Keeping it Cali. I have to say even though many consider Brooklyn the most active area for up and coming indie bands, there have been a plethora of great acts coming out of the Golden State in the last few years that aren’t just riding the buzz you can catch by merely residing in the hipster capitol of the world. Long Beach garage rockers Crystal Antlers are like many of their West Coast contemporaries in that the swirling psychedelia of the mid-late 60′s heavily informs their aesthetic. For many the direct origins of what your hearing in this young band would be the 13th Floor Elevators, but Crystal Antlers have expanded on that style and give a nod to another seminal 60′s proto-punk band, The Velvet Underground. The droning and walls of noise they produce are much grander in scale, as is the natural progression of any style. I mean where can you go after Sonic Youth? It obviously has to be slightly louder, slightly noisier, slightly more abrasive.
Listen to “A Thousand Eyes” off their 2008 self-titled EP, Crystal Antlers.
If you live in the Southwest make sure to catch the band as they join Sleepy Sun for six of the shows on their tour. The dates are below:
So from melody driven bands carrying the essence of psychedelia and the spirit of California, we will shift gears to bands whose psychedelia is more overt, heavier and darker. The first time I posted about Sleepy Sun, the song was one of their lighter, more acoustic based tunes, that definitely draws from the same vibe as Devendra Banhart’s freak-folk. Unlike Banhart, who primarily stays in that zone, Sleepy Sun leans more on rock, yet it differs from Howlin’ Rain, Blitzen Trapper and The Mother Hips as it’s ties to blues and other roots styles is much less direct. The sound is obscured by more stylistic use of effects and darker tones.
Below is a trailer that shows the band hard at work in a studio in the iconic desert near Joshua Tree. They are gearing up to release their third studio album, Spine Hits, on Tuesday, April 10th. I heard about this first from the nice folks over at Relix. From what we hear in this brief clip, it sounds as if the band is pushing their sound in slightly different direction. It will be really interesting to see if it retains enough of their core, while incorporating enough new ground to be a success.
The band will be touring the country in anticipation and support of the new album. Here are some dates in the Northeast:
To close out our week, I want to offer one more artist operating in the cross section of psychedelic music and more traditional forms like folk, rock, blues and soul. Devendra Banhart has been on the cutting edge of this revival, releasing his demo album, The Charles C. Leary a decade ago. His trippy-hippie tone poetry style of freak-folk has garnered him much critical acclaim and a loyal indie fan base. Check out the video for “Seahorse” below. The song starts out with some pastoral folk and transitions to a bossa nova/tropicalia feel, finally resulting in Crazy Horse styled guitar jam that is absolutely revelatory.
Here is a theatrical, extended version of the Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros sing a long “40 Day Dream”. Though this band hails from Los Angeles, not NorCal or the Bay Area like the others this week, they still contain the essence of psych-folk that is present in their California contemporaries. The main difference here is that the songs are more overtly structured in the pop format. As catchy as they sound, they are certainly anything but mainstream, having nothing in common with what you will find on Top 40 radio these days.
The Mother Hips are a Bay Area band that has been creating their brand of freewheeling, alternative Roots Rock for more than 20 years. Tapping in to the same sentiments and experiences as Howlin’ Rain and Blitzen Trapper from my earlier posts this week, The Mother Hips may actually be the origin of this California revival style, which is significantly indebted to the great Neil Young. The band has been a coalescing point for other like minded acts, including Jackie Greene and the recent mainstream breakthrough from L.A., Dawes. They have some really interesting fans, including Chris Robinson of The Black Crowes, and Rick Rubin who produced their major label debut, Part-Timer Goes Full back in 1995. Rubin also produced the new Howlin’ Rain album, The Russian Wilds, which was released yesterday (2/14/12). “Time-Sick Son of a Grizzly Bear” was the lead single of their critically acclaimed 2007 release, Kiss the Crystal Flake. Watch the video of the band recording it in the studio below.
Here is another band channeling the Pacific Northwest in their music. Blitzen Trapper are a Portland, Oregon based Alt. Country band bringing a little hippie flair to their brand of Roots Rock. This song is the title track off their third album, Wild Mountain Nation, released back in 2007 on Sub Pop Records. Watch the psychedelic pastiche video that combines animation, and historical photos with live shots of the band below.
