Matt Pike Wades Into Bluesy Misery With Mastodon’s Brent Hinds on ‘Land’
High on Fire's Matt Pike is back with the latest piece of music from his upcoming solo album, Pike vs. The Automoton, and it's a bluesy jam called "Land" featuring a guest turn by Mastodon's Brent Hinds.
"Land" definitely falls outside of what we've typically come to expect from either Pike or Hinds, with the High on Fire vocalist's gruff and weathered vocal providing a perfect compliment for this down in the dumps bluesy track.
"'Land' was written after I had just come home from a tour. It's like an old blues song. I was thinking of it as like a bunch of old dudes in a subway doing a doo-wop thing," offers Pike. "It has the feel of a two-step like my Mom used to dance to, like Country Western. It’s totally about depression and leading a hard life."
The singer adds, "Later, I was playing the song for Brent Hinds from Mastodon who had come out to Portland to jam with me and he laid down this smokin’-ass Billy Gibbons kind of solo! I did one solo and then he did his solo and I’m like, 'You’re a dick,' (laughs). The bass player from Brent’s other band West End Motel, Steve McPeeks, played some stand-up bass – both plucking and with a bow – and it really brought out this depth to the song. I’ve never written a song like that and recorded it and made it as cool as it is. It’s totally different.”
Adding to the mystique of the song, Pike and Hinds both appear in the video for the track as well, with the clip looking like a silent film period piece following a drunkard's path through a day of desperation that includes boxing for money and a barroom brawl. You can watch it in full below.
Pike vs. The Automoton is due Feb. 18 via MNRK Heavy. It features guest turns not only from Hinds, but also Lord Dying's Alyssa Maucere-Pike, Chad "Chief" Hartgrave, West End Motel's Steve McPeeks, El Cerdo's Josh Greene, Tragedy's Todd Burdette and Pike's High on Fire bandmate Jeff Matz.
“I made a psychedelic rock record that Sleep and High on Fire fans would like,” Pike says of the album. “And maybe if you’re not a Sleep or High on Fire fan, you might like it too. I definitely think it’s interesting; it has D-Beat punk, two-step. It’s got everything and it still works together, it doesn’t sound odd. It’s just an off-the-wall psychedelic rock record.”
Pre-orders are available here. Check out the "Land" lyrics and video below and revisit his recent solo track "Alien Slut Mum" here.
Pike vs. The Automoton, "Land" Lyrics
Silver sheen lucky baptized
Smoke and wood ashes smote
You bum a cig and your thoughts die
A pity time doesn’t hopeIt wasn’t real from the last time
From the last time
F*ck the pain from inside
It wasn’t real from the last timeCount your sticks and your last dimes
Dirt and snot on your nose
The platinum cane and your last try
We took the world as a jokeMemories of a fine life
A conscious soul on a rope
You dig a grave before bedtime
Eternal nap just to cope