Hailing from Brooklyn, New York is the three-piece Stoner Rock/Post-Grunge outfit Grandpa Jack. Their latest single “Once Bitten” is the first single off their latest album “Grits”, and it sounds like a mid-2000s Hard Rock dream. The track begins with a groovy bassline and shouty vocals that make you think you’re in a bar fight scene in some spaghetti-western film. It’s intoxicating to hear that verse and how much power the guitar riff carries.
We are then taken to the chorus which has the well-known idiom “Once Bitten Twice Shy” being sung with a reverb effect and with a strong enunciation that adds more emphasis to the action film narrative that can be felt here. The band heavily reminds me of acts like Audioslave and Seether and how they loved their stompy beats and groovy buzzing rhythm.
The song abruptly changes tempo into a heavier section that feels like a full-blown Alternative Metal track of its own. While it shows the band’s strength and skilful mastery of their instruments, it kind of made my head spin, for the lack of a better word, by how different it was from the start of the song. It was catchy and moving but it transitioned once again into a different guitar and bassline that were just a little repetitive but heavy and cool sounding nonetheless. It feels like the bar fight scene ended and I was suddenly in a car chase and the music slowly fades out.
In the end, I can say that the first half of this track was nothing short of amazing. Maybe when the band tried to flaunt their heavier and groovier side in the second half it didn’t feel as original, but it still made me look forward to listening to the rest of the album and how different the other tracks may sound. This is a band that clearly has strong chemistry and lyric writing ability, and they can play tunes that make you visualise and feel what these lyrics are talking about. If you were ever a fan of post-grunge in the 2000s you will definitely be fond of Grandpa Jack.
