Tag: psych rock

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you’d know that members of the Philadelphia, PA-based heavy psych act Ecstatic Vision, currently comprised of Doug Sabolik, Michael Field Connor, Jordan Crouse, and Kevin Nickles initially formed in 2013 to primarily play “what they wanted to hear.” And with the release of their 2015 debut effort, Sonic Praise, an effort that drew from a wild variety of influences including Krautrock, Fela Kuti, Sun Ra, Hawkwind,  Aphrodite’s Child, Olatunji, Can, and early Amon Duul ll and for primal, psychedelic and intense live sets. Adding to a growing profile, the band toured with an impressive list of internationally renowned acts including Enslaved, YOB and Uncle Acid and The Dead Beats, Earthless, Red Fang, Acid King and others, and followed that with a lengthy European tour that included dates with Bang and Pentagram, as well as a set at the Roadburn Festival.

The Philadelphia-based hard psych band’s much-anticipated, sophomore follow up,  Raw Rock Fury is slated for an April 7, 2017 release through Relapse Records and as the band explained of the album in press notes, “With Raw Rock Fury, we set up to make an album that would remind listeners  of what an unpolished, dangerous rock recording should sound like.” And the album’s first single, “You Got It (Or You Don’t),” which I wrote about last night, is as the band described it as a “searing mash-up of the driving rhythms of Sly and the Family Stone mixed with the sound of Hawkwind playing Funhouse-era Troglodyte Rock.” And in many ways, the new single revealed a wild sense of unpredictability and danger that most contemporary rock sorely lacks. The album’s latest single “The Electric Step” manages to mesh the trippy, cosmic, stoner rock vibe of their debut with a swaggering, raw, unbridled and improvised energy as the band pairs blistering guitar work with guitar chords played through layers and layers of effects pedals, a forceful, propulsive rhythm and howled vocals to create what may be the band’s most explosive, insistent and primal stomp yet.

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Anxious and Ambient Sounds and Visuals of Dire Wolves “Fogged Out (Two)”

Currently comprised of Sheila Bosco (drums), Brian Lucas (bass), Kelly Ann Nelson (vocals, wooden flute), Jeffrey Alexander (guitar, wooden sax), Arjun Mendiratta (violin), Laura Naukkarinen (vocals) and Michael Whitaker (flute, sax), the San Francisco, CA/Oakland, CA-based septet Dire Wolves have developed a reputation for crating deeply hypnotic folk-leaning indie rock and for being remarkably prolific, as they’ve released 12 full-length, studio albums since their formation in 2008.

Last month, I wrote about “Cerebration Day,” an expansive, slow-burning, trance-inducing dirge of a single off the Bay Area-based septet’s soon-to-be released 13th full-length effort, Excursions to Cloudland. “Fogged Out (Two),” Excursions to Cloudland’s latest single, will further cement the band’s reputation for crafting trance-inducing and expansive material; in fact, with this single, the band eschews recognizable song structures — i.e. hooks, choruses, bridges, etc. — to focus on establishing a deeply tense yet meditative and enveloping air, primarily based around an arrangement featuring blistering psych rock guitar, played through copious guitar, angular violin stabs, and a propulsive rhythm section. And much like its preceding single, “Fogged Out (Two)” manages to build up to a howling and dizzy churn, while holding back and withholding the anticipated release the listener would expect.

The recently released VHS-based video, created by Caitlin Denny features heavily distorted footage and undulating blasts of color, all of which both further emphasize the song’s dreamy and distracted yet meditative nature, while also suggesting a creeping, anxious dread.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Psychedelic and Animated Visuals for Cones’ “Echoes On”

Comprised of San Francisco-born, Los Angeles-based sibling duo Jonathan Rosen, a pop music influenced, acclaimed hand-drawn animator, who has created music videos for a number of renowned artists including Toro y Moi, Eleanor Friedburger and Delicate Steve, whose rock ‘n’ roll dream started in earnest when he played Johnny Thunders for the HBO series Vinyl; and Michael Rosen, who is a classically trained pianist, commercial/film composer and experimental sound artist, Cones can trace their newest project to when they began playing music together, while they were both in NYC as members of Icewater. Eventually the members of Icewater began playing as the session and backing band for the Fiery Furnaces’ Eleanor Friedberger, helping to write, record her latest album New View.

As the story goes, while on tour the Rosens began to conceptual their latest project, a project that would fuse Jonathan’s pop sensibilities with Michael’s lush, atmospheric soundscapes and key-heavy orchestration. And in the summer of 2016, the Rosens, along with a bunch of friends and associates wrote and recorded the material of their debut EP Whatever Your’e Into. And interestingly enough, the EP’s latest single “Echoes On” has the duo pairing Jonathan’s dreamy falsetto with a twangy, psych country arrangement that’s reminiscent of 70s AM radio, Tame Impala and Oracular Spectacular-era MGMT; but with a breezier feel and rousingly anthemic hooks.

The recently released video features Jonathan Rosen’s loose and playful, hand-held animation featuring the duo traveling in a car, wandering around aimlessly, playing the song through a variety of instruments with a fittingly psychedelic and trippy quality.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The 60s Psych Rock and Proto-Metal Sounds of Austin TX’s Dream Machine

Perhaps best known as the founder, frontman and primary songwriter of Austin, TX-based indie pop, indie rock act Warm Soda, Matthew Melton had approached John Dwyer and the rest of the folks at renowned indie label Castle Face Records with two new albums — Warm Soda’s fourth and final album together I Don’t Want to Grow Up, which is slated for an April release and The Illusion, the full-length debut slated for a May 2017 release from a new project that Melton and his wife Doris formed, by the name of Dream Machine. And from the album’s latest single “I Walked In The Fire,” the project’s sound reveals a decided change of sonic direction for Melton as the band’s sound draws from the heavy psych, proto-metal and proto-stoner rock of early Deep Purple, Iron Butterfly and RidingEasy Records’ and Permanent Records’ collaborative compilation of similar sounds from the 1960s and 1970s, Brown Acid, complete with some early synthesizer and organ.

Fittingly, the recently released music video manages to be a spot on take on the early music videos and recorded musical segments of the 1960s — a simple yet very trippy concept in which the members of the band play in front of a screen, featuring psychedelic imagery; in fact, paired with the band’s sound, the visuals manage to evoke 1967-1972 so well that you could be tricked into thinking that the video was the promotional video for a band that time has sadly forgotten.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard’s Wild, Acid Tinged, Eastern Take on Psych Rock

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 Melbourne, Australia-based psych rock sextet King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard have developed a reputation for energetic live shows, for being remarkably prolific, as they’ve released 9 full-length albums since 2012 with each album revealing a band that relentlessly experimented with its sound and songwriting approach. In fact, the band’s early releases blended 60s surf rock, garage rock and psych rock but over the years, their sound has included elements of film scores, prog rock, folk, soul, Krautrock and heavy metal.

The Australian sextet’s recently released full-length effort Flying Microtonal Banana will further cement the band’s reputation for being incredibly prolific and restlessly experimental as the material on the album is reportedly a subtle shift in the sound of 2016’s Nonagon Infinity as the material finds the and delving deeper into trace-inducing drone, jazz flourishes and non-Western musical scales and metronomic rhythms — and in fact, the sound is so 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 story goes, the members of the band found inspiration from the movable frets of a Turkish instrument, the bağlama, a classical lute, and three old guitars and a bass were customized for the band to explore a new set of musical notes. 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.”

Flying Microtonal Banana’s latest single “Rattlesnake” pairs 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.

The recently released music video for “Rattlesnake” is both deliriously psychedelic and gloriously low budget, and fittingly draws from the early music videos from the early 1960s and 1970s.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known for this time spent in New England-based psych rock band MMOSS, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Doug Tuttle quickly developed a reputation as a solo artist of note with the release of his solo debut, an album that was widely praised for paring his dexterous guitar work and a jittery, love-lorn anxiety with psychedelic-leaning guitar pop. And if you had been frequenting JOVM over the course of 2016, Tuttle’s sophomore effort It Calls On Me, which featured lead single an album track “It Calls On Me” further cemented the New Hampshire-born singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s reputation for crafting psych-leaning pop but with more of a dreamer and ethereal feel that its predecessor — all while subtly nodding at The Doors‘ “Light My Fire.”

Tuttle’s third full-length effort Peace Potato is slated for a May 5, 2017 through renowned Chicago, IL-based label Trouble In Mind Records and the album’s first single, “Bait The Sun,” is a bubblegum pop meets White Album-era Beatles inspired track in which Tuttle’s dreamy falsetto is paired with shimmering guitar chords, soaring organ chords, a gorgeous horn arrangement, and a breezy, infectious hook — and in some way, the song evokes a lucid dream; but just under the surface, there’s a wistful nostalgia at something that’s just out of reach.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Gresham Cash (vocals, guitar), Wes Gregory (drummer) and Connor Sabula (bass), the Athens, GA-based indie rock/psych rock trio Oak House formed in 2014 and since their formation they’ve developed a growing reputation for a sound that possesses elements of melodic indie rock, grunge rock, psych rock and prog rock paired with contemplative and visceral lyrics that explore and investigate life’s inevitable conflicts — and for high energy live shows.

The Athens, GA-based trio’s forthcoming sophomore full-length album Hot or Mood was recorded at Chase Park Transduction with Drew Vandenberg, who’s worked with of Montreal, Toro y Moi, Kishi Bashi, Deerhunter and Mothers and the album reportedly represents a cohesive sample of their live sound — a sound that has been described as tumultuous, melodic, raucous infectious and immersive.  The album’s latest single “Cut That Out” is rapidly shifting and angular song with propulsive, rolling drumming, droning synths, buzzing guitar chords and a throbbing bass line that seems to capture the narrator’s rapidly vacillating thoughts and emotions, and with an unshakable anxiousness. As the band’s Gresham Cash explains in press notes ” I wanted to craft a picture of dreams by using frenetic, shifting imagery with a blend of hopeful nostalgia muddied by sadness, depression, suicidal thoughts, etc. Also, I felt that anxiety, depression and suicide are things that not only influence us directly, but also, those around us; hence, the chorus, ‘We’re all responsible for someone else.’ The ending is the feeling of the dream unraveling combined with the feeling that you are living within someone else’s dream: unsettling to say the least. Your only defense against the confusion and discomfort is like swatting at an irksome fly that keeps buzzing in your ears: ‘Cut that out.’”

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Initially formed in 2013 to primarily play “what they wanted to hear” the Philadelphia, PA-based heavy psych act Ecstatic Vision, currently comprised of Doug Sabolik, Michael Field Connor, Jordan Crouse, and Kevin Nickles, quickly developed both a regional and national reputation for a sound that draws from a wild variety of influences including Krautrock, Fela Kuti, Sun Ra, Hawkwind,  Aphrodite’s Child, Olatunji, Can, and early Amon Duul ll, primal, psychedelic, freak out live sets and the release of one of 2015 debut Sonic Praise, one of that year’s best rock albums — and arguably one of that year’s best albums, period. Adding to a growing profile, after the release of Sonic Praise, the band toured with an impressive array of internationally renowned acts including Enslaved, YOB and Uncle Acid and The Dead Beats, as well as shows with Earthless, Red Fang, Acid King and others. This was followed by a lengthy European tour, which included dates with Bang and Pentagram, as well as a set at the Roadburn Festival.

Now, it’s been some time since I’ve written about the Philadelphia-based hard psych band; however, the band’s much-anticipated sophomore, follow-up effort, Raw Rock Fury is lated for an April 7, 2017 release through Relapse Records and as the band explains “With Raw Rock Fury, we set up to make an album that would remind listeners  of what an unpolished, dangerous rock recording should sound like.” The album’s first single, album opening track “You Got It (Or You Don’t)” as the band describes it is a “searing mash-up of the driving rhythms of Sly and the Family Stone mixed with the sound of Hawkwind playing Funhouse-era Troglodyte Rock.” Or simply put, it’s a song that that channels The MC5, Hawkwind and The Stooges with a scorching, raw, and noisily primal, frenetic feel while evoking a much-needed sense of unpredictability and danger that most contemporary rock sorely lacks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

April 7th, 2017 will see the worldwide release of Raw Rock Fury via Relapse Records on CD/LP/Digital. Physical pre-order and bundles are available via Relapse HERE and digital downloads can be pre-ordered by Bandcamp HERE.

 

Raw Rock Fury exhibits the band locking in on primordial, troglodyte Detroit rock grooves, krautian motorik sounds that recall the obscure one-time collaboration between NEU and the MC5, grimy harmonica flourishes that evoke Beefheart at his most savage, and the Hawkwindian, primal world heavy psych their debut expertly showcased. All of this is captured on four songs and 35+ minutes of the dirtiest sounding recordings since Kick Out The Jams. Do you miss the days when rock recordings were dangerous? If so, you must crave Raw Rock Fury.

After touring extensively with the likes of YOB, Uncle Acid and the deadbeats and others, ECSTATIC VISION head out again with Creepoid. The leg includes SXSW, Chicago, Denver and more before traveling to Europe for an appearance at Desertfest.  All dates available below

 

ECSTATIC VISION Live Dates:

 

Mar 16-18: Austin, TX – SXSW

Mar 20: Oklahoma City, OK – 89th Street Collective #

Mar 21: Wichita, KS – Kirby’s Beer Store #

Mar 22: Fort Collins, CO – Surfside #

Mar 23: Denver, CO – Hi-Dive #

Mar 24: Salt Lake City, UT – Diabolical Records #

Mar 25-26: Boise, ID – Treefort Music Fest #

Mar 28: Omaha, NE – O’Leavers #

Mar 29: Chicago, IL – Subterranean #

Mar 30: Cleveland, OH – Now That’s Class #

 

# – w/ Creepoid 

 

Europe

Apr 21: Roma, IT – HPS Night

Apr 22: Parma, IT – Titty Twister

Apr 24: Trieste, IT – Tertis

Apr 25: Salzburg, AT – Rockhouse

Apr 26: Bologna, IT – Alchemica Club

Apr 27: Olten, CH – Le Coq D’Or

Apr 28: Liege, BE – Garage

Apr 29: Nijmegen, NL – Doornroosje

Apr 30: Berlin, DE – Desertfest

May 02: Koln, DE – Limes

May 03: Paris, FR – Glazart

May 04: Lille, FR – Biplan

May 05: Rennes, FR – Mondo Bizarro

May 06: Clermont Ferrand, FR – Raymond Bar

May 09: Sevilla, ES – Sala X

May 10: Louele, PT – Bafo Baraco

May 11: Cascais, PT – Stairway Club

May 12: Madrid, ES – Wulrlitzer Ballroom

May 13: San Sebastian, ES – DABADABA

May 14: Bordeaux, FR – VOID

May 16: Lucerne, CH – Treibhaus Luzern

May 17: Bolzano, IT – Sudwerk

May 18: Zagreb, HR – Vintage Bar

May 19: Ravenna,  IT – Bronson

May 20: Milano,  IT – BLOOD

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal and Darkly Psychedelic Visuals for Thee Oh Sees’ “Gelatinous Cube”

If you’ve been frequenting this site over its nearly 7 year history, you’d likely be familiar with JOVM mainstays Thee Oh Sees. Led by Castle Face Records co-founder, and the band’s founder and creative mastermind, John Dwyer, the Bay Area-based garage rock/psych rock band has a long-held reputation for being incredibly prolific and last year further cemented that, as the band released two more albums — a live album, Live in San Francisco recorded over three nights at The Chapel and the second album, Weird Exit being the first entry of a planned series of albums.

One of the first singles off both Live in San Francisco and Weird Exit was “Gelatinous Cube,” a single that in prototypical Thee Oh Sees fashion managed to be a towering, buzzing barnburner of a song, complete with layers of scorching guitar pyrotechnics, a throbbing and propulsive rhythm section, Dywer’s growling falsetto and a primal, guttural fury — all while possessing an unusual song structure and an almost surf rock-like hook that reminded me a bit of The Blind Shake.

The recently released animated video features some disturbing and wildly psychedelic imagery that for most of the song’s length could very well be a warning n the evil’s of exploitative capitalism until the video’s protagonist becomes one with the song’s gelatinous cube — and by then, the video becomes even more surreal than the first few minutes.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Currently comprised of co-founding members Huw Edwards (lead vocals, guitar) and Jacob Price (synths and samplers), along with Seb Knee-Wright (guitar), Dan Comlay (bass) and Tom Higham (drums), the Leeds-based indie rock quintet KOYO‘s sound draws from several varied sources — including 90s grunge and alt rock, Edwards’ and Price’s parents’ classic rock and prog rock-heavy record collections. Although recently the band has started to incorporate a variety of electronica and post-rock such as Floating Points, JOVM mainstays Mogwai and Brian Eno‘s influential ambient soundtracks, and as a result the band expanded to a quintet to fully flesh out their sound to incorporate their expanding influences and sonic palette. Naturally, the band’s forthcoming full-length debut is slated for release later this year will reportedly mesh psych rock, prog rock and ambient electronic in a way that will remind listeners of Tame Impala, Pink Floyd, Yes and Radiohead — but with a decidedly modern turn, as you’ll hear on the atmospheric, moody and slow-burning “Tetrochromat,” the album title track off the band’s forthcoming debut, Tetrochromat.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Arguably best known as the guitarist in Mikal Cronin‘s backing band and the bassist in Fuzz, Chad Ubovich is part of the larger Bay Area/Ty Segall/Thee Oh Sees universe and over the past couple of years, Ubovich has received attention for his own band Meatbodies, a band that features Ubovich, Patrick Nolan and Kevin Boog playing incredibly weird, scuzzy lo-fi rock. Now, if you had been frequenting this site last month, you’d recall that the trio’s forthcoming sophomore effort ALICE is reportedly a “heavy pop” concept album primarily focusing on war, sex, politics and religion — and has the band expanding upon their sound; in fact, the album’s first single “Creature Feature” was a shuffling,  Bowie and Bolan-leaning take on psych rock.

However, ALICE’s latest single “Haunted History,” is a furious and buzzing take on psych rock, possessing  an anthemic and mosh pit-friendly hook paired with propulsive and forceful drumming — and in some way the song sounds as though it draws from grunge rock, thanks in part to some guitar pyrotechnics.

 

 

 

 

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Featuring primary and founding members Ryan Needham and Liza Violet, along with a rotating cast of friends, collaborators and others, the Leeds, UK-based indie rock band Menace Beach received both national and international attention with the release of their full-length debut Ratworld and its follow-up Super Transporterreum EP — both of which were praised for an off-kilter, buzzing and fucked up take on 90s rock. The band’s forthcoming sophomore effort Lemon Memory was written in  Ibiza and recorded in Sheffield, UK with Russ Orton, who’s worked with M.I.A., Arctic Monkeys and The Fall and the album was reportedly written as a way to lift a citrus-based curse that the band’s primary duo believe was placed on their house — yes, the band does believe this — as well as a way for them to forge their own sound and identity.

Now as you may remember last month, I had written about Lemon Memory‘s first single “Give Blood,” an anthemic, scuzzy power chord and thundering drum-based single in which Needham and Violet sing about death in an ironically detached tone — while nodding at Blur and psych rock. The album’s second and latest single “Suck It Out” maintains the anthemic hooks the band is known for, while being the most psych rock-leaning song the band has released to date as twisting and turning guitar chords, played through gentle amounts of reverb, thundering drumming and a propulsive bass line are paired with Needham’s vocals singing with a bratty and nasal snarl.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of the We’re Set EP, which featured standout singles “Wild” and “Surfer Girl,” the San Francisco, CA-based indie rock/garage rock quartet The Band Ice Cream, comprised of Kevin Fielding (vocals, guitar), Joe Sample (vocals guitar), Bryce Fernandez (bass) and Louie Rappoport (drums), quickly developed a national reputation for a fuzzy, scuzzy alt rock-leaning sound that draws from Nirvana, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Orwells, Pavement and Link Wray — and for opening for the likes of Hinds, Night Beats, Adult Books, SWMRS, The Aquadolls and others. Adding to a growing profile, the band’s last EP caught the attention of legendary producer and sound engineer Bruce Botnick, who’s best known for his work with The Doors and The Beach Boys, and along with San Francisco underground rock legend Mike Carnahan worked with the band on their forthcoming full-length debut Classical Trained, slated for a March 10, 2017.

Classically Trained‘s latest single “Seventeen” manages to evoke the awkwardness and uncertainty of being a stupid teenage kid while looking back at it with a wistful nostalgia over that period’s seeming simplicity and deep friendships– and without as many devastating mistakes, poor choices, unending complications and uneasy compromises. And while the band has developed reputation for scuzzy garage rock, the band’s latest single manages to be clearly indebted to power pop, thanks to anthemic hooks and some guitar pyrotechnics; but in an expansive, and meandering song structure that possesses both a muscular insistence and a mischievous and ironic wit.

 

 

 

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known as the guitarist in Mikal Cronin‘s backing band and the bassist in Fuzz, Chad Ubovich is part of the larger Bay Area/Ty Segall/Thee Oh Sees universe — and over the past couple of years Ubovich has been receiving attention leading his own band Meatbodies, which features Ubovich along with collaborators Patrick Nolan and Kevin Boog, a band which specializes in equally weird, scuzzy, fo-fi rock. Interestingly enough, the trio’s forthcoming sophomore effort ALICE will reportedly be a “heavy-pop” concept album primarily focusing on war, sex, politics and religion and has the trio expanding on their sound a bit, as you’ll hear on the shuffling, Bowie and Bolan meets psych rock new single “Creature Feature.”