Category: Psychedelic

Rewind Review: Earthless – Live at Roadburn (2008)

Recorded at Tilburg, Holland’s annual Roadburn festival dedicated to rock and metal, Live at Roadburn is probably the closest you can get to an Earthless (Mike Eginton – bass, Isaiah Mitchell – guitar, Mario Rubalcaba – drums) concert without being there. It might not entirely melt your face, but it will certainly heat it up and warp your mind.

The double-disc CD version has two songs on each disc. A four-song set is average for an Earthless show, because most songs are at least fifteen minutes long. The performance starts off with “Blue,” which is not only a stoner rock gem, but it also has elements of prog-rock sprinkled throughout (the way Mitchell’s guitar and Rubalcaba’s drums bounce off each other, for instance). Mitchell’s guitar hits definite Cream territory around the ten-minute mark.

The song rolls into the epic “From the Ages” with Rubalcaba’s near-manic drumming and Eginton’s rock solid bass. The groove they hit around the 24-minute mark is outstanding. All three of them click so well that they make it sound easy. They drop into almost a blues-rock groove around the 31-minute mark (with Eginton’s mantra-like bass). They get cosmic around minute 38 and slowly build into re-entry burn rock fury.

Disc 2 features “Godspeed” and “Sonic Prayer.” “Godspeed” begins with fuzzy distortion and rolling cymbals before bursting forth like a platoon of orcs smashing down a fortress wall. Your mind is almost in your shoes by the 16-minute mark because the song becomes a psychedelic freak-out at that point. The band is racing like a nitro-burning funny car about four minutes later when they’re into “Sonic Prayer.” It’s jaw-dropping by then (like any Earthless show).

Pick up this album if you can’t make it to an Earthless concert. It will get you into orbit. A live show will send you to the next solar system, but Live at Roadburn will at least help you circle the planet.

Keep your mind open.

[We’re issuing a sonic prayer that you’ll subscribe to us.]

Temples announce U.S. west coast tour dates.

TEMPLES TO HEADLINE DESERT DAZE CARAVAN, FEBRUARY 22-MARCH 17

FIRST NORTH AMERICAN TOUR IN SUPPORT OF NEW ALBUM, VOLCANO,
OUT MARCH 3RD ON FAT POSSUM
(photo credit: Ed Miles)
Temples, the English four-piece consisting of James Bagshaw (vocals, guitar), Tom Walmsley (bass, backing vocals), Sam Toms (drums) and Adam Smith (keys), will release their new album, Volcano, on March 3rd via Fat Possum. Today, they’re excited to announce they’ll be headlining the 2017 Desert Daze Caravan, kicking off Wed. Feb. 22nd in San Francisco and taking them all over the west coast, south, and south west before the tour wraps up Fri. March 17th in Dallas. This is Temples’ first North American tour in support of Volcano after selling out multiple venues stateside this past fall where they previewed new material for the first time. All new dates are listed below, with tickets available for purchase here this Friday.
Watch/Listen/Share:
“Certainty” video — https://youtu.be/h6zdVaAe0OE
“Certainty” stream — https://soundcloud.com/templesofficial/temples-certainty/
Temples perform “Certainty” on Last Call With Carson Daly — http://bit.ly/2gX2nkr
“Certainty” (Franz Ferdinand Remix) — http://bit.ly/2gDdiAn

Temples Tour Dates (new dates in bold):
Sun. Jan. 22 – Hebden Bridge, UK @ The Trades Club, Heavenly Weekend
Wed. Feb. 22 — San Francisco, CA @ The Chapel (Desert Daze Caravan)
Fri. Feb. 24 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom (Desert Daze Caravan)
Sat. Feb. 25 — Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s (Desert Daze Caravan)
Sun. Feb. 26 — Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre (Desert Daze Caravan)
Tue. Feb. 28 — Felton, CA @ Don Quixote’s (Desert Daze Caravan)
Wed. March 1 — Nevada City, CA @ Miners Foundry Cultural Center (Desert Daze Caravan)
Thu. March 2 — Pomona, CA @ Glass House (Desert Daze Caravan)
Fri. March 3 — Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s (Desert Daze Caravan)
Sat. March 4 — Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent (Desert Daze Caravan)
Sun. March 5 — Solana Beach, CA @ Belly Up Tavern (Desert Daze Caravan)
Sat. March 11 — Phoenix, AZ @ Downtown Phoenix [VIVA PHX] (Desert Daze Caravan)
Fri. March 17 — Dallas, TX @ Trees (Desert Daze Caravan)
Thu. March 30 – London, UK @ The Electric
(Volcano album art)
Pre-order Volcano:
Digital – http://smarturl.it/Temples.Volcano
Physical – http://smarturl.it/Temples.Volcano.LP

Download hi-res images of Temples — http://pitchperfectpr.com/temples/

Temples online:
templestheband.com
facebook.com/templesofficial
instagram.com/templesofficial/
youtube.com/templesofficial
twitter.com/templesofficial
soundcloud.com/templesofficial
fatpossum.com
pitchperfectpr.com/temples/
redlightmanagement.com
caa.com

Live – Earthless, Ruby the Hatchet, Marmora – Chicago,IL – December 02, 2016

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Imagine you flew from Guatemala to Chicago to see a band and they only played four songs (including the encore), but you were ecstatic by the end of the show.  This is what happens at Earthless shows.

My friend, Paul, and I went to see Earthless, Ruby the Hatchet, and Marmora at the Empty Bottle.  It was my third time seeing Earthless and Paul’s first.  We hadn’t seen either of the opening acts.  Paul and I are big fans of Earthless and their mostly instrumental cosmic rock, and the Empty Bottle (which was sold out) would be the smallest venue in which I’d seen them so far.

We met a couple who drove in from Wisconsin to see them for the first time.  We all talked about the number of songs we’d get to hear from Earthless.  They played four the first two times I saw them, so Paul and I were betting on at least three.  The couple from Wisconsin hoped for four, and they were correct.

First up were Marmora – a Chicago four-piece that blended stoner rock with punk.  Paul knew we were in for something groovy when their lead guitarist came out wearing a “Got blunt?” T-shirt.

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Marmora – rocking hard despite having a rough day at the office.

Marmora had been through a rough day.  The lead singer had screwed up his ankle, they mentioned having some sort of vehicle trouble earlier, they accidentally set their gear in dog poop while loading the van, the drummer’s foot pedal broke (thankfully, they had another), and the lead singer broke a string on his guitar.  They put on a good set despite all that, and their rhythm section is particularly good.

Ruby the Hatchet put on a fine set of witchcraft rock with song titles like “Pagan Ritual” and “The Unholy.”  They have a great organ player who brings a cool 1960’s vibe to their power.  Their lead singer commands a room and her hand gestures as she soaks in the band’s sound might as well have been learned from Dr. Strange.

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Ruby the Hatchet casting spells on all of us.

Earthless walked on stage with no muss or fuss.  They said hello and then unleashed.  A brother-sister duo from Guatemala were next to me and told me how they’d come to the States to follow Earthless on their current tour.  They were big fans of stoner / doom metal.  The brother, David, told me he’s been reaching out to stoner metal bands in hopes of convincing them to tour in Guatemala, where there is no stoner metal scene according to him.  He and his sister had a great time, although his sister couldn’t understand why the audience wasn’t dancing more.  “American audiences are so fucking stiff,” she told me.

She probably changed her mind by the time a fight broke out in a mosh pit started by some dude high and / or drunk out of his mind.  I saw her grab the guy by the face while he was being dragged out by fans and security.  Earthless, meanwhile, were too busy detaching the roof from the Empty Bottle and rocketing into space to notice or care.  All three of them were on fire, but I must mention that this was the hardest I’ve seen drummer Mario Rubalcaba play so far.  He beat his kit like it stole his skateboard.

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That’s not a disco ball above Earthless. It’s a small moon they pulled down from the heavy gravity of their set.

Their first song, “Uluru Rock,” was 25 minutes long.  The second, “Violence of the Red Sea,” was 15.  The third, “Sonic Prayer,” was a half-hour.  They came back on for a quick encore – a blazing cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Communication Breakdown” that lasted under five minutes and left everyone stunned.  “I liked them before,” Paul said.  “I like them even more now.”

Walking back out into the low 30’s weather after getting our faces melted was jarring, but it felt great.  We’d been elevated.  I’ve always said that Earthless chose that name for their band because their music can’t be confined to this planet.  They proved that again in Chicago.

Keep your mind open.

[Stay epic by subscribing to us.]

 

Psych-pop outfit Ne-Hi release catchy single from upcoming album due out in February.

NE-HI ANNOUNCE SOPHOMORE RECORD, SHARE TOUR DATES

WATCH VIDEO FOR “STAY YOUNG“; OFFERS OUT 2/24 ON GRAND JURY
“‘Stay Young,’ the lead single from Offers, is as hopeful as its title suggests. With lush, dreamy vocals and tinny instrumentation, the song is bright; the video, likewise, is washed in muted pastels and midday sun.” – NPR Music
Emerging from underground venues in Chicago’s Northwest side, NE-HI made its name on both its live energy and cleverly wrought guitar anthems. Today, they announce their second album Offers (out 2/24 on Grand Jury), and share the video for their first single, “Stay Young,” directed by Weird Life Films. On Offers, the band takes those basement-forged instincts and refines them; lets its guitars explore new angles, and focuses its songwriting. The result is, we daresay, a stunner if not a statement that there is a wide range of post-punk possibilities yet to be explored.

Born in Chicago’s vibrant DIY scene during the summer of 2013 – specifically within the walls of now-defunct basement venue Animal Kingdom – three friends from college, Jason Balla (guitar/vocals), Mikey Wells (guitar/vocals) and James Weir (bass) linked up with drummer Alex Otake with the purpose of scoring a friend’s film, which resulted in the formation of NE-HI. They tapped into what Balla calls the scene’s “wild, young energy,” playing go-for-broke at its home base. But quickly the band’s disparate influences — Wire’s post-punk, Springsteen’s everyman anthems, along with echoes of dreamy atmospheres of Dave Roback’s Rain Parade and the jangly buzz of Kiwi pop legends The Clean began burning through. Their self-titled debut was released in April of 2014 on Manic Static to critical acclaim, both locally (Chicago Tribune & Sound Opinion’s Greg Kot listed it as his #4 local album of the year) and nationally (Paste, Noisey, Stereogum, and Consequence of Sound have all pointed to NE-HI as a band to keep on your radar).

Offers drones, it captivates with soaring pop, it shimmers with atmosphere, always changing, looking. It finds the distant influence of forebears in cerebral guitar pop presented with a familiarity that typifies great FM rock hits. The Midwestern boys (two from Chicago, one from Wisconsin, and one from Minnesota) in NE-HI have a knack for knitting something comfortable and warm from those art school cast-offs and cult favorites. NE-HI’s music demands to be lived in.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “STAY YOUNG”
https://youtu.be/ukGoMog-RYk

OFFERS TRACKLISTING
1. Palm Of Hand
2. Sisters
3. Don’t Wanna Know You
4. Offers
5. Prove
6. Out of Reach
7. Everybody Warned You
8. Drag
9. Every Dent
10. Buried On The Moon
11. Stay Young

NE-HI TOUR DATES
Tue. Jan. 10 – Nashville, TN @ High Watt w/ American Wrestlers
Wed. Jan. 11 – Atlanta, GA @ Drunken Unicorn w/ American Wrestlers
Thu. Jan. 12 – New Orleans, LA @ Hi Ho Lounge w/ American Wrestlers
Fri. Jan 13 – Houston, TX @ Raven Tower w/ American Wrestlers
Sat. Jan. 14 – Austin, TX @ Sidewinder w/ American Wrestlers
Sun. Jan. 15 – Dallas, TX @ Three Links w/ American Wrestlers
Wed. Feb. 22 – Ft. Wayne, IN @  Brass Rail
Thu. Feb. 23 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Shakespeare’s Pub
Fri. Feb. 24 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Sat. Feb. 25 – Cincinnati, OH @ MOTR Pub
Wed. Mar. 1 – Kansas City, MO @ Riot Room
Thu. Mar. 2 – Omaha, NE @ Reverb Lounge
Sat. Mar. 4 – St. Louis, MO @ Off Broadway
Sun. Mar. 5 – Milwaukee, WI @ Riverwest Public House
Fri. Mar. 10 – Lexington, KY @ Cosmic Charlie’s
Tue. Mar. 21 – Memphis, TN @ Hi-Tone backroom
Wed. Mar. 22 – Birmingham, AL @ The Syndicate
Thu. Mar. 23 – Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight
Fri. Mar. 24 – Durham, NC @ Duke Coffeehouse
Sat. Mar. 25 – Richmond, VA @ Hardywood
Mon. Mar. 27 – Washington, DC @ DC9
Tue. Mar. 28 – Philadelphia, PA @ PhilaMOCA
Thu. Mar. 30 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
Fri. Mar. 31 – Cambridge, MA @ Middle East Upstairs
Mon. Apr. 3 – Kingston, NY @ BSP Kingston
Tue. Apr. 4 – Albany, NY @ The Hollow
Wed. Apr. 5 – Rochester, NY @ Bug Jar
Thu. Apr. 6 – Lakewood, OH @ Mahall’s
Fri. Apr. 7 – Columbus, OH @ Spacebar
Sat. Apr. 8 – Detroit, MI @ Marble Bar
Tue. Apr. 19 – Denver, CO @ Hi Dive
Wed. Apr. 19 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
Thu. Apr. 20 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux
Fri. Apr. 21 – Spokane, WA @ The Bartlett
Sat. Apr. 22 – Seattle, WA @ Barboza
Tue. Apr. 25 – San Francisco, CA @ Rickshaw Stop
Wed. Apr. 26 – Los Angeles, CA @ Bootleg Bar
Sat. Apr. 29 – Tucson, AZ @ Club Congress

PRAISE FOR NE-HI

“This quartet builds its songs on clean guitar lines, the kind of interwoven single-note patterns that suggest an exacting attention to melody and arrangement. The songs bob along without ever feeling rushed or unfinished, abetted by harmonies and choruses that stick around for the long haul.” – Greg Kot, Chicago Tribune/Sound Opinions

“NE-HI are Chicago’s latest breakout band, as they capture the city’s attention with their warm fuzzy tones and laid-back reverb.” – Stereogum
                              
“Drawing on influences as varied as R.E.M. and The Clean, NE-HI know how to lace their basement rock with a danceable twist.” – Noisey
                              
Best of What’s Next, March 2016 – Paste Magazine

“An 18-month turnaround from non-existence to the level of local establishment Ne-Hi has reached today is quick for any group, but that’s about the only thing that’s surprising about this band’s ascent.” – Consequence of Sound (CoSign Feature)

“NE-HI is one of Chicago’s most thrilling live bands” – Red Eye Chicago

“Expertly executed indie rock that features rotating vocal duties and an overall grandeur tied to gently whirling reverb and undeniably catchy guitar riffs.” – Chicago Reader
Bio, hi-res images – http://pitchperfectpr.com/ne-hi/

Ne-Hi Online:
http://nehiband.com/
https://www.facebook.com/nehichicago
http://pitchperfectpr.com/ne-hi/

Fire Down Below – Viper Vixen Goddess Saint

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Landing like a meteor impacting the moon, Belgium’s Fire Down Below (Kevin Gernaey – guitar, Sam Nuytens – drums, Jeroen Van Troyen – guitar and vocals, Bert Wynsberghe – bass) brings us Viper Vixen Goddess Saint – a good bit of stoner rock to get you through the coming winter.

After a short, almost bluesy instrumental intro (“El Viento del Desierto”), the band comes out chugging with “Through Dust and Smoke.” Imagine punk drumming, Wolfmother guitar licks, and prog-rock vocal stylings and you’ll get an idea of this track. They come out swinging and hit a triple.

“Roadburner” has a great heavy charge throughout it, and I love the way it breaks into a faster beat even before the first lyrics. It reminds me of a mix of Helmet and Quicksand, but with epic arena rock vocals from Van Troyen. “Universes Crumble” might refer to the eventual heat death of the galaxy, but the track is cosmic in its scope. The hand percussion throughout it is a great touch that brings a bit of a meditative aspect. The first line Van Troyen sings is “You are stars.” We are made of stars and to the stars we eventually return. A universe can crumble, but even that energy is reborn into another form. The song weaves back and forth between cosmic psych-rock and prog-metal. It’s outstanding.

“Dashboard Jesus” is quite suitable for late night pedal-to-the-metal drives along European coastlines, city highways, or dusty back roads. The guitars shred hard and Nuytens seems to have grown a third arm by the time this track comes along because it sounds like he’s hitting multiple cymbals at the same time (and the breakdown he has with Wynsberghe is sweet). After another bluesy instrumental (“Resurrection”), the album ends with the appropriately titled “The Mammoth.” It’s appropriate because it’s over eleven minutes long and is has heavy as a woolly mammoth walking across a hardwood floor. It’s an epic finish to a cosmic trip, like the aforementioned meteor smacking the moon.

I had no idea there was a stoner rock scene in Belgium, so I’m glad these guys sent me their record. You should seek them out if you enjoy stoner rock, prog-rock, or psych rock.

Keep your mind open.

[You’d be as epic as a wooly mammoth if you subscribed to us.]

 

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard to release five albums in 2017.

kgatlw

Australian psych-rock workhorses King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have pledged to release five albums in 2017.  The band is already prolific and this feat, if they can do it, will make them legendary.

The first album is Flying Microtonal Banana.  It’s named after a guitar made for lead singer / guitarist Stu Mackenzie by a friend.  The guitar has extra frets on it so he and the other band members (who also have customized guitars) can play 24 notes per octave rather than 12.  Sounds crazy?  Wait until you hear it on the first single – “Rattlesnake.”

Keep your mind open.

[You can subscribe.  We won’t bite.]

Aussie surf-psych rockers Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever release SubPop single.

ROLLING BLACKOUTS COASTAL FEVER SIGN TO SUB POP,

SHARE NEW SINGLE “JULIE’S PLACE“

Born from late night jam sessions in singer/guitarist Fran Keaney’s bedroom and honed in the thrumming confines of Melbourne’s live music venues, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever began to take shape as audiences got moving. Sharing tastes and songwriting duties, cousins Joe White and Fran Keaney, brothers Tom and Joe Russo, and drummer Marcel Tussie started out with softer, melody-focused songs. The more shows they played, the more those driving rhythms that now trademark their songs emerged. Since then, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever rode that wave from strength to strength. Touring around the country on headline bills and festival slots, they entrenched themselves with their thrilling live shows.

In early 2016, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever released Talk Tight, their first EP. That effort put the group on the map with glowing support from SPIN, Stereogum, and Pitchfork, praising them as standouts even among the fertile landscape of Melbourne music. Chock full of snappy riffs, spritely drumming and quick-witted wordplay, Talk Tight was praised by Pitchfork “for the precision of their melodies, the streamlined sophistication of their arrangements, and the undercurrent of melancholy that motivates every note.”

“Julie’s Place,” the first single off Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever’s forthcoming EP for Sub Pop (due in 2017), levels up on everything that made Talk Tight such an immediate draw. It’s about being young and dumb but full of bravado. Sprinting guitars mimic singer Keaney’s pangs of heartache, his awkwardly sensual lyrics calling to mind the chaos and confusion of being around someone you can’t get off your mind.

LISTEN TO “JULIE’S PLACE”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHduHoIzfq4

Wolf People’s new album due November 11, 2016.

WOLF PEOPLE SHARE NEW SINGLE “NIGHT WITCH”

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE

RUINS OUT NOVEMBER 11TH ON JAGJAGUWAR

Wolf People have shared the next single, “Night Witch,” from their forthcoming album, Ruins, out November 11th on Jagjaguwar. The single is accompanied by an eerie visual with direction from Marsha Balaeva and drone footage from Ivan Makarov which premieres today via CLRVYNT.

On the video, Balaeva explains, “I was born in the Soviet Union, and growing up, one of the streets in our neighbourhood was named after one of the pilots from the all-female 558th Night Bomber Regiment that operated during WWII. These women flew old biplanes under the cover of darkness and bombed the invading Germans. The planes were too slow and would have been easy targets in daylight, but at night they could cut out their engines and glide silently to their target and drop their cargo. Germans gave them the name of Nachthexen (Night Witches).”

She continues, “For this video I wanted to use stop-motion animation to depict the time when eerie shadows and flashes of light in the night brought fear into the hearts of those on the ground. The time when the setting dusk spelt the beginning of a night of terrors and vulnerability. Much of the video was filmed at night in the Lake District in the UK, but the drone footage was made in Russia, where the Night Witches flew all these years ago.”

Recorded in Devon, Isle Of Wight and London, Ruins is Wolf People’s most direct and instinctive work yet, simultaneously reaching back into a fecund past to tell us who we are today, while harnessing the power of modern technology and ideas to ponder unknown futures. Lyrically Ruins imagines how the planet might appear when society has finally fallen to dust and ash, and the creeping vines and nettles have reclaimed the land. It is the product of letting go of conceit, contrivance and, indeed, a career plan.

Influences upon Ruins come in all shapes, size, contours and hues: the discovery of proto Sabbath/Zeppelin Scottish band Iron Claw, the lesser known landscapes of rural Bedfordshire, backstage Taekwondo stretches, Scandinavian psychedelia, fleeting rural epiphanies, Dungen, Trees, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, a group holiday on a remote Finnish island, and Jagjaguwar flipping out after seeing them play in Bloomington, Indiana and insisting it was time they made their Back In Black…

WATCH WOLF PEOPLE’S “NIGHT WITCH” VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmKt76_wtHs
http://www.vevo.com/watch/US38Y1627914

WATCH WOLF PEOPLE’S “NINTH NIGHT” VIDEO:
https://youtu.be/eafkYEXJKg4
https://soundcloud.com/jagjaguwar/wolf-people-ninth-night

WOLF PEOPLE TOUR DATES (new dates in bold):
Thu. Nov. 17 – Bedford, UK @ Esquires
Fri. Nov. 18 – Leeds, UK @ Headrow House
Sat. Nov. 19 – Glasgow, UK @ Sleazys
Sun. Nov. 20 – Manchester, UK @ Deaf Institute
Tue. Nov. 22 – London, UK @ Oslo
Thu. Nov. 24 – Birmingham, UK @ The Sunflower
Fri. Nov. 25 – Sheffield, UK @ Picture House Social
Sun. Nov. 27 – Bristol, UK @ Louisiana
Sat. Feb. 14 – Hamburg, DE @ Hafenklang
Sun. Feb. 15 – Leipzig, DE @ UT Connewitz
Mon. Feb. 16 – Berlin, DE @ Cassiopeia
Tue. Feb. 17 – Koln, DE @ King Georg

Ruins album art

Temples’ new album due March 03, 2017.

TEMPLES ANNOUNCE NEW ALBUM, VOLCANO, OUT MARCH 3RD ON FAT POSSUM

WATCH VIDEO FOR DEBUT SINGLE, “CERTAINTY”
https://youtu.be/h6zdVaAe0OE

AND TEMPLES ON LAST CALL WITH CARSON DALY
http://www.nbc.com/last-call-with-carson-daly/video/temples-certainty/3416736
http://www.nbc.com/last-call-with-carson-daly/video/temples-shelter-song/3416737

[Volcano album art]
Temples — James Bagshaw (vocals, guitar), Tom Warmsley (bass, backing vocals), Sam Toms (drums) and Adam Smith (keys) — are set to release their new album, Volcano, on March 3rd via Fat Possum. The band’s announcement comes on the heels of a sold out North American tour and a performance last week on Last Call with Carson Daly, where the English four-piece presented debut single, “Certainty,” to viewers across the nation. Today, they also share the single’s video, directed by Alden Volney. He describes it below.

“This is based on a recurring dream I have been having since childhood about getting into a sea of plastic. So when the band approached me about doing something inspired by those JPOP videos that ooze quirkiness and eccentricity, I thought injecting the color palettes and aesthetics of Japan into this idea could be a good fit. It’s designed to feel like a fever dream you’d have after spending too much time in a Japanese dollar store.”

All the elements people loved with Temples’ debut, Sun Structures, remain intact, but with Volcano, there is a noticeable evolution presented from the outset. It’s clear Volcano is the sound of Temples squaring up to their potential, immediately evident with “Certainty.” Its beefed-up beats reveal an expanded sonic firmament, one in which bright synth hooks and insistent choruses circle around each other over chord sequences that strike just the right balance between nice and queasy. “If there’s a sense of scale,” says frontman James Bagshaw, “It was really just a result of implementing a load of things that we didn’t know about the first time around. We didn’t even have a subwoofer to listen back to things that we did on Sun Structures, so there was nothing below 50Hz on that record. We didn’t even know those frequencies were there!”

Entirely self-produced and written by all four members of the band, Temples’ melodies seem to come effortlessly. There are sun-dazed numbers and lysergic dream-pop songs and those where synth and mellotron interweave to beguiling effect. One thing is certain; it’s harder to spot the influences this time around. Mystical language has been supplanted by something more direct. They’ve been broken down and blended together – fossilized into a single source of creative fuel, resulting in a sound that is undoubtedly Temples. As described by co-founding member Warmsley, “we discovered a lot as we went along, and the excitement at having done so radiates outwards.”

Watch Temples’ “Certainty” Video –
https://youtu.be/h6zdVaAe0OE

Listen to/share Temples’ “Certainty” –
https://soundcloud.com/templesofficial/temples-certainty/

Watch Temples on Last Call with Carson Daly –
http://www.nbc.com/last-call-with-carson-daly/video/temples-certainty/3416736
http://www.nbc.com/last-call-with-carson-daly/video/temples-shelter-song/3416737
                              
Volcano Tracklisting:
1. Certainty
2. All Join In
3. I Wanna Be Your Mirror
4. Oh The Saviour
5. Born Into The Sunset
6. How Would You Like To Go?
7. Open Air
8. In My Pocket
9. Celebration
10. Mystery Of Pop
11. Roman Godlike Man
12. Strange Or Be Forgotten

Volcano Pre-order:
Digital – http://smarturl.it/Temples.Volcano
Physical – http://smarturl.it/Temples.Volcano.LP

Temples Tour Dates:
Sat. Dec. 3 – Paris, FR @ Point Ephémère, Rough Trade 40th Anniversary Weekend
Sun. Jan. 22 – Hebden Bridge, UK @ The Trades Club, Heavenly Weekend
Thu. March 30 – London, UK @ The Electric

(above image by Ed Miles)

The Flaming Lips offer great perks and a new album on PledgeMusic.

flaming-lips-new-album-oczy-mlody

The Flaming Lips‘ new album, Oczy Mlody, will be released January 13, 2017 (the same day as lead singer Wayne Coyne’s birthday, no less), but you can pre-order it and a lot of cool stuff on the PledgeMusic page they’ve created for the album.

Some of the perks, like signed double-colored vinyl pressings, are already sold out.  You can still get signed CDs (like I ordered), signed album art posters, handwritten lyric sheets, and even a DJ set by members of the band at your party!

Don’t miss out, as most if not all of these perks will sell out.  The Flaming Lips have a huge, active fanbase (and rightly so) and they’ll snatch up all of this.

Keep your mind open.

[You can pledge to us by subscribing.]