confirm.

And then there’s a completely different level on which to experience the album. The alliterative rhythm section of drummer Tony Tornay and bassist Larry Lalli are flat out astounding on “Golden Age of Cell Block Slang,” working the kind of swing into the song that Chris Goss’ Masters of Reality was reaching for on Pine/Cross Dover and fell comparatively short of. They work equally well in the straight desert push of second track “Play Dead” and the cover of The Cramps’ “Garbage Man,” which Mario’s vocals turn into an anthem and mission statement for the band at this stage in their career. While I’m pointing out highlight tracks, the pulsating crunch of instrumental “Here Lies Boomer’s Panic” finds all of Fatso Jetson firing on all cylinders, Meghrouni belting out jabbing sax notes in line with both Lallis and Tornay and still managing somehow to stand out in the mix.

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I always try to pay attention to international exchange rates. Aside from being interested in the political implications thereof, it’s interesting to see what our tiny pieces of paper are worth compared to everyone else’s tiny pieces of paper. Occasionally you can get a bargain too, if you play your cards right.

As of today, the euro is worth $1.36, which isn’t bad. Of course, the market is turbulent (if you don’t believe me, search your favorite news site for the words “Greece” and “economy”), but I managed recently to hit up The Stone Circle, the mailorder of Spanish label Alone Records and come out of it on the positive side of the equation. Not financially, of course, but existentially.

It was Fatso Jetson‘s 1999 outing, Flames for All, that hooked me. Aside from being a Man’s Ruin release — anyone who’s been around this site for a while should know of my Kozik fetish — it’s also the only record they did as a four-piece, the lineup including Mario and Larry Lalli, drummer Tony Tornay and, as the fourth for doubles, Gary Arce of Yawning Man. It’s like a desert party pressed to plastic and I had to have it, so after a relatively exhausting search for comparison prices/conditions, The Stone Circle won out.

And I figured, hey, while I’m on the site, might as well see what else they’ve got lying around, right? If you could have just one CD, they wouldn’t have shaped them so similarly to potato chips (krinkle-cut notwithstanding).

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