Category: Psychedelic

All Them Witches unload heavy new single, “1×1,” ahead of European tour.

Nashvilly psych-rockers All Them Witches have released a new single, “1×1,” ahead of a European tour with Ghost and Tribulation and well as three shows to finish the year at Nashville’s Exit/In. Tour dates are below.

The new single is almost doom metal in its weight and is available on most streaming services. Give it a listen. It’s great.

NOV 16 – Motorpoint Arena – Nottingham, United Kingdom
NOV 17 – Motorpoint Arena – Cardiff, United Kingdom
NOV 18 – SSE Hydro – Glasgow, United Kingdom
NOV 20 – 3Arena – Dublin, Ireland
NOV 22 – The SSE Arena, Wembley – London, United Kingdom
NOV 23 – First Direct Arena – Leeds, United Kingdom
NOV 25 – Black Box Pangea – Kobenhavn, Denmark
NOV 28 – Hartwall Arena – Helsinki, Finland
NOV 30 – Spodek – Katowice, Poland
DEC 1 – Universum – Prague, Czech Republic
DEC 3 – BSA – Budapest, Hungary
DEC 4 – Močvara – Zagreb, Croatia
DEC 5 – Palabam – Mantova, Italy
DEC 6 – Halle 622 – Zürich, Switzerland
DEC 8 – Palau Sant Jordi – Barcelona, Spain
DEC 10 – Altice Arena – Lisboa, Portugal
DEC 11 – WiZink Center – Madrid, Spain
DEC 13 – Zenith Of Strasbourg – Strasbourg, France
DEC 14 – Stattbahnhof – Schweinfurt, Germany
DEC 15 – Zenith – München, Germany
DEC 17 – Rockhal – Esch Sur Alzette, Luxembourg
DEC 18 – Zenith Nantes Metropole – Saint-herblain, France
DEC 19 – Zénith de Toulouse – Toulouse, France
DEC 27 – Exit/In – Nashville, TN
DEC 28 – Exit/In – Nashville, TN
DEC 29 – Exit/In – Nashville, TN

Keep your mind open.

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Review: The Schizophonics – People in the Sky

San Diego’s husband-wife duo of singer / guitarist Pat Beers and drummer Lety Beers, otherwise known as The Schizophonics, are legends in their hometown for good reason. Their live shows are bat-shit crazy. Their second album, People in the Sky, is equally so.

The album starts with “Something’s Got to Give,” and it might be your speakers. Pat Beers’ voice already sounds like he’s been up all night drinking and smoking and Lety Beers is beating her kit like she’s angry about that damn dog next door that won’t stop barking all night…and it’s only the first track. “Steely Eyed Lady” is like a gas guzzling muscle car burning up miles while blasting The MC5 on the tape player. The comparisons of the Schizophonics to The MC5 are unavoidable. Pat Beers’ vocal stylings and Lety Beers’ beats are clearly influenced by the Detroit legends, while Mr. Beers’ guitar work combines garage, surf, punk, and psychedelia.

“Nine Miles” has a lot of crunchy guitar riffs to back Mr. Beers’ lyrics about hard work and the sacrifices one makes for love. The title track discusses mind expansion and controlling one’s emotions. “The One I Want” is a hot cut about a hot lover. “Battle Line” has some of Mr. Beers’ best shredding, and the track that follows it, “Not Gonna Change My Mind,” has a Hendrix-like solo that sizzles like a hot skillet sauteing habanero peppers.

“Long Way to Go” has a great dirty blues groove to it that reminds me of backroom jam sessions Howlin’ Wolf might have played. “Every day’s a lifetime, baby. We got a long way to go,” Pat Beers sings before unleashing a short but furious solo. The beat on “Show Me Your Eyes” mixes so well with the guitar fuzz that I’m not sure which one is playing lead (which is probably the point). I love that they included a song like “Like a Mummy,” which combines 60’s garage rock speed and “monster rock” grooves on an album that was released on Halloween. Also, Pat Beers goes nuts on it with his guitar. Every time you think you’ve heard him burn up all his energy on one track, he unleashes another hidden reserve from somewhere and makes your jaw drop.

“Down, I’ve been so down and out about you. Out, I’ve been so out of mind for you,” he sings on “Down and Out.” It’s a solid cut and one of the best tracks on a record full of impressive tunes. The closer, “She’s Coming Back,” has Pat Beers trying to convince himself that a lover will return, but even he’s not sure he believes it.

This is a top-notch rock record. If you’ve been looking for an album to blast away the cacophony of the 24-hour news cycle or the banality of the rat race, start here.

Keep your mind open.

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Dead Ghosts release first single, “Drugstore Supplies,” from upcoming album.

Canadian garage rockers Dead Ghosts have released the first single off their recently announced upcoming album Automatic Changer. The track,“Drugstore Supplies”, is available to stream on all major platforms. Automatic Changer comes out April 24, 2020 and is available to preorder now on vinyl, cassette, CD. The album will be Dead Ghosts’ third release with southern California independent label, Burger Records.

“Drugstore Supplies” is an uptempo garage track with psychedelic undertones. A perfect blend of 60’s and 90’s wobbly garage power-pop. Fans can check out the new single, plus several other tracks from the upcoming album Automatic Changer, live during the band’s Pacific Coast tour happening right now. Tour dates are below.

Oct 31 – LA – Minty Boi Presents Halloween @ El CID 

Nov 1 – Phoenix – Psyko Steve Presents  @ Lunchbox 

Nov 3 – SF – Folk YEAH Presents @ The Chapel 

Nov 4 – Portland @ Star Theatre

Nov 5 – Seattle – The Crocodile presents @The Sunset 

Nov 6 – Vancouver – MRG Presents @ The Biltmore

Keep your mind open.

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Dead Ghosts announce new album, “Automatic Changer,” and U.S. west coast tour.

Canadian garage rockers Dead Ghosts have announced that their new album Automatic Changer, will be available on vinyl, cassette, CD, and streaming on April 24, 2020. The album will be Dead Ghosts 3rd release with southern California independent label, Burger Records.

Automatic Changer is a record that formed over the past half-decade, and
serves as a sort of collage of the band’s experience and changing songwriting
over that period. Vocalist/guitarist Bryan Nicol said of the writing/recording
process and the resulting album, ”parts have been recorded in a studio, our
basement, and a barn. Some songs are abstract, lyrically built around words
we like the sounds of and others are more personal.” 
Formed nearly a decade ago in Vancouver, Canada, Dead Ghosts grew out of
founders Byran Nicol (vocals/guitar), Drew Wilky (guitar), and Mike Wilky’s
(drums) desire to hang out, listen to records and play music. After the trio
uploaded a few demos to Myspace, this was 2008, after all, the group were
offered the opportunity to release a single via a small Iowa-based punk label.
The single quickly led to the group’s first full-length self-titled album. By 2015
the group had joined the Burger Records roster and released two more
albums, Can’t Get No and Love and Death and All the Rest. With time the
band added two members, bass player Mauricio “Moe” Chiumento and
organist Craig Pettman. Playing a distinctive brand of swaggering, blues-
infused lo-fi rock, the five-piece quickly won over transatlantic fans and scored fresh fodder for their lyrics with their punk-rock antics.    

In preparation for their upcoming release, the group has decided to embark
on a short West Coast tour starting in late October. The show set will include
several songs from Automatic Changer.
Oct 26 – Olympia – Cap City presents @ Le Voyeur 
Oct 28 – Reno – HP presents @ The Holland Project 
Oct 29 – Costa Mesa – Live Nation Presents @ Constellation Room
Oct 31 – LA – Minty Boi Presents Halloween @ El CID 
Nov 1 – Phoenix – Psyko Steve Presents  @ Lunchbox 
Nov 3 – SF – Folk YEAH Presents @ The Chapel 
Nov 4 – Portland @ Star Theatre
Nov 5 – Seattle – The Crocodile presents @The Sunset 
Nov 6 – Vancouver – MRG Presents @ The Biltmore

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Holy Serpent – Endless

Despite the hot (literal and figurative) cover image of two naked women standing in a dried out lake and staring at fiery horizon, Endless, the third album from Australia’s Holy Serpent (Dave Bartlett – bass, Nick Donoughue – guitar, Lance Leembruggen – drums, Scott Penberthy – guitar / vocals) is heavy on ocean imagery. Stories of coasts, waves, sea trenches, undertow, and frightening denizens of the deep are all over the doom metal album. It almost threatens to drown you.

Penberthy has said that the album’s title refers to the endless nature of the ocean and the story of two lovers standing on opposite sides of an ocean as they long for each other is weaved through the lyrics. The opening track, “Lord Deceptor,” is heavy fuzz with giant tortoise-level sludge prowling along its edges while Penberthy sings about ocean graves. “Into the Fire” is perhaps the story of the two women on the cover or the tale of sailing straight into a blazing sunset at sea (“Where the ocean meets the sky, I’ll be waiting…”). It’s a blistering track either way with Bartlett’s bass growling like a wild animal and Leembruggen’s drums smashing like an icebreaker.

The guitars on “Daughter of Light” push against the reverb-laden vocals while Leembruggen’s cymbals crash like waves against sharp rocks. I once described “For No One” as a tidal wave you see coming but can’t avoid. It’s a monster bearing down on you and there’s nothing to do but let it wash over you. Penberthy’s vocals sound like he’s tumbling inside the wave while Donoughue, Leembruggen, and Barlett sould like a shark racing up to meet him. The title of the final track “Marijuana Trench” is a play on “Mariana Trench” – the deepest place on Earth. It starts with acoustic guitar chords and sea shell-echo lyrics before space rock guitars zoom in and flatten you.

Endless is practically a soundtrack for a modern Conan movie if someone finally decided to shoot a movie about the famous Cimmerian’s adventures at sea. Someone should get on that, and you should hear this record.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Thee Oh Sees – Live in San Francisco (2016)

Recorded across the span of three shows (July 15 – 17, 2015) at San Francisco’s Chapel, Thee Oh Sees’ Live in San Francisco captures the band in full sweaty, raw power that threatens to blast you to smithereens.

Starting with the hard-charging “I Come from the Mountain,” the band (John Dwyer – guitar, vocals, synth, Tim Hellman – bass, Ryan Moutinho – drums, and Dan Rincon – drums) takes off like a rocket and barely gives you time to catch your breath between tracks. The “Whoa-oh!” chants of “The Dream” combined with Dwyer’s gasoline fire guitar work instantly invoke moshing (or at least the desire to do so) wherever you hear it. “Time Tunnel” sounds like that gasoline fire has spread across the rest of the stage and Hellman’s bass is dumping wood on the blaze. The song stops on a rough dime for a jarring effect.

The psychedelic surf swing of “Tidal Wave” is is a great example of the dual drumming of Moutinho and Rincon as they play different parts in different time signatures that match up at the best times to induce organized chaos. “Web” ramps up the reverb to send you into a calmer state, as does “Man in a Suitcase” (which is not a cover of the Police song, although I’m sure that would be outstanding) before that song’s wild guitar solos and heavy cymbal bashing smack you back into the present.

The happy, swelling grooves of “Toe Cutter Thumb Buster” practically make your speakers pogo. You’re almost exhausted by the time they get to the calm opening guitar chords of “Withered Hand,” but the song soon erupts like Old Faithful and dares you to keep up with it. “Sticky Hulks” gives you a little break with psychedelic fuzz to lull you into a warm place between mosh outbreaks.

The last two tracks, “Gelatinous Cube” and “Contraption” sound like riots. “Gelatinous Cube” has more precision drumming from Moutinho and Rincon while Dwyer’s guitar roars and soars all over the place and Hellman’s steady bass groove is like a gravitational pull keeping the rest of the band from blasting through the ceiling. “Contraption” brings in garage punk shredding and pounding and psychedelic freak-outs to powerwash off whatever’s left of your face by this point.

The vinyl edition of Live in San Francisco came with a DVD of the performances. This is widely available on YouTube as well. This recording is as close as you can come to being in the crowd at an Oh Sees show because it captures the incredible playing and the manic energy of one of their gigs so well. You owe it to yourself to get to one of their shows, but this album will hold you over in the meantime.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Cosmonauts – Star 69

Alexander Ahmadi and Derek Cowart, the core members of Los Angeles’ psychedelic rockers Cosmonauts, went back to basics on their new album, Star 69, recording it “as live as possible,” as Ahmadi put it.

The opener, “Crystal,” has them declaring, “Life is confusion.” It certainly can be, and is for most of us skittering around from deadline to deadline or trying to live in a past long gone or a future that doesn’t exist. The repeated chorus of “Are we clear? Are we crystal? Do you feel me in your system?” behind sharp psychedelic riffs is both a plea for understanding and a bit of a joke, as psychedelic rock is all about altering perceptions.

“Seven Sisters” is one of my top singles of 2019, and will make anyone who hears it crank up the volume. “Everybody’s trippin’, everybody’s falling down,” Ahmadi sings, and he’s right. Everyone is either stumbling over their egos instead of being in the moment or purposely falling on their faces for more YouTube or Instagram hits. “Medio Litro” is a witty take on partying and the rock and roll life and how they can be exhausting (“We’ll go to the party if we can find parking. We’ll go to the show, but we don’t have any money.”).

“Cold Nature” is a solid shoegaze track with some early 1990’s Brit-rock beats. “Wicked City (Outer Space)” kicks off like a roller coaster racing to make it up the first hill and then shooting down it for the first loop. It slows down just enough during the verses to let you catch your breath and then lulls you into a mellow bedroom with an exotic lover playing old tunes all night. “Heart of Texas” continues swirling the incense smoke around you with guitars and tribal beats that evoke spaghetti westerns and a lovely addition of female backing vocals in a song about lost love (i.e., “I’d give anything to be with you again.”).

“Faces for Radio” has a fun title, referring to someone with a great voice but not enough looks to be on television, and a fun groove throughout it. “Molly on Glass” ups the shoegaze fuzz while Ahmadi sings about struggling to get through the boredom and rat race of everyday life. “I’m still trying,” he sings on “Humming,” a bright song that seems to be about dusting yourself off and moving on from heartbreak. “The Gold Line” almost ends the album on a downbeat, but the final track, “Suburban Hearts,” brings back dance drums and plenty of reverb and distortion to send you off strutting down the street.

It’s good to have Cosmonauts back and inviting us to their party…and making sure we get home okay after the rough afterparty.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Blackwater Holylight – Veils of Winter

Mixing power doom riffs with shoegaze, psychedelia, and, for all I know, mystic rituals carved onto pillars in Atlantean ruins, Blackwater Holylight‘s second album, Veils of Winter, is another fine, mysterious, heavy album from them.

The opener, “Seeping Secrets,” is doom metal perfection, and those doom metal riffs continue onto “Motorcycle” – which even puts into krautrock beats and synths. “Spiders” is so close to post-punk grooves that I kept expecting to hear a saxophone solo in it. We get spooky house synths instead, which is even better.

“The Protector” seems to be about some sort of forest spirit that is an absolute beast if crossed. The heavy drums and fuzzed guitars sure seem to indicate this. The haunting vocal harmonies on “Daylight” are counterbalanced by war hammer bass and drums. “Death Realms” has a foreboding title, but it’s a lovely track with some of the brightest guitars on the record and dreamwave-like synths. It’s a great example of Blackwater Holylight‘s love of musical contrasts and toying with the listener’s expectations.

“Lullaby” has a hypnotic, repeating three-note structure that builds into a lush, trippy track with a neat fuzzy punch near the end. The album’s closer, “Moonlit,” combines psychedelia with Middle Eastern rhythms and more fascinating vocal harmonies.

I’ve tried to figure out what “veils of winter” could be. The first image that came to mind was a winter day with a cloudless sky and bright sun but bone chilling temperatures. The sun is a veil over the cold. Another was a moonlit winter night over a snow-covered landscape with the moonlight reflecting off the snow to push back the veil of the surrounding dark.

I could also be reading far too much into the album’s title, but those images that came to my mind seem fitting for Blackwater Holylight’s music. They veil and unveil their musical influences throughout Veils of Winter whenever the mood strikes them. It becomes mysterious, thrilling, and sometimes chilling.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Föllakzoid – I

I’m not sure if anyone but Föllakzoid would have the guts to make an album like I. Every track on the album – guitar, synths, drums, vocals, and bass – was recorded in isolation. This is the first time the band haven’t recorded an album all together and in one take for each track. They then gave all of these elements to their producer, Atom TM, who hadn’t heard any of them before, and told him to arrange the elements in whatever order or time length he wanted. As a result, the album is a wild experiment that is a collaborative effort and yet order brought out of chaos.

The album is just four tracks, “I,” “II,” “III,” and “IIII.” They alternate between seventeen and thirteen minutes in length. The first is like a synth wave dreamscape that includes a neon-lit highway and roadside ramen bars. It blends so seamlessly in to “II” that you’ve taken an offramp from that synth wave highway into an industrial park that builds androids before you’ve realized it.

There’s a slight break before “III,” which is not unlike pulling over at one of those ramen bars and getting out of your hover-car to stretch, double check the power source on your laser gun, and scan the horizon for bounty hunter drones before heading inside to order a bowl of soup and a green tea. As the track grows over the next few minutes, you look up at the mirror behind the bar and see the reflection of hunter drone lights in the far distance approaching your location. You might have time to finish the soup and tea, but not much. The ramen is far better than you expected, and might be the last meal you have for a day. Is it worth the risk of being caught, or killed?

In “IIII,” the hunter drones are scanning the ramen bar for traces of your DNA and heat signature while you’re driving, but not too quickly, through an industrial area to camouflage your hover car’s thermal image among all the heat put out by the plants churning out recycled metal.  The drones follow your trail to the factories, soon setting up a wide perimeter around it.  You ditch the hover car and head out on foot, immediately gaining the notice of unsavory characters in faux-leather coats (Real leather is a luxury only afforded by the elite.) who wonder if you’re the cause of the drone perimeter around their neighborhood.  Some wonder if there’s a hefty price on your head.  Some look ready to collect.  You know someone at the protein mill who might be able to hide you, but…is that an Ultra Corporation helicopter landing nearby?  They’re the ones who hired you to find her, but why are they unloading corporate gunmen?  The situation has gone from bad to worse.  Action is imminent.

I is a stunning record, both in its sound and how it was made.  The way it melds so many solo elements into a creepy, trippy, hypnotic landscape is nothing short of astounding.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Moon Duo – Stars Are the Light

I might have given you an odd look in the last year or so if you’d told me that the psychedelic rock pairing of Moon Duo were making a new record that was going to include a lot of stuff that you could easily slip into a house music set.

Sure enough though, and in keeping with their nature to explore any kind of music they like, Moon Duo (Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada) made Stars Are the Light, a fine record of grooves influenced by 1970’s disco, krautrock, synth wave, and, naturally, psychedelia.

The opening track, “Flying,” immediately makes you feel like you’re floating not only off the ground, but through the roof of your house. The vocals never outweigh the trippy instrumentals, they only enhance them. The title track continues our drift around the Earth with bubbly synths and Moon Duo’s lyrics reflecting how all of us are unique stars in this universe.

“Fall (in Your Love)” brings in spaghetti western guitars to the slippery electronic beats. “The World and Sun” is one of the funkiest cuts on the record, mixing spaced-out synths with South American hand percussion and reverb-laced vocals to produce a sweet sound. “Lost Heads” is psychedelic bliss taking you out of orbit and floating toward the star cluster of your choice.

“Eternal Shore” boosts the krautrock influences a bit with the beats, but keeps the vocals firmly in psychedelic territory. The touch of steel drum-like synth stabs is a nice one and reflects the image of a never-ending beach on an idyllic planet. “Eye 2 Eye” brings in fuzzy guitar to race alongside EDM beats for a fast track that belongs on your next favorite anime action film. “Fever Night” slows down the album for the close, but it’s nothing maudlin. It’s a perfect end to a groovy time, almost like slipping into a hot tub after you’ve had great sex.

Stars are indeed the light, and so are we. Each of us are divine beings connected on this small orb in the middle of space. We are connected with each other and what lies beyond our senses. Moon Duo seek to remind us of this cosmic connection and acceptance that is there for us to embrace. Stars Are the Light is like a singing bowl, providing us the tones to remember who we are and who we are to each other.

Keep your mind open.

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