Burning Brides frontman references the cough on Sabbath’s “Sweet Leaf” in anticipation of some B.C. bud

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON JULY 11, 2007

By Steve Newton

On the Burning Brides’ Web site, guitarist-vocalist Dimitri Coats describes his Philly-based power trio as being “Robin Hoods of rock and roll”. He isn’t implying that his group raids the vaults of music royalty, absconding with precious riffs and then doling them out to rock-starved commoners. One listen to the Brides’ rip-roaring new CD, Hang Love, might make you think so, but no.

“What I mean by that,” explains Coats, en route to a Houston sound check, “is we were in a major-label situation, and we sort of broke into the castle, stole the money bags, burned down some houses, ran away, and when the smoke cleared we were able to release a record ourselves.”

After their extremely low-budget 2001 debut, Fall of the Plastic Empire, the Brides scored a million-dollar contract with V2 Records, then home to multiplatinum heavyweights Moby and the White Stripes. The influx of cash resulted in 2004’s Leave No Ashes, a big and blustery ear-buster helmed by hotshot producer George Drakoulias (Tom Petty, the Black Crowes), which should have vaulted the group to major-league status.

But the demon of corporate downsizing took its toll.

“We don’t have anybody throwing millions of dollars at us anymore,” says Coats, whose band plays Richard’s on Richards on Friday (July 13), “but that didn’t really do us much good anyway. A lot of it went up our nose.”

Coats and his wife, Burning Brides bassist Melanie Coats, still had enough left over to finance the recording of Hang Love, released last month on the Modart imprint. Like its major-label predecessor, Hang Love abounds with monster-sized grooves, most of them revved up to a rampaging Sex Pistols vibe.

There are also elements of Zeppelin-y blues and Fu Manchu–style stoner rock. New drummer Pete Beeman, formerly of L.A.’s Guzzard, fiercely slams everything into place, but it’s clear that the person Coats most enjoys hanging with is Melanie, who he first met in New York, where they both attended the Juilliard School.

After graduation they started smoking pot and hanging out at Coats’s apartment, where he turned her on to the Black Sabbath albums Master of Reality, Volume 4, and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath.

“Those are the cool Sabbath records, and everybody knows it,” he stresses. “Ya gotta hear that coughin’ at the beginning of ‘Sweet Leaf’ to know what I’m talkin’ about. We’re talkin’ B.C. bud, brother! Can’t wait!”