Brent Hinds presents Fiend without a face and West End motel

Rocket Science
2011

Mastodon's Brent Hinds presents two separate and rather different projects on this set. Both different from Mastodon of course and different from one another as well. First up is Fiend without a face who mix up psychobilly and surf music. Most of the tracks on this one are brief as only a couple stretch past the three minute mark. The vocals that are on some songs are nasal and muffled, but they mesh alright with the music. It's a mix of styles here too as something like "Green slime" is a quirky mix of retro styles and punk while "Tsunami" is a very straight old style surf instrumental. Not an overwhelming set of songs, but likable enough. West End Motel present seven songs of downbeat twangy honky tonk styled tracks. While moaning on about lost women, lost opportunities and drinking they keep the pace moving along despite the slightly sad feel to several tracks. This is certainly the kind of material where it's best to just sit back and slowly absorb all that's seeping out of your speakers. Both fairly interesting projects.