If bands such as Queens Of The Stone Age and Black Mountain have to be repeatedly referred to as Stoner Rock, I hereby declare it should be a requirement that bands such as The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Warlocks be referred to as Heroin Rock. If the influences of smack aren't the first thing that come to mind if you've heard The Warlocks first two albums, you may not be as familiar with recreational substances as you think you are (but song titles like "Shake The Dope Out" kind of give it away don't you think?). The Velvet Underground are the obvious influence to point to for these L.A. natives. But I like to think that this seven piece (including not one, but two drummers!) is still spreading the good word of a band like Spacemen 3; layer upon layer of stacked feedback while keeping an axe to the brownstone.

The Warlocks latest, Surgery, doesn't go out of its way much to change the formula of their previous two releases, even though frequent Beck/Elliott Smith collaborator Tom Rothrock was brought in to produce. Surprisingly, Rothrock does a more than adequate job here - giving The Warlocks trademark buzz saw sound a nicely polished sheen, that I can't say I actually thought would work, but I'll be damned if it doesn't. But I have to give it up to main Warlock Bobby Hecksher for letting his vocals soar over the symphony of noise that is laid beneath his feet. In previous works, he was no more than background filler for this wall of sound. Here, he rides the high horse as the unequivocal and unabashed leader of this motley bunch. Just listen to how he belts out the lines to "Come Save Us" or "It's Just Like Surgery" and try not to be the least bit impressed. Hecksher's impressive display along with Rothrock's winning production makes Surgery The Warlocks most indispensable batch of songs yet.