Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years in particular, you’ve likely come across several posts about Paris, France-based psych punk/krautrock/global music act La Femme. Comprised of founding members Marlon Magnée (keyboards), Sacha […]
Category: Psych Rock
With the release of A Swirling Fire Burning Through the Rye last year, San Francisco-based quartet Cool Ghouls received attention across the blogosphere for a sound that’s heavily indebted to the classic 60s and 70s rock sounds of the likes of The Byrds, Crosby, Stills, and Nash, Neil Young, Creedence Clearwater Revival and classic psych rock as their material is generally comprised of jangling guitar chords, simple yet propulsive percussion and layered, multi-part harmonies. “Sundial,” the first single off the Bay Area quartet’s forthcoming third full-length effort Animal Races, slated for an August 19, 2016 will further cement the band’s burgeoning reputation for classic psych rock and classic rock leaning sounds. Much like their previously released material, the song sonically evokes the sensation of tripping on hallucinogens with friends as you were meandering through a cemetery or a meadow on a bright sunny day while simultaneously sounding as though it could have been released in 1966.
Over the past 12-18 months your’e likely come across posts about Grand Rapids, MI-based psych rock trio HEATERS. Comprised of Andrew Tamlyn, Nolan Krebs and Joshua Korf, the band can trace their origins to when founding members Tamilyn and Krebs relocated to Grand Rapids to start a music project together. Korf, who was coincidentally Tamilyn’s and Kreb’s next door neighbor was later recruited to flesh out the band’s sound. With the release of the “Mean Green”/”Levitate Thigh” 7 inch, their full-length debut Holy Water Pool last year, along with a series of singles, the Grand Rapids-based trio became JOVM mainstays while also receiving a growing national profile.
The psych rock trio’s highly-anticipated sophomore follow-up effort Baptistina is slated for an August 5, 2016 release through Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records, and the album’s first single “Centennial” continues a bit on the path of Holy Water Pool as the band pairs dense layers of shimmering guitar chords played through tons of reverb and effects pedal, ethereal vocals, propulsive drumming and a throbbing bass line in a towering and anthemic psych rock song that feels as though it may descend into cacophonous chaos — but unlike their previously released material, “Centennial” possesses a towering swagger that gives the song an effortless, larger-than-life feel while sounding a though it could have been released in 1967.
Comprised of founding member Will Halsey (vocals, guitar), Ash Reiter (vocals, guitar), The Beehavers‘ Bryant Dennison (guitar) and The Electric Magpie‘s Peter Maffei (bass), Joshua Tree, CA-based psych rock quartet Sugar Candy Mountain can trace its origins to when Halsey, who has had stints as a drummer in renowned Bay Area-based bands like The Blank Tapes, fpodbpod and Ash Reiter, began the project as a bedroom recording project in which Halsey initially wrong songs in the vein of of Montreal and The Beach Boys. Shortly after Halsey had started Sugar Candy Mountain, Reiter had joined him and the duo began co-writing songs. Interestingly, there was a brief period in which they wrote electro pop songs — before they had gone on a decidedly psychedelic direction when Reiter had started obsessively collecting effects pedals. Denison, who also was a bassist and former bandmate in Ash Reiter with Reiter and Halsey, joined on as a guitarist (which was interestingly enough, his first instrument).
With the band’s forthcoming album 666, the Joshua Tree, CA-based quartet will further cement their burgeoning reputation for a sound that has been described as being indebted to Jacco Gardner, Tame Impala and the classic psych rock sounds of 60s Laurel Canyon — as you’ll hear on album title track “666,” a single that also possesses an uncanny attention to dreamy melody as the band pairs Reiter’s gorgeous and chilly crooning with gently fuzzy guitar chords, soaring and ethereal organ chords with gentle almost minimalist drumming. Yes, it sounds as though it could have been written and recorded in 1966 and was recently discovered in a used record store — perhaps one like Last Vestige in Albany — but with a subtly modern production sheen.
Although they derive their name from a mischievous pun based off Stephen King‘s stark, vampire novel Salem’s Lot, little is known about the mysterious Swedish psych rock act Salem’s Pot — except for the fact that their sound and aesthetic seems to draw from old horror movies like The Last House on the Left, El Topo and Blood Feast, as well as The Cramps, Pentagram, Roky Erickson, The Stooges, Deep Purple and others; in other words, murky psych rock with an unsettling sense of menace just underneath the surface. Interestingly what is known is this: between the release of 2014’s Lurar ut dig pa prarien and the forthcoming album Pronounce This! the band has gone through a lineup shuffle in which their previous drummer took up guitar, allowing the band to recruit a new drummer — and with the release of album opener and latest single “Tranny Takes A Trip,” the lineup shuffling has allowed the band to expand upon their sound as layers of scorching and acidic guitar chords played through copious amounts of wah wah pedal and other effects are paired with soaring organ chords, arena rock-friendly hooks and ironically snarled vocals. Sonically and structurally the song seems to equally draw from Black Sabbath and much more contemporary fare including Ecstatic Vision, Slow Season and others; in other words, much like those bands the mysterious Swedish act specialize in mind-altering songs consisting of several different sections held together by a propulsive rhythm section.
New Video: The Surreal Visuals and Dreamy Sounds of Boogarins Latest Single “Benzin”
Over the past year or so, renowned Brazilian psych rock quartet Boogarins quickly became a JOVM mainstay artist, and if you’ve been frequenting this site over that period, you would have come across posts on several […]
Currently comprised of primary members Tres Warren (vocals, guitar) and Elizabeth Hart (bass) along with a rotating cast of collaborators and friends, New York-based psych rock act Psychic Ills have developed a reputation over the past decade for following wherever their muses takes them. Interestingly, the band’s forthcoming and highly-anticipated fifth full-length effort Inner Journey Out stems from the culmination of three years of playing shows, touring, writing and recording — and reportedly, the album finds the band expanding upon the sound and aesthetic that first caught the attention of the blogosphere as the album’s material possesses elements of country, blues, gospel and jazz. In fact, whereas the previous records found Warren overdubbing himself to create a blown-out, widescreen sound, Inner Journey Out focuses on Warren and Hart’s collaborations with an array of highly-accomplished guests including Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval, touring keyboardist Brent Cordero, Chris Millstein, Endless Boogie’s Harry Druzd, The Entrance Band’s Derek James, Charles Burst and a host of friends and associates, who also provide pedal steel guitar, horns, strings and backing vocals. Thematically speaking, the new album explores the interior and exterior and the pathway between the two — and as you’ll hear on the album’s latest single “Baby,” the album’s sound manages to be much more intimate and plaintive, while drawing from The Rolling Stones “Gimme Shelter” and Pink Floyd’s “The Great Gig in the Sky” but with a subtle yet gorgeous country twang underneath the moody psychdelia.
At the core of the song is a narrator, who has spent a long time seeking love and recognizing that he’s stumbled upon the love he’s always needed while quietly suggesting that when we love others and share ourselves with others, that we find our true, essential selves. And as a result, the sentiment gives the song a quiet contemplative nature.
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With the 2012 release of the “Ribbons” 7 inch and the 2013 critically applauded release of their full-length debut, A Constant Sea, Brooklyn-based indie rock/psych rock act Heliotropes — comprised of frontwoman, founding member and primary songwriter Jessica Numsuwankijkul along with a rotating cast of collaborators that include Gregg Giuffre (drums), Richard Thomas (bass) and Ricci Swift (guitar) — have quickly exploded on to the national scene; in fact, A Constant Sea landed on the top ten of Mother Jones’ Best of 2013 list, and as a result, the band has opened for (and toured with)a diverse array of artists including Esben and The Witch, Thurston Moore, The Geto Boys, Matt and Kim, Kurt Vile, Parquet Courts, The Black Angels and The Raveonettes — and they’ve played sets at SXSW, Firefly and Culture Collide.
Building upon that buzz, the Brooklyn-based indie rock band will be releasing their highly-anticipated sophomore effort Over There That Way on July 15, 2016 through The End Records. And the album’s latest single “Normandy” is sweetly, old-fashioned garage rock that pairs shimmering and jangling guitar chords, and a propulsive rhythm section with Numsuwankijkul’s plaintive and ethereal vocals. And as soon as you hear the song it shouldn’t be surprising that the band’s sound has been described as Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval doing jangling psych rock.
New Video: The Darkly Psychedelic Imagery of GOAT’s “I Sing In Silence”
According to an old Swedish legend, a traveling witch doctor and her disciples were led to Korpilombolo, a tiny and extremely remote Northern Swedish village by a Sami traveller. The reasons why that Sami traveller may […]
Comprised of Nik Rayne, Grant Beyschau, Cody Schwartz, Connor Gallaher and Miguel Urbina, the Tucson, AZ-based quintet The Myrrors have been releasing material under a rather dark and mysterious cloak — and that shouldn’t be terribly surprising as their sound is equally dark and mysterious. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year or so, you may recall that I wrote about “Dome House Music,” a single off Arena Negra that reminded me of The Black Angels‘ Directions to See a Ghost and the Silber Records roster as “Dome House Music” slowly built up into a trance-like groove with blasts of saxophone floating and darting through the mix of a song that sounds as though it could inspire a shamanic ritual.
The Tucson, AZ-based quintet’s forthcoming album Entranced Earth is slated for a May 27 release through renowned psych rock label Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records, and the album’s latest single “No Clear Light” will further cement the quintet’s reputation for crafting dark and moody psych rock as the band pairs shimmering guitar chords with plaintively moaned vocals, warm bursts of flute and feedback. And while arguably being one of the most hauntingly and eerily beautiful songs they’ve released, it’s also the darkest one they’ve released to date; in fact, the song sounds as though it should be part of the soundtrack of a psychological thriller about a mass murderer; you should be able to picture the murderer as he’s stalking his innocent victims . ..
Over the past few months, starting around the end of last year, you may recall coming across a couple of posts about Liverpool-based shoegaze quintet The Vryll Society. Comprised of Michael Ellis, Ryan Ellis, Lewis McGuinness, Lloyd Shearer, and Benjamin Robinson, the band was discovered by Alan Willis, the late founder of Deltasonic Records, who noticed potential in the band and guided the quintet through their development as a band and as songwriters. Over the course of the following year, the British shoegaze quintet locked themselves away in their rehearsal space, where they jammed and began writing material that was inspired by Funkadelic, Aphrodite’s Child, krautrock and classic shoegaze.
“Coshh,” the second single off the band’s debut EP Pangea had the Liverpool-based quintet pairing a tight, motorik groove consisting of a wobbling bass line and propulsive four-on-the-floor-like drumming, shimmering guitar chords played through layers of reverb and effects pedals, atmospheric electronics, falsetto vocals, anthemic hooks and a cosmic sheen. “Self-Realization,” Pangea‘s third single further cemented the quintet’s growing reputation for shimmering and anthemic shoegaze in an expansive and sprawling song that nodded at The Verve, as the song structurally twisted, turned and bent at weird and unpredictable angles — with guitar work that also subtly nodded at Nick McCabe’s expansive and expressive sound.
Interestingly, “La Jette,” The Vryll Society’s latest single is a dreamier and ethereal single that hints at the contemporary obsession with the sound of 60s psych rock that sounds as though it draws from the likes of Elephant Stone, Sleepy Sun and others; in other words, shimmering and jangling guitar chords, ethereal vocals and a strutting bass line are paired together in the Liverpool-based quintet’s trippiest, most subdued and most introspective song to date.
Comprised of Diego Garcia (vocals, guitar), Alejandro de Lucas (bass) and Daniel “Larry” Balboa (drums), Madrid, Spain-based trio The Parrots quickly became an DIY underground sensation with the release of a demo, which was released without much promotion and little fanfare; in fact, the video for “I Did Something Wrong” off their Aden Arabie EP initially received over 15,000 YouTube hits — and caught the attention of music bloggers across Europe and the rest of the world for a sound that drew from old school, garage rock and psych rock but with a loose, boozy feel. And unsurprisingly, the band’s sound compares favorably to the likes of Thee Oh Sees, Black Lips, Raccoon Fighter, High Waisted, White Mystery and others.
Last year, NME named the Spanish trio as one of SXSW‘s “buzziest bands” and since then the members of The Parrots have been incredibly busy — they’ve released a critically applauded EP Weed for The Parrots, have toured relentlessly and played an incredible 14 shows at this year’s SXSW (in which they were later signed by renowned indie label Heavenly Recordings). Building on the growing buzz, the trio will be releasing their latest single “Let’s Do It Again.”
Recorded at Paco Loco Studios in El Puerto de Santa Maria in Cadiz, Southern Spain, The Parrots’ latest single is reportedly inspired by the members of the band drinking beers and Horchata, eating Moroccan delicacies and feelings of deep friendship and loyalty and as a result the song possesses a shuffling, intoxicated feel of elation and adventure — the sort that would come about when you’ve drunkenly stumbled along a new best friend. Sonically, the song will further cement the Spanish trio’s growing reputation for raw and shaggy garage rock as Garcia’s passionate howls are paired with a shuffling and jangling garage rock chords, propulsive drumming and a throbbing bass line, and in some way the song sounds as though it could have easily been released in 1962 or so.
According to an old Swedish legend, a traveling witch doctor and her disciples were led to Korpilombolo, a tiny and extremely remote Northern Swedish village by a Sami traveller. The reasons why that Sami traveller may have decided to lead the witch doctor to a remote, Northern Swedish village has been lost to history — these things happen after all — but strangely enough, within Korpilombolo, the practice of voodoo quickly became common and continued unabated and fairly unnoticed for several centuries. During the time of the Crusaders, the Catholic Church had discovered that heretical and non-Christian practices were occurring in the tiny and remote Northern Swedish village, and a small band of Crusaders were sent to burn the villagers out and the village down. Whoever survived returned when it was safe, rebuilt their village and have since continued to practice voodoo.
Reportedly, the rather mysterious and masked collective GOAT hails from Korpilombolo — and a great deal of their work thematically and aesthetically draws influence from voodoo, spirit conjuring, psychedelia and other practices. And although little is generally known about the collective, they quickly built up a national profile across Sweden. In a series of coincidences that could only seem to happen in the age of the Internet, the band signed to renowned indie label Sub Pop Records, who released the act’s sophomore full-length effort, Commune and a couple of 7 inches to critical acclaim internationally. Last year, the collective’s “It’s Time For Fun”/”Relax” 7 inch was written while in their native Sweden but recorded in the Americas — A side single “It’s Time For Fun” recorded here in NYC, while B side single “Relax” was recorded in Sao Paulo — and had the act expanding and experimenting with their sound through the use of synths and drum programming that pushed their sound towards a trippy world music-leaning post-punk similar to Talking Heads.
The Northern Swedish collective’s forthcoming “I Sing In Silence”/”The Snake of Addis Ababa” 7 inch is slated for a May 27 release through Sub Pop Records and their latest effort reveals that the act is continually expanding upon and experimenting with their sound — this time going completely acoustic as a gorgeous and fluttering flute line is paired with a shuffling and elastic guitar line, gently propulsive drumming and chanted vocals as you’ll hear on the A side single “I Sing In Silence.” And interestingly enough, the single strikes me as sounding as though it’s heavily indebted to early prog rock — in particular think of Yes’ “Roundabout“– and psych rock as “I Sing In Silence” possesses a similar trippy and expansive vibe.
With the release of their debut full-length effort, Teeth, Brooklyn-based indie rock quartet The Loom — comprised of John Fanning (guitar, vocals), Lis Rubard (French horn, trumpet, keys, vocals), John Mosloskie (bass, vocals) and Mike Rasimas (drums) — saw a rapidly growing national and international profile as the album was critically praised by the likes of The New York Times, who called the band the “Next Big Thing,” Paste, who named the band “Best of What’s Next,” WXPN, who named them a “World Cafe Next” band, as well as breathless praise from Daytrotter and New Yorker. And as a result, the Brooklyn-based quartet toured extensively across North America — in particular across the US and Canada — and they’ve made tour stops as far away as Poland.
Produced by Kevin McMahon, best known for his work with Titus Andronicus and Real Estate and recorded at Marcata Recording, the Brooklyn-based quartet’s long-awaited sophomore release Here In The Deadlights is slated for release next month and thematically speaking revolve around deeply personal experience — Fanning’s world up-ending split from his longtime partner and best friend of 14 years, followed by the difficult period of rebuilding one’s own life. And reportedly, the forthcoming effort is a radical sonic departure as the material has the band taking on a much more krautrock and psych rock-leaning sound, complete with layers of organs, feedback heavy guitars and ethereal horns all run through delay and other effects pedals as you’ll hear on the moody and buzzing “Fire Makes,” a song that sonically reminds me a little bit of My Jerusalem‘s Preachers — but with a tense sense of menace.
The Brooklyn-based quartet will be on tour throughout April, and it starts with a record release show on April 22, 2016 at Union Pool. Check out tour dates below.
Tour Dates
4/22 – Brooklyn, NY – Union Pool
4/23 – Beacon, NY – The Howland Cultural Center
4/24 – Albany, NY – The Low Beat
4/25 – Boston, MA – Out of the Blue Too Gallery
4/26 – Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie
4/27 – Washington, DC – Velvet Lounge
4/28 – Louisville, KY – TBD
4/29 – Indianapolis, IN – The Melody Inn
4/30 – Chicago, IL – Schubas (w/ Cross Record)
Initially comprised of cousins Jamie Turner (vocals, bass) and Matt Williams (guitar), along with Mike Mutt (organ) and Adrian Macmillan (drums), Perth, Australia-based psych rock quartet The High Learys can trace their origins to when Turner and Williams met Mutt in high school, with the band recruiting Macmillan to finalize the band’s original lineup back in 2011. With the release of a full-length album and a number of singles the Australian psych rock quartet have received praise both across their native Australia and internationally for a sound that had been described as a contemporary take on 60s psych rock, bubblegum pop and large rock that seemed to draw influence from the likes of The Doors, The Who Sings My Generation-era The Who, The Animals, The Turtles, The Beatles and contemporary acts such as Oasis, The Black Angels, Elephant Stone, Sleepy Sun and others.
In fact, the band quickly became a JOVM mainstay as I wrote about a handful of singles on this site — including “Letters to Alice,” a song comprised of intertwined, twisting and turning guitar and organ chords paired with a propulsive rhythm section and Turner’s Liam Gallagher-like vocals; “I’m A Fool For You” was their most bubblegum pop-leaning single, which possessed an infectious and sweet melody paired with even sweeter lyrics; and “Clear My Mind,” a single that sounded as though it could have been written, recorded and released sometime during the Summer of Love. Now, it’s been a couple of years since I’ve written about them and in that time the band’s lineup has been shuffled — Macmillan has been replaced by Mitchell J. Benson on drums. And interestingly enough, the band’s latest single “Cabinet” not only marks a change in sonic direction for the band that pushes their 60s-leaning psych rock sound closer to the 21st century and is the first time that the band produced themselves in the studio. Sonically “Cabinet” sounds as though it draws from My Gold Mask and Elephant Stone’s most recent releases, as the band pairs guitars and organ played through distortion and effects pedals, thundering drumming and an anthemic hook. In some way, the song sounds as though it were recorded in an enormous empty room with the instrumentation reverberating off the walls and back down to the musicians and listener.
As the band notes in press notes “‘Cabinet’ explores the insecurities of a young mind. Someone who feels lost in their ways, but at the same time shares the burdens of adolescents with their other half.” And although the song possesses a trippy feel, at its core is a plaintive heartache that should feel familiar — it should remind the listener of the fact that love is almost always awkward but perhaps even more so when you’re trying to figure yourself out.