For the first five years, Weedeater was more or less a side project. That all changed in 1999.
With the end of both Buzzov-en and Shake, Weedeater became a full-time proposition and the band began devoting their complete attention to their five-year-old project. Word of Weedeater’s incendiary live shows began to spread which, coupled with their demo, earned the band a contact with Berserker, resulting in the debut album, 2001’s Injustice for Y’All, followed a year later by Sixteen Tons for Berserker Records. Both featured Weedeater’s patented monolithically-mutated Black Sabbath riff-wrangling set to an almost glacial Metal pace, but “Dixie” Dave Collins notes that a lot of diverse influences are at the heart of Weedeater’s sound.
“Black Sabbath, certainly, but there are a lot of Southern Rock influences as well,” Collins says. “Maybe My War-era Black Flag, Primus, even Blue Cheer and the Accused. A pretty wide range of influences, I would say. Someone that somebody might not expect? Maybe Tom Waits. Or maybe somebody would expect that.”
If all goes well, the fourth Weedeater album will drop this fall; the band is headed back to Chicago in April to re-team with Albini to produce a concept album titled Chasing the Dragon, which Collins describes as “one person’s life, basically.”
They play the Southgate House with Black Tusk, The Gates of Slumber and Struck by Lightning. Get show details, Sound Advice and read Brian Baker's full interview with the band here.
