Artist Bio
THREE QUARTER STONE
Guelph is a quaint university town, whose downtown core has stereotypically been known as an 'artsy' community; but if you're expecting that Guelph's 'Three Quarter Stone' is another band of generationally lost hippies that can be found discussing the importance of granola in the vegetarian diet at Hillside Festival then you are in for a surprise. This five piece band is electrified adrenaline on stage. Pure unadulterated, triple xxx rock 'n roll!
Picture a free spirited, socially outcast teen tearing up the streets on his Harley-Davidson with Led Zeppelin and AC/DC blasting in his headphones... now imagine him in a garage riffing away with four of his friends and you'll understand where the heart of Three Quarter Stone's sound beats. But these misfits have managed to evolve out of the garage, surviving employement woe's, relationship chaos, and all of life's adventurous ups and downs, sticking together and becoming a polished, substantial hard rocking riff machine.
Their live show attests to the years spent together and countless gigs in drunken bars. They look at home up on the stage, with a tight sound that comes from years of gigging. And that sound is forceful... an entity unto its own with grooving, hooky guitar riffs and soaring, melodic vocals. Its polished and definitely not garage band, but not glittery 'record-label' polished, but like that of a river bed stone weathered by nature over time. Their sound is solid, driving and well produced, with interesting nuances and layers. Its almost difficult to imagine a careless teenager on a Harley creating such great music, but one can certainly picture him blasting it in his headphones as he cruises down the road!
Bullet With A Name is the second studio album for Three Quarter Stone and it delivers right out of the gate with the hard driving, high gain title track followed by the heavy groove of 'It Don't Matter'. The band doesn’t pull any punches and relentlessly pounds out songs that could easily be the soundtrack to long nights spent inside bottles of Jack Daniels and at the end of lit cigarettes. Any questions about their rock n’ roll credentials get crushed immediately after seeing the naked woman on the back of an album, holding a pistol and wearing nothing but panties and black leather boots. This album delivers on all fronts sonically, and sounds 'Big Studio' with meticulous attention to production and mastering. The bands sound has expanded to take on some acoustic songs and allows us to see more of the range and dynamics of the vocals. In fact the album is quite varied and jumps from one genre to the next while still holding true to their rock roots.
The album starts with an 80's high gain metal riff and progresses through an alt/rock ala 'Queens Of The Stone Age' heavy groove (I Don't Need) to a southern blues/rock bloodbath (Wasted Time) to the spacey Pink Floyd'ish (Broken), to acoustic ballads (I Don't Need, Dressed To Kill) to modern rock (Ride It Hard) and back to no-nonsense AC/DC style hard rock (You Are The One). It's said that variety is the spice of life, and these guys have taken that advice to heart with this album. Although some might consider that to be risky, these guys have the chops to pull it off, and have done so with aplomb. When I had the chance to ask them about this they were quite unapologetic, stating that they like many styles of rock music and refuse to be pigeon-holed into any one sub-genre! Its also clear that the bands songwriting is growing in terms of lyrics and subject matter as well. This band has taken themselves to another level, poised to compete with any of today's biggest names when that opportunity arrises. Bullet With A Name is simply a pleasure to listen to front to back, loud or soft, and this album manages to escape the monotony that so many so many other albums suffer, by including acoustic tracks with electric, uptempo with moody soulful tracks, and each delivering a memorable melody.
www.threequarterstone.com
