Chicago band Ably House aren’t afraid of the dark. They take their name from a Galena, Illinois haunted house, the site of numerous suspicious deaths ending in the grisly 1877 murder of Swiss farmer Jacob Ably at the hands of his own son. Local legend has it that the stairs where Ably slowly met his bloody end from his bullet wounds had to be painted red to hide their sinister stains. His son — who some believe was avenging his mother’s death, officially labeled a suicide – received a life sentence, and when he died in his cell nine years later, his obituary called it “the last chapter of a…
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SYNTHESIS vs SYNTHESISERS: KING GIZZARD AND THE LIZARD WIZARD AND THE ROCK CRITIC’S FEAR OF ALLITERATION
A synesthete’s review of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s new record might talk about a spinning technicolour blur occasionally coalescing into jagged sunbursts of purple, crimson and acid green. That’s if they didn’t balk at the hint of ripe cheddar from the Australian psyche overlords’ cheerfully unpretentious name. But after some 17 albums and more than a decade almost constantly on the road selling millions of copies to a legion of obsessive fans; it’d take more than a neurological disorder and an aversion to clichéd literary devices to dim LW’s coruscating brilliance. It’s internal rhyme anyway. LW is the companion set to last year’s KG and the albums were…
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Caravan 222 Eclectic Bay Area Cosmic Folk Rock Collective
Caravan 222 has taken traditional Appalachian alt-country sound influenced by Bob Dylan and traveled miles into new territory, creating music that is wholly unique and captivating. Their charm, strong songwriting and lyrical wit are enhanced with innovative instrumentation and a willingness to move outside traditional norms.
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Wildwood Morning Utopian Psych Folk From Berlin
Wildwood Morning is focused on 60s and 70s idealism. The music has imagery of a distant past with natural landscapes and groups of colorful hippies building a utopian community. The album is an international collaboration with contributions from artists in Italy and Germany.
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Lockdown Licks and Teenage Kicks with The Recalls’ “There Is No End”
Psychedelic music is having a moment… Or perhaps more appropriately, an eternal cosmic now. Whether it’s post-post-modernism’s accelerating stylistic-shuffle or part of some kind of Covid-culture’s self-isolated journey inwards to a post-human future; psyche, garage, punk or whatever ultimately futile bid to categorise its puissant energy you care to use, the form seems an ironically sober response to modern times. As it was in the Year of Our Prophet, Lord Lenny of Kaye back in ’72 when the Village Voice music critic and future Patti Smith Band guitarist laid Nuggets on a nascent Punk scene and blew everybody’s, technically already, blown minds. Kaye’s hoard of rough cut yet majestic sonic…
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Dusty Trails and Tall Tales with Tele Novella’s “Merlynn Belle”
Hold onto your cowboy hats, paper crowns and powdered wigs! Small-town Texan charmers Tele Novella are riding back into town with Merlynn Belle, another technicolor time-traveling record packed with all the quirky characters and dramatic scenery your quarantine dreams can hold. It’s been four years since last we heard a note from Natalie Ribbons and partner Jason Chronis, who made names for themselves in the bands Agent Ribbons and Voxtrot respectively, and their long awaited second full length album opens with a question that many fans may have been asking themselves: “Where did you go?” Judging from this new collection of mournful odes to witches, shrines and pearls, it sounds…
