Wolfmother

Big dumb rock can take years of practice to perfect. Just ask bombastic Australian power trio Wolfmother, who jammed at home for almost four years before they played a show or recorded a single note of music. The secret is out now, thanks to a major-label deal and a killer new album, Wolfmother, due in May.

SOUND The Darkness, if they took themselves seriously. Wolfmother play larger-than-life heavy rock with some garage thrown in: Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and a touch of the MC5. Frontman Andrew Stockdale sings tunes about witchcraft and white unicorns in a banshee wail over steady, marauding hard-rock guitar riffs. "A friend of mine labeled us romantic pre-metal," says drummer Myles Heskett. He's getting tired of being asked about the comparisons to Sabbath and Zeppelin, "but it's better than being asked, 'Are you sick of being compared to Boy George?' "

LONE WOLVES After meeting in 2000 through mutual friends, Stockdale, Heskett and bassist Chris Ross spent a couple of years experimenting. "They were crazy sonic jams with heaps of distortion," says Ross. In late 2003, the group decided it was time to write songs with real beginnings and endings. When it finally made its stage debut, it was as a tight trio with the confidence of a band that had been gigging for years.

THE PACK GROWS More U.S. shows, including a stop at Coachella, are on the horizon. "The first American show we did was in Seattle," Heskett says. "We were in the car park, and this big van pulls out and a bunch of dudes jump out screaming, 'Yo, Wolfmother!' They drove up all the way from Portland. We're all just taken aback by all this right now."

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