As band names go, Black Mountain is pretty simple, but it also suits the music these Canadians play almost perfectly. The name implies something immense, ageless, and a little mysterious. It's been remarked how easily you can spot influences with these guys-- Zep and Neil Young stand out above all-- but they sound like 1970s FM rock because, well, they're trying to make something classic. Like many, many other bands, of course, but most of those aren't funny enough to write a song like "Modern Music" or don't have a riff in them as economical and effective as the one that drives "Druganaut".

Those two short songs are from the band's 2005 debut Black Mountain, a record that also found them stretching out into simultaneously folkier and jammier territory with the eight-minute closers "Heart of Snow" and "Faulty Times". "Tyrants", from Black Mountain's upcoming In the Future, finds them incorporating both sides of their personality into one epic slab of rock. It starts off with galloping drums and guitars, the chunky strums augmented by organ drone, then slows into a section with (beautifully recorded) drums, a wisp of synth, and voice. It's a political song. Some of the lyrics seem to reference current events ("The battles of this fashioned war/ Ain't what we've been fighting for") while others could have been written at any time ("Tyrant, you'll be damned by your power"). The way it winds and builds from slow and quiet to rocking and immense, when combined with the apocalyptic imagery, reminds me a bit of a really good version of "Morning Dew" by the Grateful Dead, which I trust this band would take as a compliment. And, true to Black Mountain's aesthetic, it sounds like something new that's sort of always been there, waiting for you. Good music, yeah, something to be thankful for. Have a great holiday weekend.