Clutch has just announced a string of Winter 2021 headline tour dates celebrating 30 years of rock and roll starting on December 27th in Baltimore, MD. Supporting the tour will be STONER, the brand new band featuring Brant Bjork (Kyuss) and Nick Oliveri (Queens Of The Stone Age, Kyuss).
The run will also include Detroit natives and “thrash grass” pioneers, The Native Howl.
“We are incredibly excited to hit the road again” states Clutch. “We’ve missed the shows, the fans, the venues and the opportunity to watch the other bands we share the stage with. It’s going to feel like our first show all over again and we can’t wait! Come out and let’s make some Rock and Roll!.”
Tickets will go on sale to the general public Friday, May 21st at 10:00 am at www.ClutchOnTour.com.
CLUTCH Celebrating 30 Years of Rock N Roll Winter Tour Dates: Dec. 27 – Baltimore, MD – Rams Head Dec. 28 – Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom Dec. 29 – Cleveland, OH – Agoura Theatre Dec. 30 – Detroit, MI – Filmore Theatre Dec. 31 – Cincinnati, OH – The Icon
Moon Safari, the classic ambient / house / lounge album by Air (Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin) was pretty much an instant classic as soon as it was released. I remember reading reviews that more or less called it “cool elevator music.” It’s far beyond such a label. It’s a “mood change” record, as in it can change the mood you’re in or the mood of any room in which it’s played.
The opener, “La Femme D’Argent,” with its ultra-smooth hand percussion and keyboards, immediately shifts your brain into a meditative space and should be played in dentist offices around the world. The song is never in a hurry. It’s about a seven-minute groove beamed into your brain from aliens who might be high. The slightly menacing “Sexy Boy” tells a tale of hyper-masculinity and wanting to be “as beautiful as a god.”
“All I Need,” featuring Beth Hirsch on vocals, brings in lovely, almost Spanish, acoustic guitar as Hirsch sings to a perspective lover to let her be a light to him. “Kelly, Watch the Stars!” is mostly an instrumental (the title is repeated multiple times) that combines thick bass, Theremin, and robot vocals. “Talisman” belongs on a movie soundtrack, be it a spy thriller, a sexy comedy, or a sci-fi film.
“Remember” has electro-beats surrounded by ghostly synths as Dunckel and Godin sing about a day in the past. You can’t tell if the day was good or bad or somewhere in between, but I think that’s the point. Ms. Hirsch returns for vocals on “You Make It Easy,” a song with bossa nova touches that tells a lovely tale of love.
“Ce Matin La” reveals Air’s love of Ennio Morricone with its harmonica riffs, subtle trumpet, and, of course, guitar work. “New Star in the Sky (Chanson pour Solal)” is a mellow head-trip and perfect for relaxing on the international space station while you’re circling the Earth every ninety minutes. “Le Voyage de Penelope” closes the album with sultry synths that almost sound like a warped trumpet at first and then become a lush groove track to send you off into euphoric bliss.
Moon Safari is perfectly named because this whole album sounds like it was made in such a place – a hidden jungle deep inside the moon ruled by sexy women and weird creatures.
The Pitchfork Music Festival will return to Chicago’s Union ParkFriday, September 10 through Sunday, September 12. Today, the Festival announces the full 2021 lineup, including headliners Erykah Badu,St. Vincent, and Phoebe Bridgers.
The Festival opens on Friday with Phoebe Bridgers, Big Thief, Animal Collective, Yaeji, The Fiery Furnaces (their first show in over a decade), black midi, Hop Along, Kelly Lee Owens, Ela Minus, DEHD,The Soft Pink Truth, DJ Nate, Dogleg, and Armand Hammer.
Saturday features St. Vincent, Angel Olsen, Kim Gordon, Ty Segall & Freedom Band, Waxahatchee, Jay Electronica, Jamila Woods, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Faye Webster, Amaarae, Maxo Kream, Divino Niño, Bartees Strange, and Horsegirl.
On Sunday, the Festival hosts Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, Thundercat, Danny Brown, Cat Power, Andy Shauf, Caroline Polachek, Yves Tumor, The Weather Station, Mariah the Scientist, oso oso, KeiyaA, Special Interest, and Cassandra Jenkins.
For 15 years, the Pitchfork Music Festival has delivered an eclectic musical lineup, singular in its ability to place contemporary, cutting-edge acts alongside some of the most revered artists of our time. It’s this unique blend of discovery and tradition that makes the Pitchfork Music Festival stand out as one of the most celebrated weekends of the year.
“We are unbelievably excited to celebrate the return of live shows, our music community, and, most importantly, the artists and events crews who have made this year’s festival possible,” says editor in chief of Pitchfork, Puja Patel. “I know this will be a cathartic weekend for all of us, and that it lands right before the 25th anniversary of the publication makes it all the more special.”
Pitchfork Music Festival tickets are on sale now. Three-day passes are $195 and single-day passes are $90. The Pitchfork PLUS upgrade, including a range of exclusive amenities, is $385 for a three-day pass and $185 for a single-day pass. If the festival is postponed or rescheduled due to COVID-19, ticket buyers can keep their passes for the new dates or request a refund. More details are available here.
To ensure the health and safety of guests, artists, and staff, the Pitchfork Music Festival will adhere to the city of Chicago’s COVID-19 protocol, and will keep attendees updated as federal, state, and local regulations evolve. For the latest safety guidelines, visit Pitchfork Music Festival’s FAQ page, and follow @PitchforkFest on Instagram and Twitter.
COVID-19 regulations currently include:
● Attendees aged 12 and older will be required to provide proof of a COVID vaccination or a negative PCR test within the past 24 hours, each day of the festival. Visit the city of Chicago’s website for a list of local COVID-19 test providers (here), and vaccination providers (here). ● In accordance with current IDPH and CDPH guidelines, masks will be required throughout festival grounds. Masks may be removed when eating and drinking. Pitchfork is working closely with local health officials and will continue to update this policy as local guidelines become available.
FRIDAY Phoebe Bridgers Big Thief Animal Collective The Fiery Furnaces Yaeji black midi Hop Along Kelly Lee Owens Ela Minus DEHD The Soft Pink Truth DJ Nate Dogleg Armand Hammer
SATURDAY St. Vincent Angel Olsen Kim Gordon Ty Segall & Freedom Band Waxahatchee Jay Electronica Jamila Woods Georgia Anne Muldrow Faye Webster Amaarae Maxo Kream Divino Niño Bartees Strange Horsegirl
SUNDAY Erykah Badu Flying Lotus Thundercat Danny Brown Cat Power Andy Shauf Caroline Polachek Yves Tumor The Weather Station Mariah the Scientist oso oso KeiyaA Special Interest Cassandra Jenkins
Scottish producer Sam Gellaitry announces his new EP, IV, out May 14th (digital) and June 11th(vinyl) via the new home to Sam’s own Viewfinder Recordings, FFRR Records/Parlophone, and shares the lead single/video, “Duo.” Between 2015 and 2017, Sam put out three EPs as a series – Escapism, Escapism II, and Escapism III. He’s always used instruments to convey voices – high pitched flute sounds to evoke falsetto sounds and female vocals, for example, or top lines made from melodics. But after taking a break for a few years since the release of his Escapism series, he decided the time was right to start singing on his own music. You can hear this for the first time on IV. Produced, written, vocalized, mixed and mastered by Sam, its name is a subtle nod to the Escapism trilogy and the work he’s released so far. More literally, it’s also called IV because it’s a collection of four songs and four emotions.
Born far away from key electronic music hubs like LA, Glasgow and London, Sam, now 24, grew up in Stirling – an old town in central Scotland that’s rich in medieval history and visually stunning views. Living here led Sam’s older brother to happy hardcore – a kind of hard dance music born from the UK and Europe’s breakbeat and rave scenes – which in turn lead to Sam learning to produce. YouTube granted unfettered access to the world’s electronic scenes, with the array of sounds pushing Sam to pick up production in his early teens. He dove into Daft Punk’s robotic space realm where looped up disco samples reigned supreme and LA producers Samiyam and Flying Lotus were early inspirations. But no matter the genre, one thing remained constant: the idea that music can take your imagination on a voyage through color, place and sound, via combinations of notes.
Sam views the world through palettes of vivid color. A C minor scale becomes purple, plum and grape. C-sharp minor is cool and blue. Night time is best evoked in dark F minor reds and D minor induces rich forest green. His music is a journey through experience, circumstance and surroundings, told through his impressive, synesthesia-informed knowledge of different musical tones. For him, songwriting and producing has always connected to a process of pairing and contrasting different tones – “using the notes to create different sensations – like tension or relief in your head.” In practice, this technique has seen him experiment with high definition club music, crisp hip hop production, dabs of orchestral instrumentation and more.
Lead single “Duo” hones in on the French house music Sam discovered in his early teens. It’s the first track ever that features his voice. Presented with high octane and eclectic visuals, the video directed by Ethan + Tom, transitions rapidly through a scene of animated and inverted clips of Sam before it takes a psychedelic-feeling thrill ride. “It feels like I’m dropping my first ever song. It’s a crazy feeling to go from hiding behind instrumentation to finally finding my voice. It’s super liberating being able to explore more refined soundscapes by using my vocals as the glue. I return to my roots with ‘Duo’ by venturing into a more funk oriented sonic and I’m going to continue to showcase all my past and present tastes that have brought me to this point musically.”
This new phase of Sam’s career is an embrace of his unparalleled and unadulterated passion for creativity. “I’m at an age now where I feel ready to talk and tell people what I’ve experienced in life. It’s perfect timing in that sense,” says Sam. “I’ve done three EPs. I’m at the point now where I’m like – I want all the smoke. Now I’m comfortable singing on my songs, I want to go back to each point in my musical journey and tap into it. I’m using the voice as my anchor, then tapping into other sonics that have influenced me.”
Margate-based, Australian multi-instrumentalist Jorja Chalmers will release her new album ‘Midnight Train‘ on May 28th via Italians Do It Better. The first single from the record “Bring Me Down” is streaming online now.
Speaking about the first single “Bring Me Down”, Jorja said “It’s about the fragility of the perfect housewife.It’s basically about a woman that’s trying to be everything, and is cracking psychologically. It’s got a very haunting melody. There’s something there that’s a little bit beautiful and disturbing about it.”
The accompanying video is a piece of Lynchian performance art, an unsettling one-shot clip that shows a person on the edge. It’s all theatre however, Jorja Chalmers relishes in inhabiting a persona, one that may be entirely divorced from her own experiences. “There can be a healthy separation from using your creativity to make something that is almost like a duplicate of yourself, that you don’t necessarily associate with. If you make something dark, then it’s not necessarily your personality. It can be the opposite sometimes.”
Jorja Chalmers enjoys a quiet life. The Australian born mother of two lives in Margate, the Kent coastal town that is turning into something of a cultural hub. Yet there’s another, shadow version of Jorja Chalmers, one that resides in a liminal realm; a saxophonist and composer, a brooding, vampiric, twilight soul who yearns for some sense of aesthetic transformation.
New album ‘Midnight Train’ comes close to severing the two. Constructed during the long winter lockdown, Jorja would put her kids to bed before closing the door in the spare room, building lengthy, undulating passages of cinematic terror, patching together European art-pop glamour with outsider electronics. It’s composed, intense, and challenging – but it’s also utterly exhilarating.
It’s not been a straight-forward path. Burned out following years of classical studies in her native Sydney, Jorja travelled half-way round the world looking for an escape. Settling for some ad hoc office jobs in London, she started kicking around in bands, playing saxophone for a friend’s new wave project. Someone from Bryan Ferry’s team spotted her at some flea-bit bar, and was infatuated – soon Jorja started touring the world with Roxy Music.
Jorja’s 2019 debut album ‘Human Again’ was sketched in hotel rooms across Europe and North America, ideas punched out on down-time between shows. This time round, however, things are a bit more defined. “A lot of those songs were one take jams, it was improvised. This is more refined,” Jorja insists. “It’s a natural progression, this second album. It feels more mature in that way.”
Mixed by Dean Hurley, David Lynch’s music engineer, ‘Midnight Train’ is a treasure trove of ideas. Indeed, it could well be the album Jorja had waited her entire life to make – aspects of minimalism sparked by a teenager who spent countless hours memorising Michael Nyman’s seminal film score for The Piano, set against cinematic electronics and swathes of huge, enveloping, classical dynamics.
“I want it to sound immersive, like it’s wrapping you in a blanket,” she says. Indeed, she cites Rachmaninoff’s epic work The Rock as a key touchstone on the new record. “It’s something that my parents used to blast out of their stereo when I was a kid. I heard it a million times. It’s strange to be hearing a song that is so dramatic when you’re that young. It’s a beautiful piece. It’s one of those things that leaves an imprint on you.”
At times, ‘Midnight Train’ gets very dark indeed. ‘Rabbit In The Headlights’ is a squirming piece of jet-black avant-pop, while ‘Boadicea’ is draped in the blood of the ancient British warrior queen. ‘The Wolves Of The Orangery’ was sculpted after a Roxy Music show in the Palace of Versailles, and it’s haunted by the oppression meted out to the servants, and the bloody revenge exhibited on the French regal classes. There’s light in those murky depths, however; take her brooding version of The Doors’ classic ‘Riders On The Storm’ – a blood-thirsty slice of dystopian electronics, it doubles as a salute to her father, who built himself colossal speakers to both entertain his daughter and terrify his neighbours.
A finessed, contoured vision of Jorja Chalmers’ undaunted creativity, ‘Midnight Train’ bristles with ideas. Breathy saxophone undulates on ‘Nightingale’, her homage to Yellow Magic Orchestra founder Haroumi Hosono, while mournful closer ‘Underwater Blood’ echoes the intensity of Goblin’s work on the Suspiria score, or even John Carpenter’s cinematic endeavours. “I grew up watching lots of movies. I was obsessed with the Terminator soundtrack. I remember hearing that for the first time, and just knowing my tastes were going to be changed forever.”
‘Midnight Train’ feels concise, sharpened, ready to pounce. Cannibalising her influences, Jorja Chalmers has been able to pursue her creative appetites to their most extreme. Yet even at its most challenging, her bold new album revels in the sheer joy of creation. “Making this album was really freeing,” she explains. “I loved writing this album. I always write in the same way, but I think that lockdown provided me with lesser distractions. Writing is such a personal thing for me – being in your little cave, and creating. That’s the beautiful moment for me.”
A solitary creation, a lockdown triumph, ‘Midnight Train’ is the moment Jorja Chalmers truly achieves transcendence.
Midnight Train track list: 1. Bring Me Down 2. I’ll Be Waiting 3. Rabbit In The Headlights 4. Boadicea 5. Love Me Tonight 6. Nightingale 7. Riders On The Storm 8. Rhapsody 9. The Poet 10. The Wolves Of The Orangery 11. On Such A Clear Day 12. Midnight Train 13. Underwater Blood
Babehoven is the nomadic project of Topanga, CA-raised Maya Bon. Today, she announces her Nastavi, Calliope EP, out July 9th, and presents its lead single, “Bad Week.”
Nastavi, Calliope is the follow-up to Demonstrating Visible Difference of Height (2020) and Yellow Has a Pretty Good Reputation (2021). Nastavi, Calliope was built after a cascade of losses, and is a vessel into which Bon poured two years of heartache, humor, and rage, then growth. It’s largely motivated by reconnecting with her father in Croatia after being apart for 16 years, immersing herself in her ancestral culture, and the passing of the beloved family dog, Calliope. Throughout the EP, Bon untangles universal emotions through specific experiences, poignant writing, and a lacquered DIY aesthetic.
Since its inception in 2017 when Bon was a college student in Portland, OR, Babehoven has spanned geographies—Portland, Los Angeles, Philadelphia— and now, the tiny town of Arlington, VT, where Bon and collaborator Ryan Albert recorded the Nastavi, Calliope EP in their home studio. Their newfound home gave the duo the space and freedom to transform the EP’s seven tracks into lush, fully-formed compositions. After Bon drafts a new piece (typically with vocals and guitar), the two parse through the track and deconstruct its instrumentals, later adding new elements to replace/embellish the existing sound. In Bon’s words, “we try to dismantle and recreate the song, creating an open space for the song to morph and grow as we explore.” The resulting EP is an instrumental layer cake, stacking drums, then bass, then guitar and vocals, and finally gilding them with unconventional elements like bowed guitars and the reverb of an 80s karaoke machine.
In the EP’s stunning opener “Bad Week,” Bon’s vocals reach out from beyond like a late night phone call from a friend. “It’s been a bad week for so many weeks now,” she sings, her voice glowing over strums of guitar and shuffling percussion. “This song is a hand reached inward to the swelling and amorphous cavities of grief,” says Bon. “As time keeps moving forward, I have found that it can feel as if the ‘bad days’ keep going, growing into ‘bad weeks,’ ‘bad years,’ into new levels of struggle that are hard to move through. Though this realization can feel staggering, it can also feel like an honest admission to self: these times are very hard and yet I want to move forward, I want to feel, I want to grow. ‘Bad Week’ is my attempt to commit to myself in these feelings.”
Evocative of Arthur Russell’s Love is Overtaking Me or Julia Jacklin’s Crushing, Nastavi, Calliope balances meticulously between the universality of emotion and the particulars that crack you open, that you carry alone. There is no containing grief, or rendering it sensible, or arranging it neatly, but Nastavi, Calliope lets us gaze into a fragment of it like a broken mirror—a sharp, incisive revelation.
Bon elaborates on the EP’s title: “’Nastavi’ means ‘keep going’ in Croatian, a language which carries a lot of weight for me. I am half Croatian and I often dreamt of what Croatia might be like as a child; it felt like a fictitious land, an inaccessible place where a piece of me lived, like a dismembered limb found itself on the Croatian shores. ‘Calliope,’ the name of my childhood dog, means ‘beautiful voice’ in Greek. It is also the type of organ that is placed at the center of a merry go round to provide that very specific type of music. The cyclical movement of the merry go round provides another element that I enjoyed including in this EP title; pain is cyclical, experiences are cyclical, and in a way we are constantly exploring new terrain while carrying our body memories with us that seem to go round and round and round in our heads.” – Maya Bon
Let’s just start with this: Warish‘s new album, Next to Pay, is not a happy-go-lucky record. Lead singer / guitarist Riley Hawk has said that the album “is about a sense of imminent doom, everyone is going to die.” So, be prepared for what’s to come when you hear it.
What you’ll hear is a lot of rage, screamed vocals, blaring guitars, punk drumming, and throbbing bass. Warish’s love of Nirvana is prevalent on the album, as the influence of Misfits and Black Sabbath‘s crazier material. The title track opens the album with guitar riffs that sound like they’ve been deep fried as Hawk sings about time slipping away from him and the Grim Reaper getting one step closer each day. Hawk’s guitar on “Another No One” blares like a tornado warning siren. “S.H.M. (Second Hand Misery)” could’ve been a Bleach-era Nirvana B-side in another life. Hawk’s voice sounds like it’s going to crack at any second throughout it.
“Burn No Bridges” has Hawk trying to fight his way through physical and metaphysical storms. “Do you have a broken mind, or is it just your brain?” Hawks asks on “Say to Please,” a song that rages about the little guy fighting for the dreams of rich elitists. His guitar solo on it is a damn barn burner. “Seeing Red” is powered by Alex Bassaj‘s cool yet heavy bass walk. The drums and cymbals on “Destroyer” pound so hard that the song more than earns its name.
“Woven” is one of the jauntiest songs on the record, but is no less fuzzy and fiery. Hawk’s voice takes on Kurt Cobain qualities during the chorus. Bassaj’s bass cranks up on “Scars,” while Hawk tells everyone he doesn’t care what they think of him or anything else and new drummer Justin de la Vega puts down precision beats like Gatling gun rounds.
“Ordinary” takes on a bit of a doom energy and the vocals sound a a bit goth. “Superstar” takes off at about eighty mph and doesn’t let off the gas for a second. “Make the Escape” reminds me of Iron Maiden with its epic metal riffs and vocal styling. Hawk’s voice takes on a deeper tone and a break from the screaming he’s done through most of the album. The effect is excellent. The closer, “Fear and Pride,” brings back Hawk’s guttural growls and I’m sure will bowl over audiences once they get to play it live on a regular basis.
It’s a loud, heavy record, but what else do you expect from Warish? The band had plenty of rage to purge that was built up in 2020, and Next to Pay is here to help the rest of us burn that rage out of our system.
“So, what did you do during the pandemic?” is a question that’s already a popular conversation starter among those lucky enough to have lived through it. Some us studied French, wrote comic books, and decluttered multiple rooms in their house. Others started new fitness regimes, made babies, read books, built a new bathroom, or didn’t do a damn thing.
Boston area MC, producer, and DJ D-Tension taught himself to play guitar and recorded a rock record, Secret Rock & Roll Project. D-Tension emerged from the pandemic 200 pounds lighter, thanks to his sheer will and new diet, and channeled his love of the late Eddie Van Halen by picking up an axe and, again through his Green Lantern-like will, taught himself how to play.
The result is a fun record that covers gentrification, partying, aging, sex, drugs, and, of course, rock and roll. Opener “Kenmore Square” has D-T musing about how his neighborhood has changed to the point where he no longer recognizes it. He can no longer visit Planet Records or score a ticket to a Red Sox game for twenty bucks. He can’t see Gang Green or Pixies there anymore because a damn high-rise fancy hotel was built on top of it. Gentrification and the unforgiving hand of Father Time have changed all of that. He, like all of us, wants to blame it on Amazon and other big corporations, but he also admits that he, like all of us, are to blame, really. His solo is also a blast, letting us know that all that pandemic guitar practice has paid off.
“Know No Know,” with its thick bass and organ stabs, is a fun track about trying to play the subtle long game with a potential lover. “That’s Alright” has a country flavor to it, which is a smile-inducing surprise and a song of love and being happy to be with someone during times of isolation and boredom (pretty much most of 2020, really). “It Ain’t All About You” is a scorching rocker with punk speed and attitude in which D-T calls out a former lover who wasn’t around for him when he was at his lowest.
“The Night We Regret” is a simple, witty ballad with D-T singing about an old flame that might actually be late night drunken ramblings left on a voicemail. “Fast One” has a beat that D-T could’ve used on any hip hop album, but he boosts it with sizzling guitar to turn it into a wicked rock track. “Away” could’ve been a Smithereens track in another life with its lyrics of lost love and cool bass line.
“Joanna Strikes Back” has a bit of a Devo sound to it and tells a great story of a former punk girl turned Average Jane who tears it up for one night in full punk regalia and debauchery. D-T play spaghetti westerns guitars and surf on “Idata del Gaucho,” which is a stunning piece. The closer is a heartfelt ballad, “Cry,” with piano chords that are angry one moment, sad the next.
We should all so be lucky (and strong-willed) to emerge from a health crisis and isolation with art this good, and with a new skill we can grow in forever. We should also be happy that D-Tension chose not to keep this project secret.
Keep your mind open.
[There’s no secret to subscribing. It’s pretty easy. Just head over to the box and drop in your e-mail address.]
Do you need to chill out? Are you looking for music for meditation, yoga, sleeping, or romance? Does your reality need a shift? Then give Cicada Wavesby Ben Seretan a spin.
The idea behind Cicada Waves is beautifully simple: Hit record, play some piano in an Appalachian Mountains dance studio, and record whatever happens with no second takes, edits, or polishes. It captures moments in time in Seretan’s life and gives them to us to experience. Ambient piano criss-crosses with sounds of rainfall, thunder, wind, cats, birds, and the titular cicadas. It was recorded in isolation yet sounds expansive. It is hypnotic yet enthralling.
“Cicada Waves 1” has the critters’ buzzing as soft drone undertone while Seretan muses away on his antique Steinway without hurry. “3pm Rainstorm” is perfect for slowing down the rush of whatever is overwhelming you. “Cicada Waves 2” seems a little melancholy compared to “Cicada Waves 1,” but it’s no less lovely. The cicadas blend into more white noise on “Rain and Cicadas” while Seretan’s piano backs them.
I meditated through most of “11pm Sudden Thunderstorm” and can tell you it was a nice experience. Seretan’s piano riffs off the rain and thunder quite well. His piano work on “8pm Crickets” is a bit more playful and active, surely inspired by the insect chorus outside the studio. “Fog Rolls out Rabun Gap” moves as easily out of your speakers or earbuds as its namesake.
It’s a lovely record that you’ll want for many moods, travels, and situations. I wouldn’t listen to it while driving, however. It might lull you into a dreamland across the centerline or into a ditch. Play it at the rest stop while you take a power nap during a long trip. Open the window while you play it and you won’t be sure where the album ends and nature begins.
Keep your mind open.
[Drift over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
Never ones to rest on their laurels, or seemingly to rest at all, Osees put together another live-streamed show, Levitation SessionsII, and wowed everyone again with a great set of deep cuts and obscure cover tunes.
The show, recorded in an empty factory that front man John Dwyer describes as like “a fight scene set from Point Blank or the John Wick trilogy,” starts with the rockin’, swingin’ fan-favorite “Tidal Wave.” It’s hard to choose which part you like best. Dwyer’s fun guitar riffs? Dan Rincon and Paul Quattrone‘s double-drumming? Tim Hellman‘s rock solid bass line? Tom Dolas‘ sneaky synths? Dolas’ synths take the forefront on the weird, wonky “Grown in a Graveyard” – a tune that keeps you guessing for its entire length. Then, once you kind of, sort of figure it out, they unleash a raucous version of “The Dream” – which might cause you to trash whatever room you’re in when you hear it, or stomp the gas pedal if you’re driving at the time…until it drifts into psychedelic bliss around the five-minute mark and give you a chance to breathe (but only for a moment). Dwyer absolutely shreds for the last two minutes of it.
“Stinking Cloud” is a jolly tune about death and heavy on synths from Dolas and Dwyer. The garage rock swing of “Enemy Destruct” is outstanding. “Poisoned Stones” sounds as gritty and grungy as you hope it will. “Spider Cider” is silly and fun (with Dolas putting his big synth rig aside to play rhythm guitar, no less). Hellman’s bass seems to hit extra heavy (without overwhelming his bandmates) on “It Killed Mom.”
Another deep cut treat is “Meat Step Lively,” which could almost fit onto an episode of Shindig with its groovy swing. “Snickersnee” is trippy bliss, which Rincon and Quattrone in perfect step as Dwyer stabs at ghosts with his guitar. “Destroyed Fortress Reappears” drifts into heavy synth psychedelia by Dolas and Dwyer and the entire rhythm section produces a hypnotizing beat.
“Web” is another great cut that builds up to a wicked beat and doesn’t let go of you. Hellman’s bass groove is outstanding on it. “Encrypted Bounce” is the longest song on the album, coming in at almost nine minutes, and it’s full of wild garage rock guitar from Dwyer and great fills from both drummers. “Beat Quest” adds heavy 1980s, and then 1970s, synths to the mix.
The encore was a set of Chrome covers: “Chromosome Damage > T.V. As Eyes,” “ST37,” “Looking for Your Door,” and “SS CYGNI.” The first is a fun, upbeat splash of driving beats and warping synths that melts into a lava lamp haze. “ST37” could almost be a Devo track with it’s goofy guitar and weird lyrics. Hellman’s bass takes on a sexy panther tone in “Looking for Your Door.” The final track is a hypnotic repetition of beats and riffs that slowly backs out of the room and drifts away.
Levitation Sessions II does a great job of making you want to see Osees live again as soon as possible. They’re starting to announce tour dates for the fall, so don’t miss out if they’re near you.
