CONFESSIONS OF A STEREOMUD FAN

So. I love Stereomud. I’ve written about them several times on this here webernet site. For those with short memories: Stereomud was an early-2000s supergroup of sorts, featuring members of Life of Agony, Stuck Mojo, and Pro-Pain. I know, I know, they were bottom of the barrel, C-rate post-nu-metal… but I can’t help it! “Pain” and “Steppin’ Away” were just so good! No, I’m not being ironic. And their second record Any Given Moment, which resulted in the band being dropped from Columbia, was a damn fine effort too.

With that in mind, question not why I’ve been following the drama that recently unfolded when Stereomud vocalist Erik Rogers attempted to form what amounts to a new band under the “Stereomud’ moniker. When actual members of Stereomud put up a stink, he was forced to change the name of the new band to Dangerous New Machine and issued a protracted public apology.

But no matter; as the video below shows — filmed this past weekend at a Dangerous New Machine show in Florida — this band looks, feels and sounds like Stereomud and plays Stereomud songs. Even their new song “Burn,” a damn fine specimen if you ask me, sounds like it could’ve been on a third Stereomud album. Which makes me wonder whether all that time Rogers was the creative force behind the band, not Life of Agony’s Joey Z as I always assumed. “Burn” is a great track, but unfortunately I can’t say the same about recently posted new song “Skeletons.” That was always exactly the thing about Stereomud; a couple of great songs per record and then a bunch of duds. But hey, for all intents and purposes it seems like we’ll pretty much be getting a new Stereomud record in 2009.

Sammy and Revrant, congratulations, today is your field day. Make sure you hold your chaperone’s hand at all times.

-VN