Better To... Podcast with D. M. Needom
The Better To Podcast is a place where we'll discuss what was the inspiration for their perspective projects and how it all came about. Sometimes, we’ll take a deeper dive into that moment that placed them on the creative path. On the podcast, we honor achievements, discuss new projects, and reflect on life lessons and the beginnings of the creative journey.
Better To... Podcast with D. M. Needom
Burn Cruise - Leafblower - Danny Maxwell & Craig Fort
This week Danny Maxwell, Craig Fort and the band's mascot Tim stop by the show to discuss, their latest release 'Burn Cruise' , ghosts, the psychology behind the music and more.
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Since 2016, Leafblower’s patented brand of psych-tinged post-rock has whiplashed crowds of bobbing heads and pumping fists. The band released a demo, a live set, a single—but all the while, their first full-length has been simmering to a boil, now ready to sear.
Burn Cruise is a sound that only a steady diet of metal and hardcore, even while members played in post-punk (New Lungs, The Fucking Party), indie (Little Brazil), and old-school reinvented country (Lightning Stills), can meld. The opener, “Long Night,” haunts, creeps, then gallops into the howling dual guitars of Dan Maxwell and Clark Jahn, while the outro track “Stoopin’” is a haunted shiver of banjo, piano, and theremin soaked in the aural equivalent to sepia. In between, “Namaste” unleashes an onslaught out of the gate, as bassist Craig Fort gutturally punctuates vocalist Maxwell’s plaintive venom. On the title track, sludge shifts to discordant-edged stadium anthem, while the melodic post-punk of “Unsatisfied” twists into prog-rock harmony before the song pummels with pure metal. The unrelenting beat of “Ghosts” builds, guitars wailing, and Tab Tworek’s drums turn frenetic, a pulse-racing metronome. Add to all that: Tim.
Imagine a dimly lit dive bar, Leafblower gearing up to play. Before the strike of the first chord, before the pulse of a drum, an old man—stringy hair and beard—hovers in the billowing fog of a smoke machine. On close inspection, his eyes are empty. His pale face flaps loosely, as if skinned and put back. His body is stuffed. Is he a mascot, like Dio’s Murray or Iron Maiden’s Eddie? Is he symbolic? Is he a manifestation of the collective consciousness? An embodiment of the music? He is Tim.
Recorded and mixed by Ian Aeillo at Make Believe Studios and mastered by Carl Saff, Burn Cruise is Leafblower’s inimitable voice at full throat.
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Upcoming guests can be found: https://dmneedom.com/upcoming-guest
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Intro and Outro music compliments of Fast Suzi
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