Portland, Oregon is home to many things – big, foggy forests, dark coffee, gray skies, cliffs pounded by the relentless ocean, and now sludge-psych rockers Blackwater Holylight (Allison Faris – bass and vocals, Cat Hoch – drums, Laura Hopkins – guitar and vocals, Sarah McKenna – synths).
Their self-titled debut starts with the bass heavy “Willow,” which somehow mixes goth, psychedelia, and groove rock. The burst of drums and synths about thirty seconds in is exhilarating. You’re grooving with them like a 1960’s super-spy / vampire two-and-a-half minutes later. Hopkins’ guitar work on “Wave of Conscience” reminds me of early Cream, and McKenna’s synths remind me of some of Frank Zappa‘s work.
Faris’ bass takes front stage on “Babies,” and it sounds like she learned the craft from David J. of Love and Rockets. Her vocals and McKenna’s circus sideshow synths give the track a demented touch that you can’t shake out of your head. “Paranoia” starts out with appropriately intimidating reverb on Hopkins’ guitars, and they only get louder and creepier as the tune builds. Everything bursts forth when Faris’ sings, “Here comes the sunrise.” on “Sunrise.” It’s a lovely little gem in the middle of the darker previous track and the sludge metal of “Slow Hole” (which almost does sound like a sinkhole forming in the middle of a forgotten road).
Hoch’s beats are downright danceable on “Carry Her,” while Hopkins’ guitar work at first sounds like something off a mellow Cure record and then turns into a crunchy, distorted wallop. The album ends with the kinky / creepy “Jizz Witch” – a slow burning doom track that seems to be summoning up…something, but ends before whatever “it” is can emerge. Whew.
Blackwater Holylight’s debut is full of these shadowy moments. It works into the back of your mind and lingers there. It intrigues and unsettles in just the right balance, as good art often should.
Consisting of members of the Black Angels (Alex Maas on guitar, bass, and vocals), the Earlies (John Lapham on synths), Elephant Stone(Rishi Dhir on sitar, bass, and vocals), and the Horrors (Tom Furse on synths), MIEN are a psychedelic supergroup who have been at least discussing their self-titled debut album since 2004. Now that it’s here, they (and we) can rejoice in a job well done.
Staring with the cosmic “Earth Moon,” Maas’ vocals are drenched in smoky reverb as he sings about how our beliefs can alter our reality. Where that track is a lovely stroll through a psychedelic meadow, the second cut, “Black Habit,” is downright creepy with Lapham and Furse’s synths providing a dark drone under Maas’ lyrics about addictions. “(I’m Tired of) Western Shouting” might be my favorite cut on the record. The drum beats are wicked, as are Maas’ lyrics about 24-hours news cycles, angry Internet rants, and people being proud to be rude or even bigoted. The whole band clicks on it, and it slays live.
“You Dreamt” layers on the synths and is pretty much a dark wave track (and a good one). The instrumental “Other” floats on Furse and Lapham’s synths and could’ve easily fit into the score for Blade Runner: 2049. “I feel so high,” Maas sings on “Hocus Pocus.” You might feel the same as it warps into distorted madness and heady freak-outs. Thee deep bass synths on “Ropes” fuel the urgency of Maas’ vocals about fear.
“Echolalia” is defined as mindless repetition of words or sentences as a symptom of a psychiatric disorder or as a repetition of words by a child learning to speak. Both definitions seem appropriate for the track of the same name, as it churns with an almost frantic energy and then comes to an abrupt start that surprises you. “Odessey” has brighter synths, and even female backing vocals, but they hide menace within them. The album ends with a reprise of “Earth Moon.” It’s a mellower version than the first and it creates a nice, dreamy ending to a mostly spooky record.
It’s a solid debut. MIEN are currently on their first live tour, so don’t miss them or this record.
Keep your mind open.
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The second day of Levitation Austinwas going to be a feast of bands from outside the U.S. The number of international acts that play the festival every year is one of my favorite things about it. I’ve discovered many great bands I wouldn’t have heard otherwise at Levitation Austin.
After a great brunch at the South Congress Cafe (which I couldn’t finish), the first of the six bands we’d see that day was Superfonicos – an Austin band of locals and Colombians who play a great mix of Afro / Colombian funk. They played to a crowd that seemed to grow larger with each track, as more and more people walking by the venue came in to hear who was dropping all that killer groove.
Superfonicos kicking off the party.
Following them were musicians all the way from Algeria – Imarhan. My wife and I have fallen in love with Tuareg music thanks to the Levitation festival, and this was our second time seeing Imarhan there. A lot more people were hyped to see them this time than when we saw them in 2016. It’s not that they were a bad band in 2016 – far from it. It’s that they’ve been working hard, touring a lot, and have a fine new album (Temet) that’s getting a lot of buzz. They had everyone moving and people behind me in the crowd were stunned by their bass player and lead guitarist.
Imarhan
Closing the night at Cheer Up Charlie’s were hometown heroes / aliens Golden Dawn Arkestra, who entered the venue through the crowd and billowing sage incense everywhere before they launched into a sun-worshipping funky freakout that had a packed crowd of dancing revelers all communing with other-dimensional beings. GDA never disappoint, and some people we met that night (one of whom was in a psychedelic band out of Chicago) who hadn’t seen them before thought the set was one of the coolest things they’d ever seen.
We then went over to Barracuda to see Chilean psychedelic rock outfit Vuelveteloca. Unfortunately, we missed the first half of their set, but what we did here was psych-rock as solid as the Andes.
NYC’s The Men followed, and they came out gunning. In the first two tracks I thought, “This might be the closest I ever get to an MC5show.” They even played some Captain Beefheart-like stuff by the end. They were loud and brash, which made the next set even weirder.
The final act we saw the second night was another Chilean band – Follakzoid. I’d only heard a couple tracks by them before coming to Austin, and they were good ones that bordered somewhere between shoegaze and psychedelia. I didn’t know what to expect from a live show, but I can tell you it about melted my mind. They played two tracks and an encore. The two tracks during their main set were about twenty-five minutes each of droning, repetitive (in a good way) space rock that is hard to describe. Imagine synth bass and riffs combined with drumming from apparently a human metronome (considering how long he kept those beats going) and maybe five different notes played in different ways and with different effects and levels of distortion and reverb. Sound weird? It was – wonderfully so. Sound like it shouldn’t be good? You couldn’t be more wrong. It was one of the best sets I saw all weekend, easily in the top three.
Up next, my wife tries to figure out the big deal about Slowdive, we bump into more musicians, and a laptop keeps giving someone fits.
It was our fourth trip to the Levitation Music Festival (which I still call the Austin Psych Fest now and then), and we were happy and eager to support it after the weather-battered and cancelled 2016 festival. That took such a toll that the 2017 festival in Austin was also cancelled. This needed to be a good bounce back for the Reverb Appreciation Society (who curate the festival) and the city of Austin. The city still remembered the series of bombings that plagued the city just a month earlier, so the town needed a morale boost. It worked. The limited number of deluxe weekend passes (which allowed access to all shows across the four days) sold out in minutes. No, I didn’t get any of them. I, like most of the attendees, had to buy tickets for individual shows.
The biggest change for the festival this year was that it was no longer held at Carson Creek Ranch and its three outdoor stages. The 2018 festival was held in multiple venues in downtown Austin – Stubb’s BBQ, Emo’s, Cheer Up Charlie’s, Empire Garage, Barracuda, Beerland, the Mohawk, Volcom Garden, and Hotel Vegas. My wife said she preferred the festival this way, as it gave us more places to relax between (and during) sets and more options for food. We rented an apartment via VRBO that was a ten-minute drive from the venues and the Spot Hero parking app became our best friend over the course of the four days. We never paid more than $10.00 for parking for an entire night while in Austin.
I had five shows slated for the first day of the festival (Thursday). The first was Ron Gallo. I hadn’t seen Mr. Gallo and his crew since I saw them open for Screaming Females in a small Fort Wayne, Indiana show. I was keen to see how big of a crowd they’d get since they’d achieved notoriety with their first record and toured with the Black Angels. I’m happy to say they had a good crowd at Stubb’s and were a great opening to the festival. They encouraged us to create our own reality and that everything will be okay.
Ron Gallo at Stubb’s BBQ.
We headed out for dinner after their fun set, and I started two trends that continued the entire weekend. The first was finding pennies. I found at least three every day we were in the city. It bordered on bizarre. I don’t know why Austin apparently has no use for pennies (and even quarters), but I’ll happily take them.
We ate at Daruma, a great ramen bar in downtown Austin. We started the second trend of the weekend there – Meeting musicians. A group of six sat at the bench-like table with us and we learned they were a self-described “gospel / hip-hop” band called Kings Kaleidoscope from Seattle who were playing in town that night. We also learned there that our broth was probably made by the bass player and / or drummer for Holy Wave, who were playing a record release party that night. We didn’t catch them, because we wanted to get back to Stubb’s to see Ty Segall. We got back a bit earlier than we’d planned, and ended up catching Parquet Courts‘ set first.
Parquet Courts at Stubb’s BBQ.
They played a loud, energetic set, but it sounded like they were being heckled by multiple people in the crowd who either wouldn’t shut up between songs or kept yelling out requests. A couple band members told them multiple times to cool it.
Ty Segall came to shred. Every song seemed designed to burn the Stubb’s stage to the ground. He had some problems with the lighting, however, and had to tell the light technician to change the lighting and stop strobe lights and projections because he couldn’t see the rest of the band from his position on stage. My wife asked, “Shouldn’t all of that had been established in his contract ahead of time?”
Ty Segall at Stubb’s BBQ. That’s him shredding on the far right.
We missed his encore because we went to Barracuda to catch Virginia stoner metal powerhouses Windhand. We got there about halfway through their set, and they were already melting faces. My wife asked if the bass player’s hair covered his face because their music had melted it. It was a reasonable question, considering how heavy their riffs were.
Windhand throwing it down like a titanium gauntlet at Barracuda.
Unfortunately, we missed the set by Christian Bland and the Revelators, but we did get to Beerland to see Austin’s own Ringo Deathstarr. They’re local shoegaze legends, and I’d wanted to hear them for a while. Despite the Beerland sound engineer not being able to keep some microphone feedback in check, Ringo Deathstarr put in a solid performance. Their drummer has serious chops. I left wanting more.
Ringo Deathstarr at Beerland.
We got back to the apartment around 2:00am, which was another trend that would continue all weekend. It was a good first night, and we were happy to be back.
Up next, a day of funk, garage rock, and Chilean psychedelic freak-outs.
Keep your mind open.
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Los Angeles’ Crystales, named after a glass cathedral in Orange County, California, play a skillful style of shoegaze dream rock on their debut self-titled album. The tight connections of the band mates (brothers Nick and Billy Gil on guitar and vocals, neighbor Jason Hanakeawe on drums, and cousin Tony Infante on bass) only help amplify their skill set. It’s always good to hear new, good shoegaze, and Crystales fit the bill.
The album opens with a daring song titled “Boring.” Trust me, the album isn’t. The song’s about a boring wanna-be lover and how draining it can be to socialize with someone who can’t take the hint. The sunny guitars on it seem to give the song’s subject a chance at romance, however. “Séance” is just as bright, and I love the way the fuzz kicks in during the chorus like an unexpected wave knocking you over on a beach.
I also love that there’s a song called “Kate Blanchett” on this album, and that it’s one of the hardest rockers on the record. Who doesn’t have a crush on her? “Lie Awake at Night” takes a stroll into a psychedelic park on a sunny day and is about someone missing their lover. It’s secretly melancholy, but the wall of dream pop sound hides it well. Countering its love lyrics is the heavier “Shoggoth,” which refers to a Lovecraftian monster that can drive people mad just by looking at it. Is it any coincidence that Infante’s bass is prominent throughout the track and thuds like a fearful heartbeat? “When It’s Over” is brash and bold but it still keeps that shoegaze fuzzy edge that runs throughout the album.
“Ariel” is the sound of southern California road trips with the top down and the front passenger trying to make out with you while you’re driving. That shimmering sound continues on “Donkey” and “I Don’t Care.” “I Don’t Care” isn’t as apathetic as its title would have you believe, but it is about cutting ties with a lover who holds you back from your potential. “Agrias” lures you into a bit of a trance, and the closer, “Honora,” brings back some hard-edged crunch to the guitars to send you off feeling like a bad ass.
This is a solid debut. I’m loving the resurgence of shoegaze in the last few years, and bands like Crystales are giving us fans of the genre a lot to love.
If you’re feeling the effects of the extra six weeks of winter we’re having right now, A Place to Bury Strangers have just the thing to shake you out of your winter doldrums. It’s their new album, Pinned, which is already high on my list for potential album of the year. It’s an album about impermanence, fear of the unknown, the insidious presence of technology (a frequent theme in APTBS’ work), and breaking free of self-imposed constraints and outside influences.
Starting off with a groovy bass riff from Dion Lunadon and a toe-tapping kick drum beat from new drummer and backing vocalist Lia Braswell, “Never Coming Back” builds a tight tension as lead singer and guitarist Oliver Ackermann seems to sing from a shadowy corner while his guitar creeps around the room. The song eventually breaks the near-unbearable tension around the three-minute mark with wails and squalls that only APTBS seem to generate. The song is about how decisions big and small can alter one’s life forever, and how easy it is to become trapped in indecision instead of embracing uncertainty.
“Execution” reveals APTBS’ love of krautrock with Lunadon’s bass line and Ackermann’s slightly robotic vocals. Braswell’s vocals match Ackermann’s on “There’s Only One of Us,” a post-punk song about unity in these weird times. “Situations Changes” has a shoegaze simmer that eventually reaches a noise rock rolling boil as Ackermann sings about loneliness (The first lyric is “You don’t care about me.”) and having to accept the fact that the situation between him and his lover has changed and returning to the past is impossible. The present is all that exists and change is the only constant.
The addition of Lia Braswell on drums has been a great one for APTBS. She’s a powerful drummer that matches well with Ackermann and Lunadon, but the addition of her vocals has taken the band to a new, unexpected level. A great example of both of these points is on “Too Tough to Kill.” Her drumming is like rapid gunfire, and her vocals elevate the track to psychedelic highs. There’s just as good, almost Shirley Manson-like, on “Frustrated Operator.”
“Look Me in the Eye” is a fast song about trust that mixes electronic beats with heaps of guitar fuzz. Countering it is “Was It Electric,” which keeps the vocals slightly distorted, but the rest of the track strolls through a foggy shoegaze park on an early autumn day.
“I know I’ve done bad things, and I can’t take them back,” Ackermann sings on “I Know I’ve Done Bad Things.” It’s another reference to how easy it is to get trapped in the past and mired in loneliness. Even his guitar sounds distant throughout the track (despite the distortion), and Braswell’s drums sound like a thudding pulse in your neck. The speed picks up on “Act Your Age” (which clocks under two minutes), and I can’t help but wonder if the title is a referendum on internet blustering and the current political climate. Pinned is the band’s first album since the 2016 election, after all.
I love the way APTBS loops Braswell’s wail / moan on “Attitude,” which has a sharp, almost snotty punk vibe throughout it. I also love the addition of electronic beats again atop Braswell’s acoustic ones on the closing track, “Keep Moving On.” The title is apt for the band and the album. APTBS always seeks to reinvent itself and not get pigeonholed. Their music always brings you back to the moment. It is too urgent to do otherwise. They keep moving forward, as should all of us. We can’t afford to be pinned down by regret, loss, or attachments. Pinned is a great reminder of this. It’s my album of the year so far.
Keep your mind open.
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Kyle Molleson, otherwise known as Makeness, has given us a record that sounds like meticulous electronica and yet moves like free-flowing dance tracks at the same time – Loud Patterns.
The title track opens the record, bringing to mind a jungle DJ putting down tracks at a party in the House on Haunted Hill. “Fire Behind the Two Louis” is as slick and hot as a grease fire. “Who Am I to Follow Love” has lovely female vocals behind Molleson’s drums and sounds that make for good lounge slow jams.
“Stepping Out of Sync” has fat bass and more lounge synths combining for one of the best cuts on the record. “Gold Star” is another choice cut, with big synths and floor-shaking dance beats throughout it. I don’t know if the bass in “The Bass Rock” refers to fish or low-end sounds. I’m guessing the former because the bass grooves on it are somewhat subdued.
“Day Old Death” is a bit creepy, as you’d expect from such a title. I like the metronome-like beat in it to remind you of some masked killer stalking you. The building synth-bass of “Rough Moss” has a great payoff. It might be the most danceable song on the record. “Our Embrace” is as jubilant as you hope it would be with such a title. The synths are bright and bouncy and the drums keep you moving. The bass on “14 Drops” is so fat that it needs to go on a diet. The album ends with the appropriately titled “Motorcycle Idling,” because that’s just what it sounds like for a little over three minutes.
Loud Patterns is indeed both loud and full of wicked beat patterns. It bodes well for Makeness’ future, and for your next party.
Keep your mind open.
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Australian cosmic psych-rockers Comacozerhave teamed up with UK cosmic psych-rockers Blown Out to release a massive split LP of, you guessed it, cosmic psych-rock called In Search of Highs Volume 1.
“Massive” might be too light of an adjective to describe this record. Comacozer‘s portion is on side A. It’s one track that last’s just short of eighteen minutes. “Binbeal” begins with a didgeridoo to put us in the mood of someone sitting atop a red rock in the Australian outback during a sunrise meditation. It evolves into a heady groove perfect for opening your third eye chakra. It’s a rapid plunge down a psychedelic rabbit hole by the eleventh minute.
Blown Out gets side B off to an epic start with the nine-minute-plus “Terraform.” The title of the track refers to the process of restructuring entire planets. Trust me, it’s heavy enough to do that. The guitars alone would power terraforming machines from orbit. “Void Sucker” is half the length of the previous track, but about double the speed. “Hook Up the Telepath” ends side B with psychedelic chaos that reminds me of the aerobraking scene in 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
It’s a solid LP of instrumental stoner-psych metal that will get you through the cold of space or the heat of re-entry. Volume 2 can’t come soon enough for my liking.
Keep your mind open.
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It’s a bit difficult for me to believe that it took me nearly three months to see some live music this year, but it’s true. January and February were filled with crazy work schedules that weren’t conducive to making a trip even an hour’s drive away to see any bands or performers.
That all changed with getting to see Shopping, Tyvek,and Ganser at Chicago’s Beat Kitchen two nights ago. I’d been keen on catching Shopping since hearing their newest album, The Official Body. I knew nothing about Tyvek and Ganser going in, apart from a few video clips and digital tracks here and there. Tyvek was loud and brash garage punk. Ganser was darker and local post-punk. This was also my first time at the Beat Kitchen. It’s a nice, small venue, and the food there looked pretty good.
One thing I’ve discovered about Chicago shows is that, for the most part, the set start times are rigid. Ganser kept up this tradition by starting at promptly 8:00pm. They played an impressive set to a hometown crowd that included multiple tracks from their upcoming album Odd Talk. Their stuff was sassy, jagged, and assertive. Odd Talk should be a fine record based on what I heard at the Beat Kitchen.
Chicago post-punks Ganser.
Up next were Detroit’s / Philadelphia’s Tyvek. They were as loud and hammering as I’d expected, and throwing saxophone riffs into the mix only made it better. Lead singer / guitarist Kevin Boyer‘s axe looked like it had been bounced off a few floors and used as a cutting board, and the blaring chords he drew out of it only seemed to confirm my suspicions.
Detroit’s Tyvek.
Shopping had a large crowd by the time they took the stage. I was glad to see so many people for the U.K. band that had spent most of the last couple months zig-zagging across the U.S. They had the crowd jumping almost from the first note, and encouraged dancing throughout their entire set. They sounded great. Rachel Aggs‘ gets notes of her guitar that jump like water across a hot griddle. Every song had a bouncing energy to it that was inescapable. Highlights from the set included “The Hype,” “Wild Child,” and “My Dad’s a Dancer.”
The best way I can sum up their set is by what a woman yelled out from the crowd between songs: “You guys are so fun!” Bassist Billy Easter said, “Thanks. It’s fun being up here, too.”
Shopping having a blast.
Shopping set the bar high for live bands to follow this year. Catch them if you can. You need to get in on the fun they’re delivering.
Keep your mind open.
Thanks to Andrew Milk, Rachel Abbs, and Billy Easter for singing this gig flyer for me.
[Thanks to Sam McAllister from Pitch Perfect PR for hooking me up with a press pass for the show.]
I hadn’t heard of MOTSUSuntil they offered me a download of their new EP Oumuamua. I’m glad they reached out to me, because this thing is heavier than that Chinese space station due to crash on Earth any day now.
The royally epic “Kings and Queens” opens the EP. The whole track rumbles with an angry energy that is hard to describe, but “score for a rocket launch film scene” is fairly close.
The guitars soar on “Warm,” while the bass and drums hammer like dwarves in a deep mine searching for rare gems. “Freddy” is equally heavy, and “Exploder (Part I)” is doom conjured up from the bottom of that dwarven mine. The bass in particular stands out on this track, sounding like a growling lion and a jet engine roar at different times.
“Hoochy Woochy” might have a funny title, but the song is isn’t jovial. It’s as thick as battlefield mud. The build up to the rolling, crashing drums, furious guitars, and war hammer bass is excellent. The EP ends with “Tin Men,” a churning, guttural tune perfect for the march of robotic soldiers across a desolate landscape. It also has the only lyrics of the album – a monologue about a UFO coming to either destroy us, or worse, ignore us all together.
Oumuamua is a Hawaiian word for “scout,” and the album’s title refers to the first interstellar object to pass through the solar system. It was discovered in October 2017 and is tumbling through space. It took about 600,000 years to pass by us. It’s not a comet or an asteroid. It’s some sort of new object, according to NASA. It passed us by. It didn’t stop.
Regarding alien life in the universe, Arthur C. Clarke said, “Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.”
MOTSUS has created a mixtape for this unknown traveler. Let’s hope it comes back to hear more.
Portland, Oregon is home to many things – big, foggy forests, dark coffee, gray skies, cliffs pounded by the relentless ocean, and now sludge-psych rockers Blackwater Holylight (Allison Faris – bass and vocals, Cat Hoch – drums, Laura Hopkins – guitar and vocals, Sarah McKenna – synths).
