Tag: psych rock

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Tame Impala Performs “Love/Paranoia” on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”

Initially developed as the solo recording project of its  Melbourne, Australia-based creative mastering, the multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer/songwriter Kevin Parker, Tame Impala quickly received national and international attention with the release of Innerspeaker and Lonerism. Parker’s third and most current full-length effort, Currents was released to critical praise two years ago, and from album singles “Cause I’m a Man” and “Let It Happen” reflected a decided change in Parker’s songwriting approach with the result being some of the most emotionally direct material he’s written to date. Along with that, sonically Parker expands upon the sound that has won him both national and international attention, with album material drawing from synth pop, prog rock and R&B, creating not only a modern take on psych pop, but also a much more nuanced, textured sound. 

After playing a critically applauded Panorama Festival set at the end of July, Parker and his touring band made an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where they performed the slow-burning and ethereal “Love/Paranoia,” a track that draws equally from synth pop, R&B and psych pop simultaneously; but underneath the shimmering and glistening surface is a plaintive plea from a severely screwed up man that has let his insecurities and petty jealousies (among other things) interfere in a meaningful relationship, and naturally, the song is an earnest plea for forgiveness; but unlike countless other songs based around a similar experience and emotion, there’s a sense that the song’s narrator recognizes that he has potentially fucked things up for good — and a result, the pleading possesses a sincere urgency. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past two years or so of its seven year history, you’ve likely come across a handful of posts on the Grand Rapids, MI-based psych rock quartet HEATERS. Formed back in 2014, the Grand Rapids-based quartet began to make a name for themselves with the release of a handful of homemade EPs, a couple of split records and an attention grabbing appearance on Stolen Body‘s Vegetarian Meat psych rock compilation. Building upon a growing profile, the band’s Solstice EP was released through Dizzybird Records and they quickly followed that up within the following year with the “Mean Green” 7 inch and their full-length debut Holy Water Pool both of which were released through renowned, Brooklyn-based indie label Beyond Is Beyond Records.  And with each of those efforts, the band receive greater and greater acclaim — as well as a growing international profile — for a spacey, motorik-like take on West Coast, 60s psych rock and garage rock.

After the release of their sophomore full-length release Baptistina the band went through a massive lineup change in which the band’s founding members Nolan Krebs and Joshua Korf are paired with newest recruits Ryan Hagan and Ben Taber. And you’ll hear on “Seance,” the first single off the band’s forthcoming, third full-length Matterhorn, the band retains the gorgeous and shimmering guitar lines and propulsive, motorik-like groove and enveloping sound that first caught the attention of the this site and the rest of the blogosphere; however, there’s a noticeably different energy and vibe to the material: a swaggering self-assuredness rooted behind an even larger, oceanic-like sound within expansive and ambitious songwriting.

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The 60s Psych Rock and Garage Rock Inspired Sounds and Visuals of Suspirians’ “Nocturne”

Currently comprised of Marissa Pool (vocals, guitar), Stephanie Demopulous (bass, keys) and Lisa Cameron (drums), who has played with Roky Erickson and ST37, the Austin, TX-based psych rock trio Suspirians have slowly developed a reputation for crafting material that eschew traditional verse-chorus-verse structure and shifts from section to section with arrangements that feature heavily reverbed vocals, open drumming, layers upon layers of guitar and subtle layers of synths, creating a sound that draws from an eclectic array of psych rock, punk rock and experimental rock, including Pylon, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sonic Youth, The Stooges, Frightwig, early Butthole Surfers, Roky Erickson and The Aliens, late 70s British post-punk and others.

Between the band’s self-titled debut and the sessions which resulted in their sophomore effort Ti Bon Ange, the band went through a lineup change in which their original drummer Anna Lamphear was replaced by Cameron. And as a result, the band went through a massive and radical departure in their sound and creative process — while their self-titled debut was more of a straightforward, garage rock-leaning affair, Ti Bon Ange finds the individual members “getting lost in the songs together in a sort of epic ever dream,” Marissa Pool explains. “We did not overthink of over control anything on this record. It was all about going with the flow and following our instincts.” Interestingly enough, on a certain level that shouldn’t be surprising as the Austin-based psych rock trio’s sophomore effort’s name is derived from a Haitian voodoo term that in English translates into “little good angel” — or the part of the soul that holds one’s individuality and personal qualities, and leaves the body when sleeping so you can sleep in peace; in fact, the anthemic, mosh pit friendly “Nocturne” possesses a forceful yet enveloping sound within a song structure that feels as though it twists and turns at a willful drop of a hat. But while some may hear some elements of The Stooges and Roky Erickson, I also hear a subtle hint at The Black Angels and others, as the song has a bit of a brooding undertone.

Produced by the band’s Lisa Cameron, the video features a relatively simple concept — footage of the band playing in a small club with psychedelic imagery bursting out in front of them.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Grayson Hamm (keys, lead vocals), Walt Blythe (guitar),  Brandon Brewer (bass, vocals) and Wes Belk (drums), the Oklahoma City, OK-based psych rock quartet SPACE4LEASE can trace their origins to when its founding member and primary songwriter met his bandmates while they were all attending the Academy of Contemporary Music at the University of Central Oklahoma. And although they all came from vastly different musical backgrounds and had different musical tastes, the band formed as a unique convergence of all their influences, including Tame Impala, My Morning Jacket, Big Thief, Andy Shauf and others while lyrically, their material currently focuses on lost love, the unknown and inevitable life experiences. With the release of their 2016 debut EP, Hiraeth, an effort focused on the complicated process of self-discovery, the Oklahoman psych rock quartet toured extensively across the Midwest, winning the praise of The Flaming Lips‘ Derek Brown, who described them as  “Fellow Okies that wonderfully mix the blissfulness and melancholy of the great wide open.”

The band’s latest single “Must Be Something” is a moody and atmospheric bit of psych rock with some gorgeously shimmering guitar work, a sinuous and propulsive bass line and a rousingly anthemic hook that sonically brings a couple of different acts to mind — JOVM mainstays Caveman, Los Angeles-based indie rock act Hands and others; but with a slightly more expansive vibe inspired by the endless possibility of the road, of seeing and experiencing things you’d never expect, and how all of that can change and influence your life. As the band’s Grayson Hamm explains in press notes about the song, “Coming from a small town, I never had the experience of the big city life, but surprisingly it wasn’t these destinations that intrigued me the most. It was the journey, and the miles, and time it took to get there. Once we were out on the road all by ourselves just driving and seeing the countryside, this quest of finding myself really started to take effect. This is where the premise of the chorus let alone the whole song comes into play. “There must be something in the way how, there’s nothing standing in our way now.” I started to realize that the only barrier that was standing in the way was myself. The world was just waiting for me.

“Travel, explore, because the world is waiting for you – but so many of us convince ourselves to push these things off until one day it can be too late. It is this internal fear that holds us back. Talking ourselves out of it. Second guessing ourselves. Time passes all the same regardless if you’re sitting at home in your shell, or if you’re testing those limits of fear and breaking your shell, even if it’s uncomfortable at times. The only person standing in your way is you.”

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=210272287/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=1819739007/transparent=true/

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past three or four years of its seven year history, you would have come across a handful of posts on  the Chicago, IL-based psych rock band Secret Colours. Interestingly, the band recorded and released their self-titled debut and their sophomore effort, Peach, the band’s initial lineup featured six members; however, by the time they went into the studio to record Positive Distractions 1 and Positive Distractions 2, the band went through a massive lineup change that left Tommy Evans (vocals, guitar) and Justin Frederick (drums) as the only members remaining from the original sextet. And with the recruitment of long-time Chicago music scene friends Eric Hehr and Mike Novak, the band went through a decided change in sonic direction — partially influenced by necessity and as a result of being artists, who recognize that life pushes them forward and towards new influences and techniques.

Up until recently, some time had passed since I had last written about them and in that period of the past few years, the band went through yet another lineup change in which its founding member Tommy Evans, along with Mike Novak remain; but with its newest lineup featuring Max Brink (bass) and Matt Yeates (drums), the band find themselves pushing their sound in completely new and different directions on their latest full-length effort Dream Dream; in fact, the album’s material finds the band drawing more from guitar pop and garage rock, while retaining elements of the 60s psych rock sound that first captured the attention of the blogosphere. And as you may recall, album single “Changes in Nature” was a swooning and sweetly urgent love song reminiscent of XTC’s “Mayor of Simpleton” but with a subtly lysergic vibe. Interestingly enough, “Save Me,” Dream Dream‘s latest single manages to mesh contemporary jangling guitar pop with psych rock in a way that feels anachronistic — could the song have been released during the 60s? Or AM rock’s heyday? Or in 2017? If it weren’t for the slick production, you wouldn’t be able to tell; but perhaps more important, the single reminds listeners that the band can craft incredibly infectious, hook-driven rock with dexterous guitar work.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Last month, I wrote about  Denton, TX-based psych rock/prog rock quartet Pearl Earl, an act that can trace its origins to 2014, when its founding members Ariel Hartley, Bailey K. Chapman and Stefanie Lazcano started the band as a way to jam, party and fuck around — that is until, the the band became a serious project; and in fact, by the following year, the Denton-based band began touring regionally and nationally to support their debut EP Karaoke Superstar, a wild, kaleidoscopic meshing of psych rock, glam rock, prog rock, punk rock and synth pop.

Building upon their rapidly growing profile, the band’s founding trio spent last year writing and then recording their self-titled debut effort at Dallas’ Elmwood Recording — with the band recruiting Chelsey Danielle, after the album’s completion. And although Hartley may be the band’s principle songwriting, reportedly each song is its own living, breathing animal. Album single “Star in the Sky” featured tribal-inspired percussion, shimmering and futuristic synths and bombastic power chords in a mind-bending and ambitious song structure that bears an uncanny resemblance to 2112-era Rush, thanks to a retro-futuristic vibe. The album’s latest single “Captain Howdy” continues the lysergic vibe, as it features shimmering, arpeggio synths, a propulsive rhythm section and heavily pedal effected guitars in an prog rock-leaning song structure that quickly switches from trippy synths to a lengthy, power chord guitar driven coda — and the amazing thing about the song is that they manage to do that within a 3 minute and change runtime.

The band is currently in the middle of an extensive Midwest and Southwest tour. Check out the remaining tour dates below.

 

Summer Tour Dates
07.04•High Dive (Milwaukee, WI)
07.08•Trees w/ Spoonfed Tribe (Dallas, TX)
07.15•Dan’s Silverleaf w/ Mother Tongues (Denton, TX —- Album Release)
07.18•Club Dada w/ Post Animal (Dallas, TX)
07.22•Mass (Ft. Worth, TX —- Album Release)
07.29•Taps N Caps w/ MyDolls (Denton, TX)
08.07•Andy’s Bar w/ Sailor Poon, Sunbuzzed, Thin Skin, Flesh Narc (Denton, TX)

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Adam Lytle is a rural Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumenlaist, and the mastermind behind the psych folk/psych rock recording project Quicksilver Daydream. And as Lytle explains the dramatic clash of locations helped contribute to the album and his identity as a musician. “From the onset, I was forced to embrace the lack of isolation in the recordings,” Lytle says in press notes. “From bands playing next door while we recorded drums, to the renovations in the apartment next to mine, there always seemed to be somebody making noise at inopportune times. I had no choice but to proceed, placing mics in ways to minimize the excess noise. I kept reminding myself of Jeff Tweedy who said there’s a drill press on all of his records made at the Wilco Loft, because there is a working machine shop one floor above. In the end, it gives life to the recording. It lets you know they weren’t made in a void.”

The album’s latest single, album title track “Echoing Halls” was reportedly inspired by a personal and eye-opening experience Lytle had while spending a night in a New York City jail — and the song manages to describe the experience in harrowing terms; in fact, you can feel the desperation of the song’s narrator, who quickly recognizes that his own stupidity got him into a mess, he can’t get out of. Instead, he’s left with his own thoughts, the sounds of the corrections officers footfalls echoing throughout the halls while sonically the song pairs heavily reverb-fed guitar chords with fluttering 60s psych rock/bubblegum pop melodies.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few years, you’ve come across handful of posts featuring Tim Cohen, who has written, recorded and toured with a number of different bands and creative outlets, including Magic Trick, The Fresh & Onlys (with whom, he may be the best known) and as a solo artist. And over the past couple of years, Cohen has managed to be remarkably prolific and extremely busy — just last year, the Bay Area-based singer/songwriter spent time touring with both Magic Trick and Fresh & Onlys, worked on and recorded Magic Trick’s fourth album Other Man’s Blues, wrote and recorded his first solo album Luck Man and managed to split those responsibilities while being a new father.

Cohen continues a prolific and busy period with a new Fresh & Onlys album, Wolf Lie Down, the first Fresh & Onlys effort in over three years. Slated for an August 25, 2017 release through Sinderlyn Records, the album reportedly finds collaborators and bandmates Cohen and Wymond Miles (guitar, production) stripping the layered sound and feel of their last few albums, with Cohen and Miles aiming to imbue the material with an uplifting and swooning romanticism paired with Cohen’s wry humor. Of course, some things remain — Cohen’s literate yet accessible songwriting paired with an arrangement that nods both at classic rock, psych rock and punk rock as you’ll hear on the album’s first single, album title track “Wolf Lie Down,” a song that pairs layers of chugging guitars, an old-timey rock ‘n’ roll bass line, an infectious, chant worthy hook with Cohen’s mischievously metaphysical musings. And while being a summer road trip worthy song, the song manages to possess a wistful nostalgia that reminds me of the Ramones and others at its core.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of founding members Ariel Hartley, Bailey K. Chapman and Stefanie Lazcano with newest member, Chelsey Danielle, the Denton, TX-based psych rock/prog rock quartet Pearl Earl can trace its origins to when its founding members started the band in 2014 as a way to jam, party and fuck around, but quickly became a serious band; in fact, by the following year, the Denton-based band began touring both regionally and nationally to support their debut EP Karaoke Superstar, an effort which revealed their sound to be a wild and psychedelic and kaleidoscopic mix of glam rock, prog rock, punk and synth pop.

Building on their rapidly growing regional and national profile, the band’s founding trio spent the better part of 2016 writing and then recording their self-titled debut effort at Dallas‘ Elmwood Recording by Alex Bhore and Brack Cantrell. The band expanded into a quartet with the addition of Danielle, who joined the band after the album’s completion. And while Hartley may be the band’s principle songwriter, each song reportedly is its own animal; in fact the band’s latest single “Star in the Sky” features tribal-inspired percussion, shimmering and futuristic synths, and bombastic power chords in an mind-meltingly expansive and ambitious song structure with explosive, twist and turns that seem excitingly sudden and unexpected. On some level, the song bears an uncanny resemblance to 2112-era Rush, thanks in part to forcefully anthemic hooks, and a retro-futuristic feel; however, if it wasn’t for the subtly yet modern production sheen, you’d be fooled into thinking the song was a lysergic-fueled vision of the future, directly from 1967.

The band will be embarking on a Midwest and Southwest tour throughout June, July and August of this year. Check out tour dates below.

Summer Tour Dates

06.16•The Electric Church w/ Big Bill (Austin, TX)
06.17•The Yeti (Barnacle Banger Fest) (Tulsa, OK)
06.17•Spinster Records (Tulsa, OK)
06.18•Club Dada w/ Girl Pool and Snail Mail (Dallas, TX)
06.28•The Deli w/ Helen Kelter Skelter (Norman, OK)
06.29•Outland Ballroom w/ The Coax (Springfield, MO)
06.30•The Sinkhole w/ Babe Loards (St. Louis, MO)
07.02•The Empty Bottle w/ The Winstons (Chicago, IL)
07.04•High Dive (Milwaukee, WI)
07.08•Trees w/ Spoonfed Tribe (Dallas, TX)
07.15•Dan’s Silverleaf w/ Mother Tongues (Denton, TX —- Album Release)
07.18•Club Dada w/ Post Animal (Dallas, TX)
07.22•Mass (Ft. Worth, TX —- Album Release)
07.29•Taps N Caps w/ MyDolls (Denton, TX)
08.07•Andy’s Bar w/ Sailor Poon, Sunbuzzed, Thin Skin, Flesh Narc (Denton, TX)

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Fronted and founded by its Chicago, IL-born, Austin, TX-based primary songwriter Nathan Dixey, and currently featuring members of RF Shannon‘s backing band, The Dan Ryan’s sophomore album Guidance finds Dixey refining and softening the sound that the project developed on its debut album, reportedly leaning much more towards a trippy and hypnotic psychedelia as you’ll hear on the album’s latest single, album title track “Guidance,” as shimmering guitar chords, a persistent, heartbeat-like drum patter and in the background tribal-like harmonized chants which makes the song nod at both The Grateful Dead, a major influence on Dixey and company and Graceland-era Paul Simon; but with a slow-burning, easygoing, yet expansive feel that belies a careful and deliberation attention to craft.

As Dixey explains in press notes, “Unlike the first LP, I wanted to focus on writing more complete songs instead of grooves. Some of the grooves are still present, but having more of a narrative within the structure was important for me. Like the first record, accepting change is at the core of Guidance, whether that change be within society, oneself, or witnessing a transformation in a loved one or a relationship. I was listening to a lot of Damien Jurado/Richard Swift records while writing and recording this one, so it was especially wonderful to have Swift, a master of sonic texture (and song-craft in general), to add his touch on the songs.”

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal and Psychedelic Sounds and Visuals of Hollow Everdaze’s “Cartoons”

Founded by Daniel Baulch (vocals, guitar) and Jackson Kay (bass), along with Myles Anderson (violin), James Turner (drums) and Dylan Young (keys), the Ballarat, Australia-based psych rock act have developed a reputation in their homeland for a lush sound that at times clearly draws from Rubber Soul-era Beatles and bubblegum pop; however, with the contributions from Anderson and Young, the band’s sound manages to be both lush and mind-bendingly lysergic as you’ll hear on “Cartoons,” the latest single off the band’s John Lee-produced debut effort Cartoons, which is slated for release through Deaf Ambitions later this month.  But interestingly, the song subtly reveals some ambitious songwriting, thanks in part to an expansive, Summer of Love-like vibe and rousingly anthemic hooks. 

Interestingly, the band’s debut comes about as the band’s profile is steadily growing nationally in their homeland, as they’ve opened for the likes of The War on Drugs, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Wavves and American Football among others. 

Directed by Alex McLaren, best known for his work with ORB, Pipe-Eye and Hierophants, the recently released video for “Cartoons” employs the use of stop-motion animation, based around surreal imagery taken and assembled from old, second-hand books.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Real Gone Music to Re-Issue a Two Critically Successful Paisley Underground-era Albums

Founded in 1981 as The Sidewalks by founding members and college roommates Matt Piucci (guitar, vocals) and David Roback (guitar ,vocals) Rain Parade expanded to a quintet with the addition of Roback’s brother Steven (bass, vocals), Will Glenn (keys, violin) and then Eddie Kalwa (drums). And with the release of their debut single “What She’s Done to Your Mind” in 1982, the members of Rain Parade quickly established themselves within Los Angeles’ Paisley Underground psych rock scene in the early 80s, a scene which also included The Bangles, one of the more famous and commercially successful bands of the entire scene.

Building on the attention they started to receive, the members of the quintet released their debut effort 1983’s Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, an album that renowned music critic Jim DeRogatis would later write in Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock that “Emergency Third Rail Power Trip is not only the best album from any of the Paisley Underground bands, it ranks with the best psychedelic rock efforts from any era,” as the band’s sound was largely inspired by The Byrds, early Pink Floyd, and others, but with dark and introspective themes.

Shortly after Rain Parade’s debut, David Roback left the band to form a new band Opal, and the band continued as a quartet, releasing 1984’s mini-LP Explosions in the Glass Palace, an album which NME would later praise for its “mind-meltingly beautiful guitar sounds, employed sparingly and dynamically amid dark, dizzy tales of murder, madness and drug paranoia.”

Eddie Kalwa left the band after the release of “You Are My Friend” and was repalced by Marc Marcum (drums) and John Thoman (guitar, vocals) was recruited to fill out the band’s second lineup, just as they were signed to Island Records. The reconstituted quintet released two more albums — Beyond The Sunset, a live album recorded in Japan and 1985’s Crashing Dream before breaking up. And unsurprisingly, the various members of the band went on to other creative pursuits with David Roback later forming Mazzy Star with Hope Sandoval.

In 2012, members of Rain Parade’s original lineup, Matt Piucci, Steven Roback and John Thoman, along with Mark Hanley, Alec Palao and Gil Ray, formerly of Game Theory played a reunion/comeback gig at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco and that lineup played a number of live shows over the next two years, before Gil Ray’s departure due to cancer. Stephan Junca replaced Ray, who died earlier this year.

Almost 35 years after their initial releases, Real Gone Music will be re-issuing Rain Parade’s seminal and critically applauded first two efforts — Emergency Third Rail Power Trip and Explosions in the Glass Palace both digitally and on CD, with “Look Both Ways,” a track that was cut from the original Stateside release. Remastered by SonicVision’s Mike Milchner and approved by the band’s Matt Piucci and Steve Roback, the remastered re-issue is the first remastering of both efforts since they were initially released on CD back in the early 90s. And along with that the re-ssiue will include expanded liner notes from Paisley Underground critic and history Pat Thomas based on interviews and reminisces from the band’s founding members.

The re-issue’s first single is the jangling and anthemic “This Can’t Be Today,” a track that manages to be anachronistic — while we may know that the band was inspired by 60s psych rock, and it was released in the early 80s, it feels as though it could have been recently released by a contemporary act — i.e. Elephant Stone and others; however, its served with a sobering reminder of the fact that for every Susanna Hoff and The Bangles, there are countless bands, who receive some relative level of success before quickly disappearing. Should Rain Parade have been bigger? Perhaps but the re-issue is a key document of what was going on in the Paisley Underground scene. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past three or four years, you may recall that I’ve written a handful of posts featuring the Chicago, IL-based psych rock band Secret Colours. When the band released their self-titled debut and their sophomore album Peach, the band’s initial lineup was a sextet; however, by the time they went into the studio to record Positive Distractions Part 1 and Positive Distractions Part 2, the band went through a massive lineup change that left Tommy Evans (vocals, guitar) and Justin Frederick (drums) as the only members remaining from the original lineup. The duo of Evans and Frederick recruited two long-time Chicago music scene friends Eric Hehr (bass) and Mike Novak (bass) to fill out the band’s second lineup. Naturally, as a quartet, the band went through a decided change in sonic direction, partially out of necessity, and partially as a result of being artists, who do evolve as life pushes them forward; in fact, the band most likely recognized that they had two responses — strip down previously perceived excesses or find an inventive way to recreate their sound with fewer members.

Some time has passed since I’ve written about them, and as it turns out the band has gone through yet another lineup change — and while Evans and Novak have remained, the band has two new members Max Brink (bass) and Matt Yeates (drums), and with their newest lineup the band find themselves subtly pushing their sound in new directions with their latest full-length effort Dream Dream; in fact, the band’s sound draws from psych rock but also from guitar pop and garage rock. And as you’ll hear on their jaunty and jangling new single “Changes in Nature,” the band pairs Evans falsetto with shimmering, pedal effected guitars, a strutting bass line and propulsive drumming with a soaring, rousingly anthemic hook — and this shouldn’t be surprising as the soon is a swooning and sweetly urgent love song, along the lines of XTC‘s “Mayor of Simpleton” but with a subtly lysergic vibe.

 

 

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Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard Return with Hallucinogenic Visuals for the Face-Melting Epic “Lord of Lightning vs. Balrog”

Over the past couple of months, the Melbourne, Australia-based psych rock sextet King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard have quickly become JOVM mainstays. And considering the wild variety of things that I’ll write about in any given day, week or month that shouldn’t be terribly surprising. The act, comprised of Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar, and flute), Ambrose Kenny Smith (synths, harmonica), Cook Craig (guitar), Joey Walker (guitar), Lucas Skinner (bass), Eric Moore (drums) and Michael Cavanagh (drums), the Australian psych rock sextet have developed a reputation for incredibly energetic live shows and for being incredibly prolific, as they’ve released 10 full-length, studio albums since 2012 — and with each album, the band has revealed a relentlessly experimental song and songwriting approach; in fact, their earliest releases blended elements of 60s surf rock, garage rock and psych rock and their later work featuring elements of film scores, prog rock, folk, soul, Krautrock, heavy metal and proto-metal.

Released earlier this year, the band’s tenth studio album Flying Microtonal Banana found the band delving deeper into trance-inducing done, non-Western musical scales and metronomic rhythms — and in fact, the sound on that album is so profoundly unique and evolved, that it required the members of the band to reinvent their own instruments after they began experimenting with a custom microtonal guitar, made for the band’s frontman Stu Mackenzie. As the band mentioned in press notes on Flying Microtonal Banana they found particular inspiration from the movable frets of a Turkish instrument, the bağlama, a classical lute — and three guitars and a bass were customized for the band to explore wildly different scales and a new set of musical notes not normally heard in Western music. They then customized a keyboard and a mouth organ. Additionally, the material on the album finds the and incorporating the use of a Turkish horn called a zurna, which looks a bit like a clarinet but because it’s a double-reeded instrument, the possess a wobbly sound that Mackenzie says “blends perfectly with the secret notes on the guitar.” And as you may remember, album single “Rattlesnake” paired a chugging, motorik-like groove and anthemic, chant-worthy hook; but while clearly drawing from prog rock, Krautrock, psych rock, heavy psych, stoner rock and even space rock, the song finds the band putting a familiar Western sound into a decidedly Eastern context — and as a result, it’s not only a wild, mind-altering spin on something familiar and seemingly done to death and then some, while possessing a familiar acid-tinged yet alien, otherworldly sound.

Unsurprisingly, the Melbourne-based psych rockers will follow up on one of the trippiest and more unique sounding albums I’ve heard this year with Murder Of The Universe, a concept album meant to end all concept albums forever, as the material thematically concerns itself with the downfall of man and the death of the planet — and it evokes the greater sense of fear that we’re foolishly inching closer to our own destruction. As the band’s Stu Mackenzie explains “We’re living in dystopian times that are pretty scary and it’s hard not to reflect that in our music. It’s almost unavoidable. Some scientists predict that the downfall of humanity is just as likely to come at the hands of Artificial Intelligence, as it is war or viruses or climate change. But these are fascinating times too. Human beings are visual creatures – vision is our primary instinct, and this is very much a visual, descriptive, bleak record. While the tone is definitely apocalyptic, it is not necessarily purely a mirror of the current state of humanity. It’s about new non-linear narratives.”

Structurally, Murder of the Universe‘s tracks are separated into three chapters and the album’s first single ““Chapter 3: Han-Tyumi and the Murder of the Universe” offered an incredible taste of what listeners should expect from the entire album, as it’s a 13 minute, shape-shifting, face-melting prog rock song that evokes Biblical visions of the apocalypse — enormous mushroom clouds, pools of fire and blood, death and unceasing war, poverty and misery, featuring a cyborg, who desperately longs to be alive, to simply be.

Now, as you may also recall earlier this year, the Australian psych rock collective was on Conan to perform an abridged version of their latest single “The Lord of Lighting vs. Balrog,”a nearly 14 minute hallucinogenic, heavy psych and prog rock-inspired shape shifter of a song that features face-melting guitar riffs while detailing an epic, mythical battle between the Lord of Lighting and Balrog, in which the fate of the universe and all living things will depend on; but just underneath is a sobering meditation on the nature of life and death. And yes, the resemblance to Black Sabbath is both uncanny and fucking awesome.

Created by Jason Galea and Ben Jones, the recently released video for “The Lord of Lighting vs. Balrog” is gloriously, defiantly hallucinogenic while drawing from 60s videos, complete with an extended sequence of the band performing in a haunted forest with rapid fire cuts; in fact, the cuts are so rapid that if you suffer from photo-sensitive epilepsy that it’s suggested that you not watch.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Playful and Menacing Visuals for Cool Ghouls’ “(If I Can’t Be) The Man”

With the release of 2014’s A Swirling Fire Burning Through the Rye, the San Francisco, CA-based psych rock/indie rock quartet Cool Ghouls, comprised of Pat Thomas, Ryan Wong, Pat McDonald, and Alex Fleshman, received a growing national profile for a sound that’s clearly indebted to 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. Last year’s Animal Races further cemented their growing profile and reputation for crafting jangling guitar rock straight out of 1966-1970 or so; in fact, you may recall that last year I wrote about album singles “Sundial” and “Spectator.”

Currently, the band is on tour to support Animal Races and a limited release, tour-only cassette Gord’s Horse but interestingly enough, Animal Races’ latest single is the twangy, Grateful Dead and Everybody Says This Is Nowhere-era Neil Young–leaning bit of psych rock “(If I Can’t) Be The Man.”

Directed, shot and edited by Ry Pieri, the recently released video for “(If I Can’t) Be The Man” features the members of Cool Ghouls as cheap beer drinking clowns in a park and it’s all fun and games until the drunkenness turns rather dark.