Can Greta Van Fleet and Birdy Bardot Save Rock?

It was September 2017 and I was barreling through the 5 North to Clairmont, listening to San Diego’s Rock 105.3 when suddenly I heard a primal, raunchy, 70s-esque guitar riff. Musical Deja Vu hit as the guitar sounded insanely familiar, yet couldn’t be, for I would have remembered listening to such a Riff. Once you get past the ripping electricity of the guitar, you hear the most Robert Plant-like howl this side of Zeppelin II, and after another triumphant, roaring guitar part, the real fun commences. Bashing drums, unpolished blues guitar notes, underlying bass lines, and lyrics of driving through the highways with his special girl, the average listener would genuinely believe they’ve stumbled on an unreleased track off of Houses of the Holy or a deep cut off of Zeppelin III. But in fact what I and thousands of Americans were listening to was the track "Highway Tune" by Greta Van Fleet.

In Trump’s America, it isn’t easy being a 70s style rock band. The two years of the Trump administration is a world of backward foreign policy, distrust of the government, resentment of the ones in charge of things, the corruption of the political parties by the Russian’s and the ever-looming threat of our president pushing another nation's buttons a little too hard. The point is that in our modern times, it’s difficult embodying the tenants of Sex, Drugs, and Rock and Roll through music and lifestyle. Despite this though, Greta Van Fleet (and another band I will mention soon) are proving that old school Rock and Roll is still alive and well.

From the Fires, the November 2017 EP by Greta Van Fleet starts off with “Safari Song,” a track with one of the catchiest choruses to ever grace an album opener in the last decade. "Black Smoke Rising," the last song on the album, gives me chills every time I listen to it. The band covers an old-school southern song "A Change is Gonna Come" with lead vocalist Josh Kiszka singing a classic Rock version of a Soul song, shouting with all the fire in his heart "It's been too hard living, But I'm afraid to die, Cause I don't know whats up there, baby, Beyond the Sky." On the EP's second track, "Edge Of Darkness," guitar player Jake Kiszka (the band is comprised of three brothers and their friend)showcases his most Page like riffing throughout the track, while his twin brother wails with fire and spirit, and his younger brother gives a beautiful, rumbling bass rhythm to a well-balanced drum performance to give us a true taste of Rock and Roll in contemporary America.

Despite my praise of Greta Van Fleet and their November 2017 EP, I would not say they are on par with Led Zeppelin. In fact they aren’t even close. The main (and rather obvious) reason is that every member of Zeppelin was a Rockstar in their own right. John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Robert Plant, and Jimmy Page all mastered their respective instruments (and singing abilities for Plant) well before they even started Zeppelin 50 years ago. But other than that there is something Greta van Fleet is lacking. Before I get into that though, I am not suggesting that they can never be on Zeppelin's level. I am merely suggesting that in this nascent, pre-mainstream, “Almost Famous” stage in the band’s career they not only need to take a musical cue from the masters but a recording lesson as well. Led Zeppelin recorded five landmark albums within five years. They made the kind of groundbreaking Rock music that no one before or since has been able to replicate or even attempt. Being that I like Greta Van Fleet and want a new era of 70s rock and debauchery, one of the best ways to accomplish this is for Greta Van Fleet, and bands like them, to record fast, and better each time. While much easier said than done, I do genuinely believe that with time, effort, and growing musical maturity, Greta Van Fleet could be on par with Zeppelin and could be leaders in a 70s Hard Rock Revival movement.

December 15, 2017 was the last day of school before winter break and me, my good friend Riley, and my protege, Dylan, walked into Cow Records in Ocean Beaches Newport Avenue, high out of our minds, to buy Reign in Blood by Slayer, and Vol 4 by Black Sabbath. When we walked into the store, a song had just started to play that would change my life forever. The song was "Either Way" off Birdy Bardot's second album. I fell in love with the production style instantly, a kind of Garage, Psychedelic, Surf rock with an enchanting female vocalist spouting philosophies like, "We're all in this parade, We're marching every day" and "Don't think you're the only one, who's wounded in some way, One more actor, in this Play." After the song was over, (and we had acquired the Vinyls) I asked where the band was from, and to the delight of the cashier I was given a one-word answer: "Here."

The best way to describe Birdy Bardot's second LP is The Doors by way of Portishead. The lead singer Emily Reilly gives a Debbie Harry edge to a Grace Slick performance throughout the album, proving that she is the "Queen of this Nothing" (had my doubts). The album is extremely diverse, poetic, psychedelic, and honestly pure fun. True San Diego rock. The song "Take This All Away" provides a smoky, jazz club in the 30s feel with the bass taking center stage along with Emily's beautiful lyrics of watching the sun catch fire while the "ship" we're on starts to sink. Haunting, soulful, and hypnotic, this track is preceded by five songs of equal quality and ambition, followed by six tunes that all encompass the musical landscape of America while giving the kind of vibe only a Southern Californian band can provide.