When I wrote about that Indian Metal Hangover 0.1 disc the day before yesterday, I mentioned one of the songs on it reminded me of Chevelle. Now, apart from a heart-stopping beauty of a car, it’s also an American Hard Rock/Alternative Metal band, from nearby Chicago, Illinois. I used to listen a lot to these guys and so yesterday’s analogy made me happy to return to the band for another feature post in our Rockin’ Out with … series.

The band was formed in 1990 by the brothers Pete and Sam Loeffler, and they were joined by their youngest brother Joe in 1994. The group’s name was taken from the Chevrolet Chevelle, of which their father owned a specimen. Youngest brother Joe either left the band or was kicked out of the band somewhere in late 2004, depending on whether you ask him or his brothers. In any case, there was disagreement.

Today we’ll be running through the band’s five full-length releases, of which most notably the first three had a huge part to play in my own musical taste’s development, which has a lot to do with the prominent bass line that’s prominent in all of the band’s music.

The band’s debut release is titled Point #1, and came out in 1999. Like all of the band’s consecutive albums, it isn’t characterized by blistering musicianship. In fact, when I used to check out the band’s guitar tabs I noticed how incredibly simplistic their songs and riffs are built up. That doesn’t matter for shit though, as what the band does bring us is steady, progressive, groove rich flows of chunky guitar Rock.

We selected the title track to include in the post today. However, the video we found below is actually a combination of the album’s opening track, brilliantly titled Open, and the second track, the title track.

From there, the band took three years to come up with its second album. Wonder What’s Next was released in October of 2002 and features eleven tracks – fifteen if you got your hands on a bonus version. This is also the album that contains the most of my favorite Chevelle songs. The favorite track is the one called Forfeit. And guess what, coincidence wills it that there’s a high quality live recording of that available!

Then in 2004 came This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In), and although the band may have though longer album titles would mean bigger sales, they were wrong. It peaked higher in the charts, but didn’t sell as well as Wonder What’s Next. In my view the reason for that is that it doesn’t have as many catchy gems. However, it couldn’t have been because of this next song, because that fuckin’ rocks! It’s called The Clincher.

2007’s Vena Sera is the band’s last album of which I’ve had a taste myself. Didn’t possess the ability to keep me interested in the band much longer, as I stopped following them shortly after the album was released. I do remember that I enjoyed some of the album’s songs though, which included one song called The Fad, most notably because of its catchy chorus and staccato bass work.

So, as said, that’s where my Chevelle experience ends, although it isn’t where the band’s career ends. They released another album in 2009, which is currently still their latest, called Sci-Fi Crimes. Never dug into that. In fact, didn’t even know it existed until today. I checked out a few songs though, and to be honest I’m not mourning the fact that I lost track of these guys after Vena Sera, as their top was clearly somewhere around 2002. Not that the song below sounds bad or anything, but it is covered in a jus of commerce and doesn’t quite possess the grooving kick their early work had. Still, for completeness’ sake, here’s Letter from a Thief.

If that in fact did do something for you, you may want to check the band out further, which is precisely what you can do at the band’s official website!

Tags: alternative, American, hard rock

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