Dead Meadow

Born out of Washington, D.C.’s independent rock scene in the late 1990s, Dead Meadow gathered around Jason Simon and Steve Kille a core of musicians drawn to slow, massive, hypnotic psychedelic rock. The band first made its mark in local clubs with a blend of 1970s-inspired heavy rock, stoner, slowed-down blues and hazy ballads, driven by forward-mixed guitars, repetitive bass lines and an almost incantatory vocal. Their first albums, Dead Meadow (2000) and Howls from the Hills (2001), were released on Tolotta, a label linked to the Dischord circle, before a stint on Matador Records accompanied Shivering King and Others (2003) and Feathers (2005), a period in which Dead Meadow accentuated psychedelic textures and more folk-leaning atmospheres. After relocating to Los Angeles, the band maintained a steady studio and live presence, documented notably by the concert film Three Kings (2010) and by Warble Womb (2013), The Nothing They Need (2018) and Force Form Free (2022), which extend their work on long instrumental passages, saturated riffs and dreamy atmospheres. Still centered on the trio format but open to occasional reinforcements, Dead Meadow moves between psych scenes, indie rock and specialized festivals, preserving an aesthetic in which repetition, distortion and a certain melodic melancholy structure their catalogue.