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Spirit Caravan: Jug Fulla Sun (1999)

With Spirit Caravan and their first output, 1999's Jug Fulla Sun, Scott 'Wino' Weinrich further cemented his place atop the American doom and stoner rock pyramids, following his already quasi-legendary exploits with Saint Vitus and The Obsessed.

But it sure wasn't easy ...

Only five years earlier, The Obsessed had signed with mighty Columbia Records and seemed on the verge of a major breakthrough with '94's The Church Within LP, only to join numerous fellow metal bands (Carcass, Kreator, etc.) in a grunge-affected corporate purge.

Burnt out and disillusioned, Wino endured homelessness, drug addiction, and serious health issues in Los Angeles, before returning to his Maryland stomping grounds and launching a new band called Shine with bassist/vocalist Dave Sherman and drummer Gary Isom.

But then, just as they were starting to attract indie label interest, resulting in '97's "Lost Sun Dance" single, a pop-rock group laid claim to the Shine moniker, and so the name Spirit Caravan was conjured up to represent the project's developing cosmic and psychedelic themes.

The resulting Jug Fulla Sun effectively bridged this transitional period with material held over from both Shine ("Lost Sun Dance," "Powertime") and The Obsessed's final days ("Fear's Machine," "Melancholy Grey"), as well as several brand-new Wino classics.

These included twin-tempo opener "Healing Tongue," fuzz guitar-swept acid rocker "Cosmic Artifact," hypno-hallucinatory doom epic "Dead Love/Jug Fulla Sun," and the hilarious "Kill Ugly Naked," which may just be my all-time-favorite Wino hardcore sprint.

Last but not least came the imaginative, acoustic-accented grooves of "No Hope Goat Farm," and Sherman (R.I.P.) took his de rigueur turn at the mic for the grinding "Fang," which foreshadowed the glass-gargling credentials he would soon showcase by fronting Earthride.

But, for now, Spirit Caravan remained his priority, as it would Wino's for the same year's Dreamwheel EP, 2001's sophomore full-length Elusive Truth, and multiple U.S. and European tours to support them, until the band's internal chemistry started to deteriorate.

This, along with Wino's souring worldview in the wake of 9/11 and major personal events like becoming a father contributed to Spirit Caravan's break-up in 2002 and his decision to form the politicized Hidden Hand, conveniently in his Maryland backyard.

However, while it lasted, Spirit Caravan was arguably my favorite Wino project of them all, and I still remember an electrifying set they played at Brooklyn's long gone North Six club in April of 2002 (*), just weeks before this Philly show and their final breakup.

* On a mighty stoner rock bill alongside Place of Skulls, Alabama Thunderpussy, Orange Goblin, and -- talk about an outlier -- Japanese black metal originals Sigh!

More Wino: Saint Vitus' Born too Late, Mournful Cries, V; The Obsessed's The Obsessed, Lunar Womb, The Church Within; Spirit Caravan's Dreamwheel EP, Elusive Truth; The Hidden Hand's Mother Teacher Destroyer; Probot's Probot.