Rock – Page 205 – 7th Level Music

Screaming Females – Rose Mountain

Screaming Females (Marissa Paternoster – guitars and vocals, Jarrett Dougherty – drums, “King” Michael Abbate – bass) are, in case you don’t know, one of the best rock power trios of our time. Their album Ugly was one of my favorite discoveries of 2012 and their newest, Rose Mountain, is another great piece of work and the most honest album about relationships I’ve heard in a long while.

Like Ugly, Rose Mountain starts with a good rocker. “Empty Head” gets right to the chugging bass, sharp percussion, and power riffs that Paternoster is making better than anyone right now. It’s about betrayal and annoyance in a relationship (“I’ll take your silence as a sign. You’re a big shot, but who needs who?”) dealt with via guitar.

“Ripe” is about a relationship full of so much passion that it might fly off the rails, much like Paternoster’s guitar riffs on it. When she sings, “I said peel the skin raw,” her shredding practically does it for you. “Wishing Well” almost has a surf vibe to the guitar work as Paternoster sings about regret for screwing up a relationship. “The dial tone is your true love” is a brutal, yet beautiful lyric (as is Paternoster’s solo).

“Burning Car” moves about as fast as such. “Broken Neck” is a song about madness and life in an asylum (although I wouldn’t be surprised if the asylum is a metaphor for a dead end relationship). Abbate’s bass line stalks around the song like a shuffling thorazine addict. The title track is a haunting one about death and Paternoster’s preferred burial site. Her guitar work on it goes from heavy as the Grim Reaper’s blade to weirdly catchy.

“Hopeless” is the saddest song on the record. “Don’t count on me again,” Paternoster sings, “I obsess on our encounters. I want us to be friends. I’m not hopeless, helpless, or begging you to say. It’s just turning out that way.” Who hasn’t been there at some point?

“Triumph” (which is about getting back up after a bad relationship knocks you down – “I want to feel all of the things I’ve been refused and celebrate my first victory, destroy my history with you.”) follows it, and the guitar work on it matches the title. All three of the Females play for the back of the room. Paternoster lays down some of her fiercest riffs on it. She’s one of the best guitar players of this modern age. Watch YouTube videos of the Screaming Females at small gigs and you’ll see men almost twice her size cower back as she plays with the ferocity of that bear from The Revenant.

“It’s Not Fair” seems to be about Paternoster missing her lover while she’s out on tour and “Criminal Image” closes the album with Thin Lizzy-like rock as Paternoster sings about a siren she’s obsessed with and for whom she’ll do anything. A faint piano in the background adds a nice touch as Doughtery’s drums grow in power with each moment. Abbate holds this hold song together with a good groove and Paternoster blazes through the end solo with stuff that would make Prince envious.

It’s another solid record from a solid trio. I need to see them live.

Keep your mind open.

Tamaryn – Cranekiss

Tamaryn Brown (hereafter known as Tamaryn) Tweeted last year that she felt 2015 had been her least sexiest year ever. I beg to differ because she gave us a lush, sexy, and excellent make-out record in 2015 – Cranekiss.

The title track opener sounds at first like a 45rpm record being played at 33 1/3rpm. The synths appear to be have been recorded at the bottom of a lake and Tamaryn’s lovely vocals appear to have been recorded in an empty YMCA pool. The Cure-like bass make the track something that should be on every “Summer 2015” mix tape.

“Hands All Over Me” immediately counters Ms. Brown’s “non-sexy 2015” Tweet, because I’m sure it’s gotten hundreds of people laid since its release. It’s full of gorgeous keyboards, lyrics about kinks and going for a couple rounds, and a near-industrial feel (especially the ending). It’s one of my favorite singles of 2015.

“Last” is a song by that one early 1980’s New Wave band that has haunted you since you heard it once on a college rock station as you were traveling to your aunt’s house for Christmas. Here it is, full of thick bass, strong synths, powerful and ethereal vocals, and that certain attitude that made you remember it for years. It’s a song about waiting for a lover, so it’s only natural you’ve been waiting to hear this.

“Collection” is bouncy and full of more great synths while “Keep Calling” slows things down and curls around you like incense smoke. It reminds me of early Love & Rockets records. “Softcore” is a genre of adult films, so I again am not buying Tamaryn’s claim of an unsexy 2015, especially when her torch singer voice rubs against you like a purring cat before the track turns into something you might hear in a dark and, ahem, exclusive club.

I think “Fade Away Slow” was recorded in the Black Lodge because it seems to come from another world where time moves slower. The guitar work on it is almost drone metal, but it’s sprinkled with crisp tones that would make Sergio Leone smile. The bass is menacing, the drums simple and effective, and Tamaryn’s vocals rise up around you…or perhaps you sink into them.

I love the guitar work on “I Won’t Be Found.” It has that excellent reverb / shoegaze effect that calms down everything around you, and the pace of the track only helps. This is, again, prime make-out music. Don’t blame Tamaryn if you aren’t getting some by this point on the album, because she’s made it especially easy for you with this track. I mean, for heaven’s sake, the next super-lush track is called “Sugarfix.” How much more help do you need?

Cranekiss ends with “Intruder (Waking You Up).” I can’t help but wonder if it’s about a one-night stand ending in a quick smooch and a thank you for a fun time and the coffee. The fuzzy and echoing guitar increases the “Wow…that was a crazy night.” mood and Tamaryn’s vocals seem to indicate she’s considering not leaving after all.

I know I don’t want to leave this record. It’s like a blissful weekend of good food and drink, late night cocktail lounges, and a lot of sex. If Tamaryn thinks she wasn’t sexy in 2015, then a record of her feeling frisky would probably melt my stereo.

Keep your mind open.

Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor – Desert Brain

Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor’s (Sean Morrow – guitars and lead vocals, Eric Oppitz – bass and keyboards, Rick Sawoscinski – drums) Desert Brain is the first album from the Detroit psychedelic trio that is one flowing piece of art instead of an album of individual tracks that stand apart from each other.

“We’ve always wanted to make an album that was one continuous flow,” Oppitz told me when I saw SOYSV in October 2015. “We felt like we had the clout to do it after the first two records.”

He’s right. Desert Brain is a fine piece of work that reminds me of early Pink Floyd records that were part-rock albums, part-metaphysical journeys. “Seventh Scene” opens the album with a spacey feel SOYSV do better than most. It flows into the organ-heavy “Major Medicine,” which has become one of their wildest cuts at live shows because it dissolves / evolves into the mind-bending chaos of “What’s Your Cloud nine, 37?” and “Magic Mother’s Tongue / A Little Jaunt into the Light.” “Little” is an understatement, considering this “jaunt” is full of Morrow’s wall-flattening guitar, Oppitz’s thudding bass, and Sawoscinski’s Detroit auto factory-precision power drumming before it becomes something you might hear in a giallo movie by the end.

There’s a brief break of silence before “Girl of a Thousand Voices” when you flip over the vinyl and start the second leg of the journey. It’s a lovely track with distorted vocals and more of those guitar riffs that Morrow seems to pull out of dreams or mystic rituals, whereas the frightening follow-up, “The Prettiest Sounds of Purgatory,” sounds like something out of a Lovecraft story.

“Long Lovers Sun” shows the band’s Doors influences with jangly guitar, ethereal synths, and cryptic vocals about a beautiful woman. The title track showcases Sawoscinski’s drumming as he lays down beats fit for Apache warriors charging on horseback and then switches to near silence just before the song almost spins out of control and drops into “Like a Forest Runs” – a near-shoegaze cut that would be great for walks through bleak Detroit streets or while gazing across a frozen lake with your “Highly Enchanting Eyes.” This last track is something you might hear on a Captain Beefheart record – guitars and synths that mesh so well that they’re often difficult to tell apart, drums that sneak up on you, and slightly skewed vocals that intrigue you almost to the point of giving you the creeps.

I’m a big fan of SOYSV, so it’s no surprise I love this record. It’s a great move for the band as they get weird and pull us down the rabbit hole with them. They are on the verge of being one of the “Next Big Things,” so don’t miss any chance you get to see them. They’re also good chaps, so give them your support.

Keep your mind open.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Paper Mache Dream Balloon

Australian psych rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (Stu Mackenzie – piano, vocals, bass, sitar, flute, Lucas Skinner – piano and bass, Joey Walker – guitar, vocals, and bass, Cook Craig – percussion, guitars, vocals, Ambrose Kenny-Smith – vocals and harmonica, Michael Cavanaugh – percussion, Eric Moore – “Nothing.”) have returned with perhaps the hippiest record I’ve heard in years – Paper Mache Dream Balloon.

“Sense” almost sounds like a modern rap track at the beginning until it slides into a mellow plea to take care of Mother Earth. “Bone” is a clever song about the afterlife with lyrics like “If heaven is a place I know, I won’t be taking my bones. Will all my stitches be unsown? And when I’m gone and I’m dead, what will be inside my head?” Mackenzie’s flute carries the track and makes it fun instead of maudlin. “Dirt” is about ditching a relationship that’s toxic for both involved and it sounds like something you’d hear strummed in a southern California park on a summer day.

The title track encourages us to let go of troubles. They aren’t worth it. The song walks along at an easy pace before jumping up to a happy dance tune best suited for waving a bubble wand and hugging whoever gets close enough to seize. “Trap Door” is a quick, weird rocker about keeping our anger under control. “Cold Cadaver” is another tune about death and trying to keep the Grim Reaper at bay. The vocals are distorted just a bit, but to good effect, and the background harmonica and sitar add nice touches.

Then comes “The Bitter Boogie,” a song about the pain of drug addiction that dives headlong into the great subgenre of blues-psych. The whole band lays down a groove best suited for dry Arizona roads and sexy, possibly demonic hitchhikers. Kenny-Smith’s harmonica is particularly good here, as is the acoustic guitar work and the slithering bass line. “N.G.R.I. (Bloodstain)” seems to be about a man waking up to find himself in a crime scene, but the song is jumpy and toe-tapping instead of dark and brooding.

The next two songs mirror each other. “Time = Fate” is about the importance of living in the present (“Pondering things in the past makes you blind.”). “Time = $$$” is a trippy psychedelic track with blues lyrics (“Why is time money? ‘Cos it sounds funny to give me so much time and no money nearby.”).

“Most of What I Like” is both a ballad and a song of lament. The lyrics speak of a man who can’t live without his lover (“Most of what I like is given to me by the one that I love, bears the onus every time.”), but knows that his dependency is killing the relationship (“You always shut your eyes when you look me in the eyes.”).

The whole album is full of these neat combinations – psychedelic rock and blues, death and life, love and lament. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will be returning to the Levitation Austin music festival this year, and I look forward to seeing them again. I was lucky enough to see them two years ago when they played their first U.S. gig there. They came to rock and didn’t disappoint. I’m sure they’ll knock it out of the park again.

Keep your mind open.

The Lumberjerks – Four More

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an envelope in the mail from Joliet, Illinois’ punk rockers the Lumberjerks. It contained their newest EP – Four More – and a letter stating the album was recorded on good ole fashioned reel-to-reel analog tape. The name of the band was enough to peak my interest, especially when I considered it might’ve been taken from the Looney Tunes cartoon of the same name in which the proper English-speaking chipmunks Mac and Tosh run afoul of a lumber mill.

The power trio belt out four tunes in less than ten minutes. “Trailer Trash,” with its better-than-an-alarm clock drumming, sticks a middle finger back at Uncle Sam and gives shout-outs to the Misfits and Sex Pistols. “Schizo Episode,” with its near-metal riffs and angry vocals captures bipolarity better than any mopey emo band could ever hope to try. “Somthin” has some of the best guitar work on the record and must be one of their best live tunes. The closer, “Garage Hopping,” is about wanting to break out of the rut of delinquency yet being tempted by the occasional thrill of it. It also proves that the Lumberjerks aren’t just snotty punks who enjoy booze and the occasional “bag of shake in cellophane.” They are good musicians. The bass work carries the track while the guitars slam throughout it and the drums change directions when you least expect it.

You can find the Lumberjerks on Bandcamp, where you can get Four More and their first EP, First Three, at ridiculous prices. A full album by these cats will be something to snag once it’s released.

Keep your mind open.

The Strypes release first live record – Live in Tokyo 2015.

Young Irish rockers The Strypes have released their first live record, currently available on iTunes UK and Soundcloud, Live in Tokyo 2015. It has ten tracks of their great blues-laced, raucous pub rock that draws influences from early Rolling Stones all the way to Arctic Monkeys. These lads only get better with each record.

The Besnard Lakes – A Coliseum Complex Museum

The Besnard Lakes’ (Jace Lasek – guitar and vocals, Olga Goreas – bass and vocals, Sheen Ko – keyboards, Robbie MacArthur – guitar, Kevin Laing – drums) last record, Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO, is one of the most beautiful records of 2013. Their new album, A Coliseum Complex Museum, is already running high on my list for the most beautiful album of 2016. It’s lush with Beach Boys-style harmonies, smooth bass, epic drumming, and guitars that float throughout it like warm desert winds caressing a red rock formation.

“The Bray Road Beast” is the album’s opener. It immediately tosses you into their smooth lake of shimmering psychedelia. The first single, “Golden Lion,” chugs along like a Grateful Dead track until it blossoms into a glorious bit of arena rock. “You are the golden lion.” is the chorus. The Besnard Lakes want us to know we are majestic and strong (much like the guitar solo on the track).

“All the pressure of our plans together make our hearts turn to shades of gold,” claim the Besnard Lakes in “Pressure of Our Plans” – a stunning love song with dual male-female vocals and levitation-inducing synthesizers. The vocals on “Towers Sent Her to Sheets of Sound” almost get lost behind the drums at first, but kick in with lovely precision just when you think the track is going to be menacing. The bass work on it is superb as well, rolling you along as smooth as a skateboard.

I’m still not sure what “The Plain Moon” is about, but I do know it has the biggest bass and drums on the record. It’s like a thunderstorm you hear miles away on a summer night. The male-female vocal harmonies on it are superb. I know that “Necronomicon” refers to the fabled Book of the Dead (popularized by the Evil Dead movies), but the song is far too pretty to raise any Elder Gods from Stygian depths. I also know what a “Nightingale” is, and that the song named such is a bit sinister (although the bass line in it is almost a blues walk).

The closer is “Tungsten 4 – The Refugee.” The guitar work throughout it is quite good (The end solo is killer.), and the track sounds like a Tom Petty song if Tom Petty’s main influence had been Roky Erickson instead of Bob Dylan.

This is a gorgeous album. Wander through its complexity like a museum, and lose yourself in the coliseum-sized sound of it. The Besnard Lakes will soon embark on a tour of the UK and Europe. I hope they’ll be back to North America in time to play Levitation Austin this year.

Keep your mind open.

All Them Witches – Dying Surfer Meets His Maker

A friend of mine introduced me to All Them Witches (Ben McLeod – guitar, Michael Parks, Jr. – bass, vocals, guitar, Robby Staebler – drums, Allan Van Cleave – keyboards, violin) when she sent me their 2014 album Lightning at the Door and said, “I think you’ll like these guys.” I’m not sure if she thought I’d like them because their name involved witches and she figured that would go along with my love of old horror movies or if their psychedelic desert rock would intrigue me. She was right on both accounts.

Their new album, the intriguingly titled Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, rises and ebbs like waves and can easily lull you into some sort of trance. The opener, “Call Me Star,” builds to an almost menacing drone and slips right into “El Centro,” which is over eight minutes of psychedelic greatness. McLeod pulls in riffs that could’ve been used in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune movie if it had ever been made. Van Cleave’s synths add a touch of weird playfulness that is somewhat disturbing (in a good way), Parks’ bass sounds like a ghost, and Staebler beats his kit like it will power a rocket launch.

“Dirt Preachers” is the first single off the record. It starts with a weird bass dirge and then moves out at a pace best suited for late night high speed driving. It has a great Led Zeppelin-like breakdown in the middle that is outstanding. “This Is Where It Falls Apart” might be about a relationship. The blues harmonica, sad drums, and distant vocals seem to relate that something is coming to an end, but it may be the end of this reality for all I know. The track is like a half-awake dream.

“Mellowing” lives up to its title, and McLeod’s work on it is excellent. Van Cleave is all over “Open Passageways” with spooky synths and even better violin work that makes the track sound like something you’d hear on a Scottish moor just before a banshee steps out of a tree next to you. “Instrumental 2 (Welcome to the Caveman Future)” would be great for a live-action Thundarr the Barbarian movie considering the title and how it drifts from thudding rock to mystical tones. “Talisman” sounds like a mix of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Jesus and Mary Chain.

The closer is “Blood and Sand / Milk and Endless Waters.” I have a feeling the first half is war-themed, with the second half being the images seen by a wounded or dying soldier on a stormed beach. It’s definitely trippy enough for that.

This is a great way to start off your psychedelic music collection for 2016. All Them Witches are about to take off on a tour of Europe for the spring. Catch them if you can. They’ve moved up high on my list.

Keep your mind open.

Holy Wave release European tour dates and single from upcoming album.

Texas psychedelic rockers Holy Wave have announced extensive European tour dates through the spring to promote their upcoming album Freaks of Nuture.

They’re kicking off the tour with a record release party at Barracuda in Austin, Texas February 26th and then it’s off to Europe. I’m hoping they’ll be back in the U.S. in time to play Levitation Austin at the end of April.

You can hear Holy Wave’s excellent new single, “California Took My Bobby Away,” right here on the Levitation Austin website.

Keep your mind open.

Elephant Stone revamp their website and give away newest single for free.

Canadian psychedelic rockers (and one of my wife’s favorite bands) Elephant Stone has revamped their website ahead of the release of their new album (due out soon). To celebrate, they’re giving away a free download of their newest single, “The Devil’s Shelter” featuring Alex Maas of The Black Angels. Just sign up for their e-mail lists and they’ll send you the download code. Get it while it’s hot.