Indian Handcrafts: Civil Disobedience for Losers

Indian Handcrafts
Civil Disobedience for Losers
Sargent House
2012-10-30

If you ever listened to sludge greats Harvey Milk and thought, “I wish there was a more accessible version of this,” then Indian Handcrafts’ Civil Disobedience for Losers, their debut for the consistently great Sargent House, is right up your alley. Indian Handcrafts, the Canada-based duo of Brandyn Aikins and Daniel Allen, continue in 2012’s solid run of stoner rock albums, counting among their kin Ancestors and The Shrine. This LP isn’t the best of the lot, but it’s undoubtedly the most fun; in spirit they’re closer to their bro-rock labelmates Fang Island than any sonically similar stoner rock outfit.

Civil Disobedience for Losers is all about The Riff: the big, nasty, sludgy Riff in all its glory. Imagine taking Harvey Milk’s low-end heavy instrumental “After All I’ve Ever Done for You, This is How You Repay Me?” and making an eleven-track album out of it, and that’s more or less what’s present, plus a good scoopful or two of weed brownie dough added for good measure. Although Civil Disobedience is mostly one-note dynamically speaking (riff, chorus, riff, floor-rumbling breakdown, end), it’s a nonstop thrill ride that for 38 minutes is never boring. After all, the album does unironically open with the bang of a gong (on a song called “Bruce Lee,” no less); riffs and laughs are the name of the game here, and there’s an ample amount of both. For no-frills genre thrills, Indian Handcrafts are a great way to burn some time.



RATING 7 / 10