Vitamin Mines - Vitamin Mines

Vitamin Mines

Vitamin Mines
​self-released; 2022

3.9 out of 5

By Jay Freeman

The band Vitamin Mines is made up of friends from the California Bay area. Their self-titled EP Vitamin Mines is the band’s first release together and they are grateful to have had so many rad musicians contribute to the tracks. The album was recorded at Nu-Tone Studios in the Bay area, and it was mixed and mastered at Trident Studios in Pacheco, California. The EP clocks in at just about 27 minutes long and consists of instrumental and vocal tracks. Vitamin Mines’ process goes pretty much like this; write, demo and record everything live because they like to vibe off one another. Some people who have listened to their music say that it kind of has a ’90s rock sound. Vocal contributions are made by multiple members of the band and the lyrics are mainly written by the two guitar players. Not sure if the band has any social media presence – but you can hear their music on Bandcamp.

“Follow Me to Hell” begins with an eerie guitar sound, sinister and creepy – an imaginative sound, as if you were about to enter the underworld itself. The rest of this all-instrumental song delivers a deep and rich sludge rock style, complete with minor chords and thumping, deep drums. “Symbolic Toxic Joking” opens a sound, like it’s from some goth-rock western movie – hmm, do they make those sorts of movies? The dark, foreboding style – that I thought was on the lighter side of hard alt-rock – is followed by some incoherent talking, a little funked up guitar rhythm, vocals and then more dark, minor chords.

​“6:26 AM” features a catchy and quick, bass guitar/bass guitar beat and some fuzzy, distorted guitars. There was something grunge here that I liked. Not like the trendy, radio friendly grunge, but maybe more like the lesser known, well written songs of Mudhoney and Screaming Trees. Next is “Teddy Bear” and it begins with the live sounds of drums, rather “tribal like” and an overall experimental style of playing. Alongside this is a snippet from one of the many lectures of Alan Watts, the well-known, Zen Buddhist philosopher, teacher extraordinaire. What was interesting about this song, is that the band mixed in a soprano or tenor sax (I think) – which I thought made for an interesting pairing, alongside the metal sounding guitar.

“Shipwreck” has got a great, infectious guitar riff and solid rhythm. In my view, it was written or structured, like a classic alt-rock/grunge song. But this tune had a Jane’s Addiction, hypnotizing appeal to it as well. “Bestroy” fades in with an acoustic guitar, wind/flute sounds of the organ, with another retro organ sound supplying the song’s main melody – which I thought was remarkably rich and beautiful. Overall, the band’s quality and style reminded me of something I’ve heard before, like from way back, but couldn’t quite place my finger on it. I would highly recommend listening to this one. The last number is “A Touch of War” and it has a certain, old school ‘70s rock feel to it. Heavy with the bass/drum rhythms, it also features plenty of lead guitar action and more catchy guitar riffs. But then, at just under the two-minute mark, the band branches off into this dreamlike, celestial musical style – you could say in a Pink Floyd-ish, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani sort of way – but not so over the top like said artists. This last track also happens to be an instrumental and the band longest track. It ends very tenderly, with light keys, some random guitar playing fading in and out, and some children singing what sounds like a lullaby of some sort. Overall, I like this band a lot. I think their EP showcases a good mix of styles – not just ‘90s alt-rock – and especially the way they wrote the instrumentation parts.

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