Converse Rubber Tracks x MetalSucks Preview, Week 3: Ruby the Hatchet
We all know that Converse makes awesome sneakers (no exaggeration, our own Axl Rosenberg hasn’t worn any other brand since roughly 2004), but did you know that they also have a recording studio in Brooklyn… which they allow bands to use 100% FREE of charge? It’s true! Converse Rubber Tracks is a state of the art recording studio, complete with its own qualified sound engineers and too much equipment to even list here, that can be used by musicians of any genre to record their own music for FREE, the rights to which they completely retain. It sounds too good to be true… and yet, it’s a really real thing!
MetalSucks has teamed up with Converse Rubber Tracks to give five bands the opportunity to record in the studio for a day absolutely free of charge, inviting bands to apply through an open submission process this past May and June. Axl and Vince have sifted through all the band entries — yes, every single one of them! — and have chosen their favorites. Five bands will be recording at Converse Rubber Tracks in August for a day each, after which the songs they record will be released right here on MetalSucks and featured in a video series on Metal Injection. In the weeks leading up to these recording sessions, we’ll be previewing one band every Wednesday, so you can get a taste of what’s in store for ya! Today, we feature Philadelphia’s Ruby the Hatchet.
On their Twitter page, Ruby the Hatchet describe themselves as “Philly Stoner Rock,” and in simplest terms, yeah, they’ve pretty much just done my job for me and summed up their music nice n’ simple: they’re not the heaviest band in the world but sometimes they wear Metallica shirts and denim vests and are clearly Sabbath fans, and their music has a strong psychedelic 70s vibe and definitely goes really well with some herbal flavoring. But, of course, those facts don’t really set them apart from countless other bands.
What does set them apart is this: HOLY CRAP THESE SONGS ARE CATCHY. I defy you to listen to “Paralyzed” or “Can’t Get Him Away” (below) and NOT get ’em stuck in your head. The riffs don’t have hooks — they have goddamn anchors. The drums demand a bobbing of the head or, a synchronized shrugging of the shoulders, or, at the very least, some serious foot-tappin’. The smokey vocals will make your mouth water for some fine whiskey; inevitably, they’ll also draw comparisons to Royal Thunder’s Mlny Parsonz, which is fine, because any music fan in his or her right mind would go see a RT/RtH tour in a heartbeat. And that bass! It’s so serpentine, so seductive. It’s pure sex.
I’m so excited to get to hear even more new music from this band when they hit the studio with us next month. In the meantime, check out some their music below; you can download their 2012 album Ouroboros for pay-whatcha-want here.
