Premiere: Bone Acre, ‘Bad Man’

Kevin Bronson on October 17th, 2018

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High Desert quintet Bone Acre makes psych-rock that moves like a grass fire, whipped by the winds of Caroline Heerwagen’s intensely personal lyrics and fed by her smoldering vocals. The band’s name was derived from the title of a novel Heerwagen is writing — a dark tale about a little girl who falls prey to an older boy. And many of those vignettes surface in seething, haunting, raging fashion on Bone Acre’s debut album, “Oll Korrect.”

The album was three or so years in the making. The group — originally Sean Burgess, Adam D’Zurilla, Jason Obergfoll and Shawn Bann — had invited Heerwagen to come on as singer-songwriter. They were working on the music last year when, in October, guitarist Bann committed suicide. Ashley Mendel stepped in to replace him, and Bone Acre recorded the album with Dave Catching at the legendary Rancho De La Luna studio in Joshua Tree (Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn did the mix). Its sound lives up to the room’s lineage.

The single “Bad Man” is about an abuser. It finds Heerwagen brawling with her demons, and the demonic things inflicted on her. “Just ’cause you’re wrong / doesn’t mean I’m right,” she sings, revealing just one facet of being a victim. Like the other seven episodes on “Oll Korrect,” it’s a case of healing with a howl and exorcism by guitar.

||| Stream: “Bad Man”