The Bob Seger in all of us can take heart in Dead Meadow?. One of the best things about the band is simply who they are: a trio of Tolkien/Lovecraft-reading, shoegazey/stoner-rock riffing, pot-smoking geeks in love with their guitars, successfully touring the world. They come from a time, way back in the late-90s, when indie-rock actually rawked. With the vintage music they’ve helped revive, Dead Meadow? perpetually runs the risk of becoming vintage themselves, like literature professors at a Harry Potter opening.

As ambassadors of 1998 and 1968, of Black Sabbath and mellifluous Mellotron psychedelic metal in an age of digital auto-tart hijinks, Dead Meadow? can get away with – thrive in – putting out a live album. That’s the majority of Three Kings, 11 live songs from album’s past, and five new babies. For many, it’s easy to understand, live recordings are not always gifts. DM’s vocalist and lead guitarist Jason Simon once said he tries to capture what he imagined elf music would sound like, as described in the Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien. With a heavy thread of the ethereal, the music is also heavily steeped in sludgy drone, and 2002’s Got Live If You Want It, DM’s first live release, failed to capture the band’s usually brilliant live nuances. The best thing about Got Live is that Anton Newcombe, the magical, iconoclastic spaz from Brian Jonestown Massacre?, produced the release. Like many live recordings, listeners got a small fraction of the actual experience.

The sound quality of this latest release is dramatically better, featuring stand-outs from the band’s best albums, Shivering Kings and Others and Feathers (vinyl is highly recommended for both). The live tracks on Three Kings are akin to Hendrix live, with new versions of pieces realized during performances, as it should be. “Everything’s Going On” is DM’s most introspective song, but on TK an up-tempo beat transforms the piece, along with a more punk vocal attitude, into something that resembles notable bands from DM’s birthing city, Washington D.C. It’s not quite Fugazi?, but closer.

Living in Los Angeles for a while now, a same-titled film accompanies TK. From the looks of the preview, three Dungeons and Dragons nerds meet in a 70s exploitation movie in the desert with guns and muscle cars to not seem like the dweebs. But that’s the film …

New songs on the release score pretty high. “That Old Temple” exercises an itchy, choppier side to Simon’s demonic licks on the frets. Instead of a solo acid trip in the woods, it’s a concise rock structure that probably makes Jack White blush with envy. The new stuff has a stiffer structure, a bluesier bent, than much of DM’s previous sprawling material. “Push ’em to the Crux” is an interesting crossbreed of both. It features female backing vocals – a bit of a fresh breeze from the sock drawer of male reverence to, let’s face it once more, all things geeky.