500 Ft. Of Pipe is a drug rock band from Detroit. 'Drug rock' is a term used by the band to provide a framework for their collective aesthetic vision, to crystallize their nebulous inspirations/aspirations into a distinct and meaningful 'sound'. The formula calls for equal parts distortion, psychedelia, and stoner ennui, buffered with old-fashioned pop sensibilities, and catalyzed by means of a certain notorious pastime. Think Black Sabbath and Blue Cheer; think Monster Magnet and Kyuss; think MC5 and Stooges; think Doors and Deep Purple. Then again, think something entirely different altogether. 500 Ft. Of Pipe is new. 500 Ft. Of Pipe is a trio fronted by a stand-up rock-out two-fisted keyboard player (Ross Westerbur), who belts out angry-young-man lyrics interwoven with 'yeah, baby!'-type rock and roll exclamations, while his left hand coaxes stunning lines from a Rhodes Piano Bass (a la Ray Manzarek), and while his right attends to a distortion-drenched, Marshall-fueled Rhodes Seventy-Three, sounding more Ritchie Blackmore than John Lord. Terminally jaded guitarist Kevin Edwards offers the six-string counterparts of soaring, echo-fuzz-wah screams and pentatonic riffage (surely these are the 3,000 guitars that Buck Dharma prophesied!), while drummer Mick Stone attacks his minimalist kit with all the vehemence that only his Type A-plus personality could invoke. Heavy... ...This is drug rock, baby.
Detroit never knew about them when they were there.
Now they're gone.
The legend continues to grow.
Will they ever come back? No.
Birth.
Life.
Death.
500 FT. OF PIPE.
