Night Beats(Danny Lee Blackwell – guitar and lead vocals, James Traeger – drums, and Jakob Bowden – bass) are a fantastic psychedelic rock band hailing from Seattle, Washington. I first saw them at Levitation Austinin 2013 and was blown away by their mixture of psychedelia and blues. They put on another great performance the following year at the Levitation Austin pre-festival kick-off party. I got to meet Blackwell there, and he signed my copy of Sonic Bloom. He was a humble, nice chap.
I’ll see Night Beats any chance I can get and look forward to seeing them again and picking up their new record at Levitation Chicagoon March 12th. I’ll have my Sharpie ready.
Keep your mind open.
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Ryley Walkeris a singer-songwriter who is also an excellent guitarist. I hadn’t heard of him until he was listed as a performer during Levitation Chicago, and now I’m keen on seeing him live. He has a simple, elegant style that reminds me of early Yes records. He’s playing the festival on March 11th.
Keep your mind open.
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Nite Fieldsare an Australian four-piece who make hypnotic shoe gaze psychedelia with guitars that sound like they were recorded in a box canyon and vocals that sound like old Love and Rockets or Jesus and Mary Chain records.
Their newest album, Depersonalisation, is full of dreamy stuff that I’m sure will be good live and put the audience into a trance. They are opening Levitation Chicago on March 11th.
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This Israeli shoegaze trio hails from Tel Aviv and only sings in Hebrew. Don’t understand Hebrew? Neither do I, but like me you won’t care because good music is good in any language. Vadaat Charigim(“Exceptions Committee” – Yuval Haring – guitar and vocals, Yuval Guttman – drums, Dan Fabian Bloch – bass) play finely crafted shoegaze that borders on dream-rock. Their stuff reminds me of early albums from A Flock of Seagulls – lots of reverb on the vocals, spacey guitar, trippy synths, and drums that sometimes hit heavy and sometimes almost seem to disappear.
I missed them at Levitation Austin last year, but they’re playing Thursday March 10th at Levitation Chicago. I look forward to the set.
Keep your mind open.
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Psych rockers (and a favorite band of my wife) Elephant Stonehave released a new single, “Where I’m Going,” from their upcoming album Ship of Fools. As my wife put it, “I was hooked in the first five seconds.” The band has mixed a bit of electro into their raga-influenced psych-rock, and it works very well.
They’ve also announced March tour dates. Catch them if you can.
03/10 – Toronto, ON @ Sneaky Dees w/ Champion Lover and Bad Girls TICKETS
03/11 – Indianapolis, IN @ Joyful Noise w/ Vaadat Charigim TICKETS
03/12 – Little Rock, AR @ Vino’s Brew Pub TICKETS
03/14 to 03/17 – Austin, TX for SXSW TICKETS
03/18 – Memphis, TN @ Hi-Tone w/ R. Ring TICKETS
03/19 – Cincinnati, OH @ MOTR Pub TICKETS
03/20 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right w/ Las Rosas and Fascinator TICKETS
04/14 – Montreal, QC @ La Sala Rossa w/ The Mad Alcemy Liquid Light Show TICKETS
Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor’s (Sean Morrow – guitars and lead vocals, Eric Oppitz – bass and keyboards, Rick Sawoscinski – drums) Desert Brain is the first album from the Detroit psychedelic trio that is one flowing piece of art instead of an album of individual tracks that stand apart from each other.
“We’ve always wanted to make an album that was one continuous flow,” Oppitz told me when I saw SOYSV in October 2015. “We felt like we had the clout to do it after the first two records.”
He’s right. Desert Brain is a fine piece of work that reminds me of early Pink Floyd records that were part-rock albums, part-metaphysical journeys. “Seventh Scene” opens the album with a spacey feel SOYSV do better than most. It flows into the organ-heavy “Major Medicine,” which has become one of their wildest cuts at live shows because it dissolves / evolves into the mind-bending chaos of “What’s Your Cloud nine, 37?” and “Magic Mother’s Tongue / A Little Jaunt into the Light.” “Little” is an understatement, considering this “jaunt” is full of Morrow’s wall-flattening guitar, Oppitz’s thudding bass, and Sawoscinski’s Detroit auto factory-precision power drumming before it becomes something you might hear in a giallo movie by the end.
There’s a brief break of silence before “Girl of a Thousand Voices” when you flip over the vinyl and start the second leg of the journey. It’s a lovely track with distorted vocals and more of those guitar riffs that Morrow seems to pull out of dreams or mystic rituals, whereas the frightening follow-up, “The Prettiest Sounds of Purgatory,” sounds like something out of a Lovecraft story.
“Long Lovers Sun” shows the band’s Doors influences with jangly guitar, ethereal synths, and cryptic vocals about a beautiful woman. The title track showcases Sawoscinski’s drumming as he lays down beats fit for Apache warriors charging on horseback and then switches to near silence just before the song almost spins out of control and drops into “Like a Forest Runs” – a near-shoegaze cut that would be great for walks through bleak Detroit streets or while gazing across a frozen lake with your “Highly Enchanting Eyes.” This last track is something you might hear on a Captain Beefheart record – guitars and synths that mesh so well that they’re often difficult to tell apart, drums that sneak up on you, and slightly skewed vocals that intrigue you almost to the point of giving you the creeps.
I’m a big fan of SOYSV, so it’s no surprise I love this record. It’s a great move for the band as they get weird and pull us down the rabbit hole with them. They are on the verge of being one of the “Next Big Things,” so don’t miss any chance you get to see them. They’re also good chaps, so give them your support.
Australian psych rockers King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard(Stu Mackenzie – piano, vocals, bass, sitar, flute, Lucas Skinner – piano and bass, Joey Walker – guitar, vocals, and bass, Cook Craig – percussion, guitars, vocals, Ambrose Kenny-Smith – vocals and harmonica, Michael Cavanaugh – percussion, Eric Moore – “Nothing.”) have returned with perhaps the hippiest record I’ve heard in years – Paper Mache Dream Balloon.
“Sense” almost sounds like a modern rap track at the beginning until it slides into a mellow plea to take care of Mother Earth. “Bone” is a clever song about the afterlife with lyrics like “If heaven is a place I know, I won’t be taking my bones. Will all my stitches be unsown? And when I’m gone and I’m dead, what will be inside my head?” Mackenzie’s flute carries the track and makes it fun instead of maudlin. “Dirt” is about ditching a relationship that’s toxic for both involved and it sounds like something you’d hear strummed in a southern California park on a summer day.
The title track encourages us to let go of troubles. They aren’t worth it. The song walks along at an easy pace before jumping up to a happy dance tune best suited for waving a bubble wand and hugging whoever gets close enough to seize. “Trap Door” is a quick, weird rocker about keeping our anger under control. “Cold Cadaver” is another tune about death and trying to keep the Grim Reaper at bay. The vocals are distorted just a bit, but to good effect, and the background harmonica and sitar add nice touches.
Then comes “The Bitter Boogie,” a song about the pain of drug addiction that dives headlong into the great subgenre of blues-psych. The whole band lays down a groove best suited for dry Arizona roads and sexy, possibly demonic hitchhikers. Kenny-Smith’s harmonica is particularly good here, as is the acoustic guitar work and the slithering bass line. “N.G.R.I. (Bloodstain)” seems to be about a man waking up to find himself in a crime scene, but the song is jumpy and toe-tapping instead of dark and brooding.
The next two songs mirror each other. “Time = Fate” is about the importance of living in the present (“Pondering things in the past makes you blind.”). “Time = $$$” is a trippy psychedelic track with blues lyrics (“Why is time money? ‘Cos it sounds funny to give me so much time and no money nearby.”).
“Most of What I Like” is both a ballad and a song of lament. The lyrics speak of a man who can’t live without his lover (“Most of what I like is given to me by the one that I love, bears the onus every time.”), but knows that his dependency is killing the relationship (“You always shut your eyes when you look me in the eyes.”).
The whole album is full of these neat combinations – psychedelic rock and blues, death and life, love and lament. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard will be returning to the Levitation Austin music festival this year, and I look forward to seeing them again. I was lucky enough to see them two years ago when they played their first U.S. gig there. They came to rock and didn’t disappoint. I’m sure they’ll knock it out of the park again.
The Besnard Lakes’ (Jace Lasek – guitar and vocals, Olga Goreas – bass and vocals, Sheen Ko – keyboards, Robbie MacArthur – guitar, Kevin Laing – drums) last record, Until in Excess, Imperceptible UFO, is one of the most beautiful records of 2013. Their new album, A Coliseum Complex Museum, is already running high on my list for the most beautiful album of 2016. It’s lush with Beach Boys-style harmonies, smooth bass, epic drumming, and guitars that float throughout it like warm desert winds caressing a red rock formation.
“The Bray Road Beast” is the album’s opener. It immediately tosses you into their smooth lake of shimmering psychedelia. The first single, “Golden Lion,” chugs along like a Grateful Dead track until it blossoms into a glorious bit of arena rock. “You are the golden lion.” is the chorus. The Besnard Lakes want us to know we are majestic and strong (much like the guitar solo on the track).
“All the pressure of our plans together make our hearts turn to shades of gold,” claim the Besnard Lakes in “Pressure of Our Plans” – a stunning love song with dual male-female vocals and levitation-inducing synthesizers. The vocals on “Towers Sent Her to Sheets of Sound” almost get lost behind the drums at first, but kick in with lovely precision just when you think the track is going to be menacing. The bass work on it is superb as well, rolling you along as smooth as a skateboard.
I’m still not sure what “The Plain Moon” is about, but I do know it has the biggest bass and drums on the record. It’s like a thunderstorm you hear miles away on a summer night. The male-female vocal harmonies on it are superb. I know that “Necronomicon” refers to the fabled Book of the Dead (popularized by the Evil Dead movies), but the song is far too pretty to raise any Elder Gods from Stygian depths. I also know what a “Nightingale” is, and that the song named such is a bit sinister (although the bass line in it is almost a blues walk).
The closer is “Tungsten 4 – The Refugee.” The guitar work throughout it is quite good (The end solo is killer.), and the track sounds like a Tom Petty song if Tom Petty’s main influence had been Roky Erickson instead of Bob Dylan.
This is a gorgeous album. Wander through its complexity like a museum, and lose yourself in the coliseum-sized sound of it. The Besnard Lakes will soon embark on a tour of the UK and Europe. I hope they’ll be back to North America in time to play Levitation Austin this year.
A friend of mine introduced me to All Them Witches (Ben McLeod – guitar, Michael Parks, Jr. – bass, vocals, guitar, Robby Staebler – drums, Allan Van Cleave – keyboards, violin) when she sent me their 2014 album Lightning at the Door and said, “I think you’ll like these guys.” I’m not sure if she thought I’d like them because their name involved witches and she figured that would go along with my love of old horror movies or if their psychedelic desert rock would intrigue me. She was right on both accounts.
Their new album, the intriguingly titled Dying Surfer Meets His Maker, rises and ebbs like waves and can easily lull you into some sort of trance. The opener, “Call Me Star,” builds to an almost menacing drone and slips right into “El Centro,” which is over eight minutes of psychedelic greatness. McLeod pulls in riffs that could’ve been used in Alejandro Jodorowsky’s Dune movie if it had ever been made. Van Cleave’s synths add a touch of weird playfulness that is somewhat disturbing (in a good way), Parks’ bass sounds like a ghost, and Staebler beats his kit like it will power a rocket launch.
“Dirt Preachers” is the first single off the record. It starts with a weird bass dirge and then moves out at a pace best suited for late night high speed driving. It has a great Led Zeppelin-like breakdown in the middle that is outstanding. “This Is Where It Falls Apart” might be about a relationship. The blues harmonica, sad drums, and distant vocals seem to relate that something is coming to an end, but it may be the end of this reality for all I know. The track is like a half-awake dream.
“Mellowing” lives up to its title, and McLeod’s work on it is excellent. Van Cleave is all over “Open Passageways” with spooky synths and even better violin work that makes the track sound like something you’d hear on a Scottish moor just before a banshee steps out of a tree next to you. “Instrumental 2 (Welcome to the Caveman Future)” would be great for a live-action Thundarr the Barbarian movie considering the title and how it drifts from thudding rock to mystical tones. “Talisman” sounds like a mix of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Jesus and Mary Chain.
The closer is “Blood and Sand / Milk and Endless Waters.” I have a feeling the first half is war-themed, with the second half being the images seen by a wounded or dying soldier on a stormed beach. It’s definitely trippy enough for that.
This is a great way to start off your psychedelic music collection for 2016. All Them Witches are about to take off on a tour of Europe for the spring. Catch them if you can. They’ve moved up high on my list.
