Comprised of Dario Torre (vocals and guitar), Giacomo Salzano (bass guitar), Raffaele Bocchetti (guitar), and Davide Fusco (drums), the Italian psych rock quartet Stella Diana have gradually developed a national reputation for a sound that draws […]
Tag: psych rock
New Video: Lights That Change’s Spectral, Synth-based Cover of Tim Buckley’s “Songs To The Siren”
Although he never found commercial success within his tragically short life, singer/songwriter Tim Buckley has managed to become admired and deeply influential in the 40 years since his death for his innovative sound which possessed […]
Live Footage: Pure Phase Ensemble 4 with RIDE’s Mark Gardener Performing A Mind-Bending “Notatki” at Space Fest 2014
This weekend Gdansk, Poland hosted the fifth annual Space Fest, an annual festival of shoegaze, space-rock and alternative music featuring concerts, workshops for Polish and internationally-based musicians, meet and greets with legendary and renowned artists, a competition […]
Formed by founding member and siblings Neil and Martha Weil, the Minneapolis, MN-based indie rock act The Chambermaids have gone through a number of lineup changes in their history. When the band’s newest members Ollie Moltaji and Max Schramm were recruited, the members of the new lineup felt an immediate chemistry. And as the story goes, rather than playing a number of live gigs or setting up an extensive tour, the members of the band immediately went into the studio to work on new material, integrating Neil Weir’s studio, Old Blackberry Way into their songwriting process. Naturally some songs came together quickly while others wound up reinventing themselves with the result being a dreamy yet subtly expansive take on reverb-heavy minimalism.
Although the band is putting the finishing touches on their forthcoming and yet untitled new album, which will be released through Old Blackberry Way/Guilt Ridden Pop Records, the album’s first single “Tall Trees” is a slow-burning, dreamy and reverb-filled bit of shoegaze-leaning material that feels and sounds as though it were inspired by The Verve‘s A Storm In Heaven and A Northern Soul — in particular, “Already There” and “Stormy Clouds.”
Originating as the solo recording project of David Miller, the Chicago, IL-based lo-fi/punk/psych rock quartet Strange Faces expanded to a quartet when Miller recruited Taylor Walters (guitar), Philip Valdez (bass) and Ben Leach (drums) to flesh out and complete the project’s sound. “Brand New Way,” off the quartet’s soon-to-be released debut effort Stonerism is a swaggering, scuzzy bit of psychedelic lo-fi reminiscent of Crocodiles and Raccoon Fighter as the album’s first single pairs buzzing guitar chords, a tight and propulsive rhythm section, big hooks and vocals fed through layers of distortion. And despite it’s swaggering nature, at its core is a bruised and aching heart as the song’s narrator talks about moving on from crushing loneliness while capturing the youthful restlessness and rebellion that’s always been the rock ‘n’ roll spirit.
Much ink has been spilled on the London-based quartet The Psychedelic Furs of the course of their almost 40 year recording career. And if you were a child of the 80s as I was, the band will likely hold a dear place in your heard — especially if you loved Pretty in Pink. “Love My Way” is one my favorite Psychedelic Furs songs — and interestingly, Grace Vonderkuhn, a Wilmington, DE-based singer/songwriter and guitarist, developing a reputation for a sound that meshes psych rock, garage rock and pop recently covered “Love My Way.”
Vonderkuhn’s cover retains the song’s familiar melody and anthemic hooks but slows the song’s tempo down to a slow-burning, trippy shuffle consisting of layers of feedback, blistering guitar work and thundering drum, turning the song into a broodingly bluesy wail.
Comprised of Kyle Miller (vocals and lead guitar), Jake Supple (vocals, bass and drums), and Ty Baron (guitar and keys) Denver, CODenver, CO-based psych rock trio Plum have specialized in the beloved psych rock sound of the late 1960s and early 1970s –in other words power chord heavy songs with blistering, mind-melting solos, thundering drumming and soulful vocals and harmonies. But interestingly enough, it’s a sound that also nods towards the grunge rock sounds of Pearl Jam (think of “Evenflow“), Soundgarden and others without being being carbon copy mimicry; in fact, the members of Plum push a familiar sound to a subtly modern context without scrubbing away what listeners love about the sound — power chords and anthemic hooks as you’ll hear on their latest single “Light Years, Dark Years.”
Frequently compared to RIDE, Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur, Jr. and Deerhunter, the critically praised Chicago, IL-based quartet Pink Frost originally formed under the name Apteka — and as Apteka, the quartet recorded their debut effort Gargoyle Days on analog tape before releasing the album back in 2011 to critical praise; the album landed on Time Out Chicago‘s Best of 2011 List, as well as several others. After changing their name to Pink Frost, the quartet’s 2014 sophomore effort, Sundowning was released to critical praise from nationally renowned media outlets including Pitchfork, SPIN Magazine, Noisey, Magnet Magazine, and Chicago Reader. And adding to a growing national profile, material from Sundowning appeared in The Lookalike and TV series such as The Vampire Diaries and CSI: Miami, among others.
The Chicago-based quartet will be releasing a painstakingly remixed and remastered update of the original analog masters, which reportedly will not only pack much more punch, but will also be representative of the band’s live sound. Of course, with new artwork reflecting the band’s change of name, the band intends for the re-release of their debut to be a metaphorical and literal rebirth. (Interestingly, the members of Pink Frost have been incredibly busy of late as they’ve also been busily recording the follow-up to Sundowning and Traitors EP with Gregoire Yeche at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio Studios.)
The re-released album’s second and latest single “Where Days Go” is an power-chord based song with enormous, anthemic hooks that sounds as though it were inspired by 90s alt rock and shoegaze. I’m reminded quite a bit of The Posies‘ “Ontario,” Foo Fighters “This Is A Call” and The Black Angels‘ “Telephone” as “Where Days Go” possesses a similar forcefulness and mosh-pit ready feel while being incredibly radio friendly.
Although members of the Stockholm, Sweden-based psych rock band Caviare Days have split time between Berlin, Germany, Brooklyn and their hometown, the band can trace their origins to when it started as the musical project of siblings and founding members Lina and Maja Westin. The project expanded to a full-fledged band when the Westins recruited Timmy Grim (drums), Boris Grubesic (guitar) and Marcus Arborelius (keys, synthesizer bass) to assist in fleshing out the project’s sound. Thanks in part to a collaboration with The Soundtrack of Our Lives’ Ebbot Lundberg, which was released to critical praise across Europe and a Scandinavian tour opening for Lundberg’s band, the Stockholm-based quintet started to receive international attention across both the European Union and here in the States — they’ve appeared on BBC Introducing, toured and recorded in Germany and have received some attention Stateside; in fact, the band has become part of a lengthy list of mainstay artists on JOVM over the past year or so.
The band’s recently released single “More Than One” continues with the songwriting and recording approach of their Like Me EP with material that captures the live sound that they’ve perfected as they’ve toured across Europe — while revealing a band that’s playfully and subtly expanded their sound. Sonically, the new single meshes bluesy and shuffling glam rock guitar chords, anthemic power chord-led hooks and the Westin sisters’ sultry harmonies in a song that sounds as though it’s indebted more to Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie and to T. Rex than it does to psych rock as the song shuffles and swaggers to its conclusion.
Just from this song, there’s a sense that the Stockholm-based quintet are ready to take over the world — and I fully expect that we’ll be hearing more about them Stateside in the next few months.
New Video: The Auras’ Brit Pop Channelling, New Single
Certainly, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past month, you may recall that I’ve written about the Toronto,ON-based psych rock sextet The Auras. Comprised of long-time friends longtime friends, Aaron McCoy (drums), Hank Van Harten (bass, […]
