A lot of bands get softer as their careers progress. Whether that’s due to the righteous anger of youth fading, record companies and producers “sanding off the rough edges” for commercial radio, or just the members getting old, it’s an annoyingly common career trajectory. The Replacements, Cheap Trick, pretty much every punk band that went “New Wave”…heck, even the mighty Led Zeppelin’s last album is pretty flaccid, if you’re willing to admit it. So it’s a pleasure to report that the San Francisco band The Spiral Electric have bucked this trend, and grown steadily heavier, in live and on record, since their earliest incarnation. While they were never exactly “soft” in their…
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Supplemental Pill | No Easy Way Out
Sometimes it’s vexing when a new band’s press kit tells you what other bands they sound like. As a reviewer, this means you’re not able to listen to the music without prejudice. You’re going to compare the newer artist to the bands that their press agent just told you they sound like. In this case, we’re informed from the outset that we’ll like Oregon’s Supplemental Pills if we like Spacemen 3, The Velvet Underground, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. I am delighted to report that Supplemental Pills does in fact sound like those bands, but takes those influences and melds them together into something new. They are less derivative than…
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Black Satori’s New 7″ Vinyl from Echodelick Records
"Black Satori has released a new 7" single of heavy-ish garage-psych on Echodelik Records."
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San Francisco’s Lee Gallagher Shines With The West Coast Cosmic Rock of ‘L.A. Yesterday’
There's not a weak track on the record, provided you appreciate soulful vocals, gospel-informed background singers, and rootsy guitar-based rock & roll. In a time of worldwide upheaval, there's a welcome note of optimism and even moments of triumph on this release.
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The Love Dimension “Tree In The Seed” is a new six-cut EP
“Tree In The Seed” is a new six-cut EP from amorphous San Francisco psych-collective The Love Dimension. A loosely-defined amalgamation of musicians, (they say they can appear with any configuration from ‘solo-acoustic’ to a full 11-member ‘expanded lineup’) this release finds The Love Dimension appearing in our cosmos as a septet. Since it’s just an EP, we’ll do a track-by-track review. “I Promise You” features The Love Dimension’s usual arrangement of male vocals with female harmonies, plus a buzzing-guitar line that darts around the track like a wasp at a picnic. Sometimes it’s buried in the background, sometimes it’s buzzing menacingly right in your face. “Find A Way” kicks off with…
