By Todd Lavoie
Calling all lovers of the heavy ‘n’ the hazy: Virginia-farmboy stoner-rock band Pontiak will be treating the Bay Area to two doses of riffing and roughing up cochleas. First off, the Blue Ridge Mountain brothers storm the Stork Club in Oakland on Tuesday, Dec. 9. Don’t feel like trekkin’ on over to the East Bay on a school night? The trio will also be playing here in SF, on Sunday, Dec. 14, at the Hemlock Tavern. Two choices, so really there’s no excuse.
Hailing from small-town farmlands north of Charlottesville, Pontiak is composed of three brothers: Van (guitar, lead vocals), Lain (drums, vocals), and Jennings Carney (bass, organ, vocals). I don’t think anyone in the band would necessarily flinch at the mention of the phrase “power trio”: for all of their affinity for murky, sludgy sounds, Pontiak roars away with remarkable precision, pulling off that men-as-machine ethos quite convincingly. Maybe it’s a sibling thing?
There is a level of familial intuition that’s quite palpable on the recent re-release of their second full-length, Sun on Sun (Thrill Jockey), after all – and while I hardly would expect first-time listeners to mistake any of the disc for Rush, the sheer force with which the threepiece locks into a groove could warrant the comparisons. Instead of touching upon “Tom Sawyer” or “The Temples of Syrinx,” however, the disc taps into the doomscapes of Black Sabbath as well as the psychedelia of the Doors.