Desert rock – 7th Level Music

Rewind Review: Psychlona – Palo Verde (2022)

I first stumbled upon Psychlona at Las Vegas’ Psycho Music Festival a couple years ago when they were playing on a small stage inside the Mandalay Bay Casino. This quartet from Bradford, UK put down some of the best desert / stoner rock my late wife and I heard all weekend.

They continued the trend on their 2022 album, Palo Verde. Starting with the appropriately titled “Gasoline,” the album blazes fire right out of the gate with roaring guitars and hammering drums best-suited for slamming the accelerator of your muscle car to the floor. “1975” chugs as hard as any psych or heavy rock record you’ll hear from that decade, with outstanding guitar work throughout it. The guitar solo on “Rainbird” makes you stop in your tracks.

It’s only fitting that the doomiest track on the record is titled “Meet Your Devil.” The bass riffs on it are as menacing as Cerberus’ triple-growl. The addition of keyboards / organ on “Purple River” is a great touch and shows how Psychlona can fully embrace psychedelic rock whenever they want.

“Jetplane” has this slight punk edge to it that I love. It’s the chugging, relentless guitar riffs and surf rock-tinged guitar solo in it. “La Tolvanera” (“The Dust Cloud”) drifts one moment and then sand-blasts your face and eardrums the next. “Are you ready to blow?” they ask on “Warped?” Blow what, exactly? Weed? “Blow this place?” This reality? All three? I mean they offer to “Take you outta your mind, outta your head.”, and the powerful riffs only help knock you into another mind-state for a good seven minutes.

Get on this trip. You won’t regret it.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: King Buffalo – Acheron (2021)

At first glance, you might think King Buffalo‘s Acheron is an EP. It only has four track on it, after all. Then you realize that the four tracks average about ten minutes each, making the album a full cosmic experience. Plus, the whole thing was recorded live in Howe Caverns in New York, giving the album a deeper feel of heaviness and heat.

The title track opens with blazing guitar work from Sean McVay that, as you can imagine, ignites the entire cavern system and probably awakened ancient mystics living in its deepest recesses. “Zephyr,” a song that seems to be about embracing a future that’s already here instead of dwelling on a past that was gone the moment it happened, soars about the cavern and your ears, like a bat gliding over a mountain stream.

“Shadows” is a gorgeous track elevated by Dan Reynolds synthesizer solo setting up McVay’s stalagmite-shaking guitar solo. It must’ve been deafening in that cavern when he played it. The closing track, “Cerberus,” is the crown jewel of the album, hitting hard in all the right spots and altering your mind-space in the others. Reynolds’ bass work is subtle yet stunning, and Scott Donaldson‘s drum work is so nimble that you can barely keep track of the number of fills he fits into one song.

It’s another fine piece in their excellent discography. King Buffalo doesn’t miss. Ever.

Keep your mind open.

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Live: Deap Vally and Sloppy Jane – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL – February 09, 2024

In case you weren’t aware, Deap Vally are on their final tour. The power-duo from California have decided to amicably walk away from the band to, among other things, be full-time moms (“jennylee [of Warpaint] is pretty much my personal clothes shopper. I have two kids. I don’t have time to shop,” guitarist / lead singer Lindsey Troy told me during a meet-and-greet when I commented on her killer boots.). So, they’re going out with a big tour that is taking them all over the U.S. and to Europe, playing their debut album, Sistrionix, in its entirety and then a second set of hits and whatever else they want.

First up in Chicago was Sloppy Jane, which I can best describe as part-orchestral rock, part-post-punk, part-acid jazz, part-performance art, and all fascinating. Frontwoman Haley Dahl commands the stage from arrival to departure, singing songs about heartbreak, death, anger, love, and hope. I really want to see her team up with Gary Wilson. She and her bandmates won over a lot of people that night.

Deap Vally came onto the stage in boxing robes that made me think (“Why aren’t those at the merch booth?”) and proceeded to tear into Sistrionix‘s opening track – “End of the World.” It had been several years since I’d seen them, and it was such a delight to not only see them crushing a stage but also hearing their power. Julie Edwards is one of the best rock drummers around, and how Ms. Troy gets so much sound out of one guitar is beyond me.

The Sistronix set was great, with “Raw Material” being a personal favorite that oozed with sexy menace. After a brief break, they came back with wild hits like “Smile More,” “Ain’t Fair,” a crazy, punked-out version of “Perfuction,” and a stunning version of “Royal Jelly” to close the show.

Don’t miss them if they’re near you. They’ll be missed. They’re one of those bands people will discover later and wish they’d seen when they had the chance. Their friend and merch booth manager, Nate, told us at the meet-and-greet that, “Maybe after the kids are grown up and starting their own band I can work on them to do a ten-year Femijism anniversary tour.”

Good luck, Nate. I hope you pull it off.

Keep your mind open.

Thanks to the lucky lady who scored this for letting me snap a photo of it.

Thanks to Julie and Lindsey for being so kind to chat with us VIPs and sign so much stuff.

#swoon. I’ve met DV each time I’ve seen them, and this time was the most delightful. Thanks for everything, Julie and Lindsey. Have fun. Best of all to you both.

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Review: Auralayer – Thousand Petals

Part-doom, part-post-punk, part-prog rock, part-Buddhist mantra, Auralayer‘s (Vladimir Doodle – drums, Thomas Powell – guitar and vocals, Jake Williams – bass) debut album, Thousand Petals, is a wild ride and one of the catchiest metal albums of the year.

“The Lake” opens the album with powerful double kick drums from Doodle and enough guitar fuzz from Powell and Williams to knock down a castle wall. It and the following track, “All My Time,” remind me of some of The Sword‘s early tracks with heavy riffs sometimes purposefully overwhelming the vocals. Powell’s solo on “All My Time” soars like a bird of prey swooping down on an unsuspecting mouse. “Christ Antler” roars all the way through, and “Faith to Reason” fakes you out for a moment with a short, soft intro before it unloads with cosmic rock fury. It becomes difficult to determine which of the band members is hitting their instrument the hardest during the chorus. Powell’s vocals sound like he’s shouting them from the top of a wizard’s tower.

“Shelf Black” reveals some of the band’s prog-rock influences and the vocals bring classic Agent Orange records to my mind. They ask us to give peace a chance on “Peacemonger,” but the song is anything but peaceful. It’s more like John Cena-as-the-Peacemaker kind of peace which might involve knocking you through a wall with the power of rock.

You’ll probably want to mosh during “You Walk,” a stomping, romping track that has Doodle clanging cymbals and thumping his kick drums like a happy kid as the song moves out of orbit and straight for the sun. You’ll definitely want to mosh to “Dance to Thrash” from the title alone, and Williams’ heavy bass will turn the floor to lava if you don’t get your ass moving soon. “Monstrum” closes the album with funky, fuzzy bass, a bunch of wild drum fills, and guitar work that sounds like it would be on the playlist of that weird guitar-playing dude in Mad Max: Fury Road.

This is a helluva debut, and I love how their name could be taken two different ways: “Aura Layer,” as in a layer of someone’s aura, or one of the seven chakras (and the album’s title is a reference to the crown chakra after all), or “Aural Layer,” as in a layer of sound – of which there are plenty.

Keep your mind and your chakras open.

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[Thanks to Dave at US / THEM Group.]

King Buffalo announces early winter U.S. tour.

Don’t miss your chance to see psych / desert rock giants King Buffalo this winter as they make one last tour through the east and midwest before they finally take a break to record another album. They never disappoint, and tickets are already on sale – not only for this tour, but also for the European tour they’re already running!

Keep your mind open.

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[[Thanks to King Buffalo!]