Building on the attention they’ve received internationally, the mysterious Swedish collective will be releasing their highly-anticipated, third full-length effort on October 7, 2016 and the album’s “Try My Robe” continues on a similar vein as the singles they’ve released this year with the song the song manages to evoke a hushed, psych folk aesthetic. Sonically, the collective pairs chanted/shouted vocals with a shimmering and dexterously looping guitar work, mischievously complex, handclap led percussion and a slow, shuffling bass line that manages to be deceptively propulsive in a song that sounds subtly influenced by African and Middle Eastern music. By far, it may be the trippiest song they’ve released to date, as the song evokes a mind-bending and mesmerizingly hypnotic quality.
Tag: psych rock
Earlier this year you may recall that I wrote about Joshua Tree, CA-based psych rock quartet Sugar Candy Mountain. 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), the psych rock quartet can trace their 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‘s backing band, 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 began the project, Reiter joined him and the duo began writing songs together. And interestingly enough, there was a brief period in which they experimented with electro pop songs before they had gone on a decidedly psychedelic direction after Reiter had started obsessively collecting effects pedals. Denison, who also was a bassist and former bandmate in Ash Reiter’s backing band with Reiter and Halsey, joined on as a guitarist (which was interestingly enough, his first instrument).
The band’s recently released 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. The album’s first single, album title track “666” possessed an uncanny attention o dreamy melody with the band pairing 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 was recently discovered in a used record store — perhaps one like Last Vestige in Albany — but with a subtly modern production sheen. 666‘s latest single “Windows” is a slow-burning and contemplative track that features some gorgeously shimmering guitar work, gently padded drumming and jazz-like xylophone with Reiter’s ethereal vocals floating through a mix that will further cement the band’s burgeoning reputation for a classic psych sound straight out of 1966.
Initially began as a solo recording project of Cincinnati, OH-based singer/songwriter Michael Oliva, The Harlequins became a fully-fleshed out band when Oliva met and recruited bassist Alex Stenard in 2006 and drummer Rob Stamler in 2008. Since 2008, the trio have self-released five full-length albums that revealed a band that specialized in a garage rock/psych rock sound wth elements of punk rock, surfer rock and krautrock — and as a result, the Cincinnati-based trio have played sets at SXSW, Bunbury Music Festival and Midpoint Music Festival, as well as receiving praise from a number of major websites including The Onion‘s AV Club, Exclaim!, Performer Magazine, Vice’s Noisey and others. Additionally, the band has developed a reputation for energetic live shows paired with light displays; in fact, after the release and tour to support 2013’s Sex Change EP, the trio signed with Dizzybird Records and spent the better part of 2015 writing, revising and then recording the material, which would comprise their recently released label debut, One With You.
One With You‘s latest single “Hear Me Out” will further cement the band’s reputation for crafting noisy, infectious and anthemic garage/surfer punk as scuzzy guitar chords are paired with a propulsive and driving rhythm section, an uncannily mischievous sense of melody and howled and sung vocals fed through effects pedals. Sonically, the song bears an uncanny resemblance to Crocodiles‘ Crimes of Passion as it does to Raccoon Fighter, as it possesses a wild, unabated passion that almost takes the song completely off the rails — but while still remaining breezy.
New Video: The Donkeys’ Shoegazer/Psych Rock-Channeling New Single “No Need For Oxygen”
In order to build up buzz for their upcoming cross country tour, which includes an early August stop at Baby’s All Right, The Donkeys released a live video performing their moody and stunningly gorgeous, shoegaze-leaning new single “No Need for Oxygen” which has the band pairing shimmering keyboard and guitar chords, propulsive drumming, a with plaintive and aching vocals in an expansive song structure that owes a debt to classic psych rock as it does to prog rock and held together with an impressive and gorgeous guitar solo.
Check out tour dates below.
New Video: Boogarins Returns with Yet Another Breezy and Contemplative Song, and Gorgeous Visuals
Boogarins latest single “Tempo” is an contemplative song with an expansive song structure consisting of alternating dreamy and moody section with a loud, anthemic section featuring buzzing guitar chords and feedback — and much like the album’s previously released singles the latest single sounds as thought it draws from Pink Floyd, 60s garage psych, Tropicalia and jazz, which gives the song a breeziness that belies its thoughtful and psychedelic nature. According to press notes, the song’s lyrics speak about stopping time and freeing yourself from the everyday grind of work, school and obligations and escaping from the pressures of daily life.
Interestingly, the members of the band reached out to their fans on social media and asked them to shoot footage of two different moods: the first being “man’s world,” a world full of soul-crushing and demeaning imagery of urban life — commuting and rushing about, working, studying and starting at computer screens; and the second being images of sanctuary and safe places — friends, being out in nature, music, art and anything that would make you feel open, free and whole. As a result of their open call, the band received hundreds of submissions, which were then edited and crafted into a gorgeous, surreal and coherent whole by Cobrandit Films’ Owen Mack.
Over the past year or so, Grand Rapids, MI-based psych rock trio HEATERS, comprised of Andrew Tamlyn, Nolan Krebs and Joshua Korf have become a JOVM mainstay act. And 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 also received a growing national profile for a 60s inspired psych rock sound.
Earlier this month I wrote about “Centennial,” the first single from the Grand Rapids, MI-based trio’s highly-anticipated sophomore effort, Baptistina. Interestingly, “Centennial” continues in a similar vein as the material on Holy Water Pool as the band paired 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 with a towering swagger that gives the song an effortless, larger-than-life feel. The album’s second and latest single “Garden Eater” is an epic and sprawling song that has a lengthy introductory section featuring dense layers of shimmering guitar chords and propulsive drumming that slowly fades into a dreamy and contemplative fade out, which allows for the slow build up of an atmospheric section consisting of subtly droning guitar chords and vocals — an interestingly enough this section sounds as though it were indebted to Directions to See a Ghost-era The Black Angels before fading out with tons of reverb. Structurally the song may arguably be the most expansive song the trio have committed to wax
Featuring primary and founding members Courtney Ewan (singer/songwriter) and frequent collaborator Andy Bishop, Twin River wrote the material of their soon-to-be released sophomore effort Passing Shade, an effort whose name draws from a lengthy dream sequence in Patti Smith‘s memoir M Train while they were over 3,00 miles apart — Ewan had relocated to Montreal while Bishop remained in his hometown of Vancouver. Initially, the material took the form of stripped-down, heartbroken ballads about lost love and as Ewan explains in press notes “I always write on an acoustic guitar, which I think is the vestigial influence of being 15 and playing acoustic guitar in the basement because my mom wouldn’t let me have an amp. Nine times out of ten, when we get the band together, we end up increasing the tempo.” In fact, when Ewan and Bishop got together to flesh out the original demos, the material turned into a barn-burning rock numbers with infectious pop hooks with a subtle hint of atmospherics — and done in way that manages to channel both 60s psych pop and garage rock and the contemporary fascination with that sound.
“Knife,” Passing Shade‘s latest single is a jangling and muscular garage rock song featuring gorgeous shimmering guitar chords and a classic psych rock guitar solo and a propulsive rhythm section paired with Ewan’s vocals which evoke vulnerability and heartbreak simultaneously. From this single, I think the act will throw themselves into a growing list of contemporary garage rock and psych rock acts including High Waisted, Raccoon Fighter, The Coathangers and several others — and the band does so with a cool, swaggering self-assuredness that belies the heartache, yearning and badassery at the core of the song.
New Video: The Arthouse Film-like Visuals for La Femme’s Breezy, New Single
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 […]
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.
Comprised of Jake Smallwood (vocals), Jacob Newman (guitar/backing vocals), Tristan Sava (guitar/organ), Henry Sava (drums) and James Bryman (bass/backing vocals), Brighton, UK-based psych rock quintet White Room have developed a reputation across the UK for a sound that’s been described as “a serrated blend of sky-gaze psychedelia and raucous distortion” as you’ll hear on “Think Too Much,” a swaggering and anthemic A Northern Soul-era The Verve and Sleepy Sun channeling new single. Sonically, the band pairs fuzzy and bluesy guitar chords played through gentle amounts of reverb and delay pedal, an enormous, psychedelic-tinged hook with a driving groove.
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 […]