Cool beats, dub bass, scratching, hand percussion from instruments collected around the world, and killer grooves all combine on this instrumental world music record. You’ll play this a lot, and it might be your new favorite workout record.
I’ll admit that I didn’t get this record at first. I enjoyed Shame‘s first two albums, but this one just seemed…off. I almost didn’t review it, but I thought, “Maybe I just need to hear it again.” I’m glad I did, because it finally clicked for me on the third listen and it turned out to be a great record by a band that is constantly exploring themes of identity, consumerism, celebrity culture, and death.
If you were looking for some good psychedelic music this year, Melody Fields delivered it with 1901. At times trippy, at other times lush, other times rocking, and other times meditative. They were a pleasant discovery for me this year, and I look forward to hearing more from them.
Protomartyr have yet to put out a bad record, and they’re probably the closest you can get to experiencing a vintage Gang of Four live sound without building a time machine. This album is about transitions, from life to death, from an old home to a new one, from grief to healing. Again, they hit a home run.
A great, previously unreleased live set from Thee Oh Sees thanks to the good folks at the Reverberation Appreciation Society, this show captures one of the early incarnations of the band (with just one drummer) shredding the stage as they always do. The live version of “Block of Ice” is alone worth the purchase price.
Next up are my top five albums of 2023! Don’t miss it.
This one came to me fairly early in the year and was an immediate favorite. It’s full of jagged guitar lines, weird drum fills, and plenty of power equal to the cosmic cover imagery.
Speaking of heavy cosmic riffs, this album from Auralayer is full of them and plenty of Buddhist philosophy to boot. This trio about floored me when I first heard this album and were one of my favorite discoveries of the year.
Would it be a “best of” list without a King Gizz album? I mean, they release at least two albums a year, and this year they released an electro / krautrock album full of synths and drum pads that turned out to be a fun time. You can tell they enjoyed stretching muscles they don’t often use, and they filled it with references to Egyptian mythology, which just made it weirder and cooler.
Yes, that’s the same cover image, and it’s almost the same album, but KGATLW decided to release two versions of the same record, with the extended version having long mixes with additional lyrics for each song – the short of which is just under eleven minutes long. It’s even better than the regular edition of the album and lets them do lengthy synth-jams that often move into rave territory.
Speaking of long synth-jams, Ki Oni‘s tribute to his deceased grandmother and his meditation on peace and death has tracks with minimum lengths of seventeen minutes, and all of them are beautiful. This is the kind of record that takes you away from anything you’re doing and drops you into a warm pool of peace and presence.
Who’s in the top ten? Come back soon and find out!
Now that 2023 has passed us, it’s time for my annual countdown of some of my favorite stuff of the previous year. Who made the top 25? Read on and discover!
#25: Cavaran – Nights at Josan
Named after a bar near their recording studio they’d frequent after recording sessions, Belgium’s Cavaran returned with a solid record of desert / stoner rock that was a badly need dose of rocket fuel into our collective veins.
#24: Gimenö – Movement Remixes
Just like 2022, there was a lot of good EDM released last year, and this album of remixes by pals of DJ / producer Gimenö was among it. There isn’t a bad track on here. It’s all floor-fillers.
#23: Big Miz – Where I Belong
Another excellent EDM EP, this one from Big Miz on the Homage label. Miz combined house with trance and does it with subtle, slick skill.
#22: Bodywash– I Held the Shape While I Could
Shoegaze made a fine return this year, and that makes me happy – as did this cool record by Bodywash that bathes you in guitars, reverb, and clove cigarette smoke vocals.
#21: Eaves Wilder – Hookey
Another fun EP, this one about break-ups, screw-ups (in the world of mental health care), and drink-ups. Eaves Wilder might be “the next big thing.” Get in on her stuff now and become one of the cool kids.
Who makes the top 20? Come back tomorrow to find out!
Drive-thru metal rockers Mac Sabbath are about to launch a short western U.S. tour with psych-rockers The Darts, starting at the legendary Pappy and Harriets in Pioneertown, California and ending at the wild Area 15 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Don’t miss them. Tickets are on sale now.
01/17/24 – Pioneertown, CA – MAC SABBATH – Pappy And Harriets
01/19/24 – Flagstaff, AZ – MAC SABBATH – Orpheum Theater
01/20/24 – Tucson, AZ – MAC SABBATH – Rialto Theatre
01/21/24 – Las Vegas, NV – MAC SABBATH – The Portal Inside AREA 15
Ty Segall returns with his most ambitious, elastic set of songs to date, Three Bells, to be released January 26th via Drag City. Following 2022’s acoustic introspection opus, “Hello, Hi,”Three Bells is a deeper, wilder journey to the center of the self, with Ty using his musical vocabulary with ever-increasing sophistication. In conjunction with today’s announcement, Tyunveils the new single/video, “My Room.”
Three Bells is an obsessive quest for expression. With much of the album being played by Ty in conversation with himself, a decision that further elevates the album’s conception, it answers back to the riptide always pulling Ty subconsciously into the depths. Questions we all ask in our own private mirrors are faced down here — and regardless of what the mysterious “Three Bells” mean in the context of the album’s libretto, you can be assured that Ty’s ringing them for himself, and for the rest of us in turn. With all fifteen songs brimming with perspectives, shape-shifting incessantly, Ty pushed them out farther and farther compositionally, challenging the way they’d be played. Each song moves through repetitive, thematic material in its own way, building a claustrophobic/paranoia vibe, cycling bold thrusts forward into ego deaths, the one-step-forward, two-steps-back patterns framing an overriding ask: what can we do to get past the back-and-forth conversation, to arrive at a place of acceptance?
On Three Bells, Ty and Denée Segall collaborated on five of the songs, including the previously released single, “Eggman.” Some of the songs needed the kind of playing Ty couldn’t get alone. Emmett Kelly’s bass parts not only addressed that need, but inspired the way the songs eventually went down. The remaining members of the FreedomBand were called in to play, transforming the material. Co-producer CooperCrain, who deeply contributed to both Harmonizer and “Hello, Hi”, engineered and mixed most of the album.
With todays’ single, “My Room,” Ty rings the bell of the introvert who is empowered by the world inside his own room. The layers of acoustic and electric guitars dance around each other, quickening the already swinging tempo, while fuzz distortion blows the walls farther back as he takes us deeper. The accompanying music video was directed by longtime collaborators MattYoka and Ty, and features Ty steadfastly performing the song on stage as bananas are launched in his direction. He remains resolute in dedication to the craft, only to reveal a surreal dialogue between the dual facets of his own identity.
Three Bells takes Ty Segall’s trips so much deeper and farther than they’ve gone before — a masterpiece of personal expression, expressed through words, music and production, parabolically addressing malaise with compassion in a flowing, unstoppable hour-plus of intoxicating sound. Following the album’s release, Ty will tour throughout North America. Tickets are on sale now.
Three Bells Tracklisting: 1. The Bell 2. Void 3. I Hear 4. Hi Dee Dee 5. My Best Friend 6. Reflections 7. Move 8. Eggman 9. My Room 10. Watcher 11. Repetition 12. To You 13. Wait 14. Denée 15. What Can We Do
Ty Segall 2024 Tour Dates: (new dates in bold)
Tue. Feb. 20 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall Wed. Feb. 21 – San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall Fri. Feb. 23 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern * Sat. Feb. 24 – Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Fri. Apr. 19 – Tucson, AZ @ 191 Toole Sat. Apr. 20 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sister Bar Mon. Apr. 22 – Austin, TX @ Mohawk (Outside) Tue. Apr. 23 – Jackson, MS @ Duling Hall Wed. Apr. 24 – Nashville, TN @ Brooklyn Bowl Fri. Apr. 26 – Asheville, NC @ The Orange Peel Sat. Apr. 27 – Washington DC @ Lincoln Theatre Sun. Apr. 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer Mon. Apr. 29 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall Wed. May 1 – Boston, MA @ Royale Thu. May 2 – Montreal, QC @ Club Soda Fri. May 3 – Toronto, ON @ Danforth Music Hall Sun. May 5 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom Mon. May 6 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall Tue. May 7 – Omaha, NE @ The Waiting Room Thu. May 9 – Englewood, CO @ Gothic Theatre Sat. May 11 – Sacramento, CA @ Harlow’s Fri. June 28 – London, UK @ Roundhouse
The first lineup announcement for the 2024 Austin Psych Fest is here, and it’s already impressive. The Saturday lineup alone is worth the price of admission.
Friday’s top three, Courtney Barnett, Chicano Batman, and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets are top draws at festivals around the country. The Black Angels are must-see whenever they play, and All Them Witches are finally playing a Levitation festival!
Saturday is a “witchy” day all-around with not only All Them Witches, but also WITCH, Frankie and The Witch Fingers, and L.A. Witch all playing that day, and don’t miss Earthless or Minami Deutsch that day.
Alvvays and Kurt Vile and The Violators closing out Sunday is a big score, not to mention indie-rock stars Dehd.
More bands will be announced in the coming months, and tickets are on sale now. See you there?
A Place to Bury Strangers are gearing up to crush Europe in April 2024 with shows ranging from the Netherlands to France. Don’t miss them if you’re in any of these cities. Heck, make a trip to see them while you’re are it. You won’t regret it.
Chaos master Dion Lunadon has announced his newest solo album, Systems Edge, due out November 14, 2023. To whet your appetite for it, he’s already released the first single, “I Walk Away.”
On top of that, the album is already available for pre-order on vinyl and “shockwave” vinyland he’s already announced a tour across Europe in the next two months.
Can’t make any of these gigs? Why not go see him in New York for the album’s release party, then?
I don’t know what’s in the water in Sweden nowadays, but it might be bringing people’s minds to higher states of consciousness and thus causing many of them to form cool bands – like Gothenburg’s psychedelic rockers Melody Fields and their new album 1901.
The album is full of stunning touches and haunting moments – not spooky, creepy haunting moments, mind you. The moments are almost like having groovy ghosts of a deceased psych-band who crashed their van on their European tour in 1969 and now hitch rides with travelers and get them into weird adventures. “Going Back” throws you back into the psychedelic era right away, making you wonder if Melody Fields has someone dropped you through a time portal.
“Jesus” is described by the band as “a profound experience that delves into the complexities of spirituality and personal connections, leaving an indelible mark on the listener’s consciousness. “Jesus” is not just a song; it’s a musical experience that transcends boundaries…” I can’t describe it better than that. The only thing I can add is that it reveals the band’s love of shoegaze and shows how that genre and psych-rock are pretty much brothers from another mother / sisters from another mister.
“It’s the end, and soon you will die,” they sing on “Rave On,” in which they join most of their fellow psych-rockers by melting your brain while performing a song about the inevitability of death…so why worry about it? Keep raving, dancing, and exploring.
In case you were wondering, why yes, Melody Fields likes synthwave as well, as evidenced on the instrumental “Mellanväsen” (“Middle Vase”). They take those synths and then pair them up with guitars that buzz like some kind of giant robotic hornet on the mostly instrumental “Transatlantic.” You probably could hear the guitars across the Atlantic if you cranked your speaker volume to the max. The band worked with Swedish psych-voodoo giants GOATon parts of the album (and Austin, Texas’ psych-groovers Holy Wave), and GOAT’s touches are immediately apparent on “Home at Last” – which hits you with all kinds of wild world sounds.
The heavy bass on “Indian MC” mixes well with the sitar-like guitar (or is that an actual sitar? It’s played so well that you can’t tell either way.) chords to evoke riding across Europe with a lover and no particular agenda apart from escaping workplace drudgery. “It takes two, and I want you. Now it’s time for you to choose,” they sing on “In Love” – which rocks hard and will probably make Black Rebel Motorcycle Club a bit envious when they hear it. It’s the kind of track that would make a good show opener because it’s an instant rocker that gets your attention and shakes the walls. The closing track, “Mayday,” sends the album out on a floating note with soft percussion and music box-like guitars (even if one of the music boxes is winding down and perhaps cursed).
1901 is one of the best psych-rock records I’ve heard so far this year, and Melody Fields is already planning to release another one, 1991, on November 10, 2023. Don’t miss either of them.
Don’t miss your chance to see psych / desert rock giants King Buffalo this winter as they make one last tour through the east and midwest before they finally take a break to record another album. They never disappoint, and tickets are already on sale – not only for this tour, but also for the European tour they’re already running!
