Avant-garde music master Gary Wilson‘s new album It’s Friday Night with Gary Wilson is now available for pre-order on his Bandcamp page. The full album is due out in mid-July. The first single, “Linda,” is available for your listening pleasure there. It’s great, but would you expect anything else from Mr. Wilson?
The new record is available for pre-order on vinyl ($20.00) or a digital download ($9.00 for thirteen tracks!). I know where part of my paycheck is going this Friday night.
As you walk up South Congress Street in Austin, Texas, you will (hopefully) notice the sign for Friends of Sound Records at 1704 South Congress. It’s a vinyl lover’s dream.
The entrance is around the back of the building in the alley.
Walk up that ramp, hang a left, and you’ll see this.
Inside you’ll find boxes and boxes of vinyl from every genre you can imagine (and some you’ve forgotten).
John Lee Hooker, Radiohead, and the Cramps all on the same wall equals a win. The store consists of two rooms packed to the gills with records. They were playing some cool vintage R&B when I was there in April during Levitation weekend.
The second room is on a (slightly) lower level and has most of the house music, electro, and disco.
Even the cash register desk has stuff around and on it to entice you, not unlike candy bars at a grocery store.
It’s a crate digger’s paradise. Don’t miss it if you’re in Austin and hunting for good vinyl.
This collection of psychedelic world music from the 1960’s to modern times is nothing short of outstanding. It has fine grooves from around the world ranging from Asia to South America.
Cambodia brings us tinny, freaky grooves on Ros Seresyothea’s “Jam 10 Kai Theit (Wait Ten Months More)” and a Yos Olarang garage-psych cut (“Cyclo”) that was probably heard buzzing from jukeboxes in little bars all over the country in the 1960’s. I’ve been intrigued with 1960’s and 1970’s Indian music lately, so Ananda Shankar’s “Dancing Drums” is a welcome killer track with a beat (and flute solo!) made for an Indian hitman’s newest playlist. Indian singing legends Asha Bhosle and R.D. Burman weren’t immune to the thrill of psychedelic music in the 1960’s. “Piya Tu Ab To Aaja” is sensational, with James Bond-theme guitars, soaring strings, and sexy (yes, sexy) vocals from Bhosle.
Down in South and Latin America, Brazil’s Laranja Freak brings hard psych-rock with “Alergico De Flores.” Anarkia Tropikal’s “El Silbido Del Tunche” is like a lost Goat track if Goat was formed in Columbia. The guitar on it sizzles alongside percolator beats. Juaneco Y Su Combo from Columbia bring more cumbia-psych on “Perdido En El Espacio.” Wal Sant’Ana’s “Que Vide E Essa” is more delightful psych-samba that will get you moving, and M.A.K.U. Soundsystem’s “Canto Negro” is solid modern psych-cumbia with a heavy dose of trippy synths. It reminds me of old Morcheeba tracks. Iuri Andrade’s “Folia No Vento” is psych-samba and Bacalao Men’s “Japones” is psych-salsa. Ray Perez y Su Orquesta’s “Recordando Los Soneros” has these great muted horns, backward tracks, and other oddities underneath fun vocals. Traffic Sound’s “La Camita” has loud, fuzzy guitar any psych band from anywhere in the world would love on their record. Mix it with groovy Latin beats and you have a winner.
Africa isn’t left off this compilation either. Celestine Ukwu brings beautiful guitar work on “Obialu Be Onye Abiagbunia Okwukwe.” Mlimani Park Orchestra’s “Taxi Driver” is good, perky Afro-psych. Kalyanji– Anandji’s “Cabaret Dance Music” is almost a freaky psychedelic nightmare with screams, action movie percussion and horns, and orgasmic moans. Victor Uwaifo’s “Guitar Boy” is an Afro-psych classic from 1966 with crisp yet slightly fuzzy guitars.
This is a good primer for psychedelic sounds, both new and classic, crafted outside the U.S. and the U.K. Snag it if you can find it and start exploring.
Fort Wayne, Indiana’s first alternative / psych / multi-genre music festival, Middle Waves, will be held in Headwaters Park in downtown Fort Wayne September 16-17, 2016.
The initial lineup announcement is stunning: The Flaming Lips, Jeff the Brotherhood, Beach House, Doomtree, Either/Or, Metavari, and Heaven’s Gateway Drugs. More bands will be announced as summer rolls along. There will be three stages, food trucks, art installments, and a host of all-ages events. Get your tickets now before early bird pricing sells out.
Part-funk, part-Afrobeat, part-1970’s Sinbad movie, Golden Dawn Arkestra have descended from somewhere beyond Alpha Centauri and delivered their new record – Stargazer.
The title track opens the record. It’s at first a gentle lift-off from the gravity of your job, your latest screwed-up relationship, and even this world. You’re off-planet and in orbit once their drummer, one of the best funk drummers I’ve heard in a long while, and the horn section kick in and encourage you to look beyond this earthly plane (and how about that saxophone solo?).
The groove of “Sama Chaka” immediately seeps into you and will not leave until you dance it out of your system. The xylophone and horns combine for a funky combination that will improve the mood of anyone listening.
“We walk on nothin’ but clouds,” the band sings on “Clouds” (taking us into psych-pop territory). Imagine the New Pornographers as a funk band and you might get the idea. “Space Waves” implores us to dance to the cosmic beats the band puts down on every track. The baritone sax and synth work on this cut is as smooth as the Silver Surfer’s board.
“Shabuki” belongs on a 1960’s Japanese spy thriller soundtrack. “Disko” belongs on a 1970’s Blaxploitation film soundtrack. Just listen to that wicked bass line, crisp guitar, and groovy horns if you don’t believe me. “Osaka” does have a bit of an Asian flair (mostly in the guitar riffs), but the rest of it is straight-up big, bold phat funk.
The closer, “All Is Light,” is a mesmerizing trip into another reality. It blends eastern Indian sounds with rock drumming and guitar reminiscent of 1980’s Zappa material.
Stargazer is the funkiest album I’ve heard in years. Take the journey with Golden Dawn Arkestra. The destination doesn’t matter. You’ll be different by the time this thirty-eight-minute journey ends, anyway.
Keep your mind open.
[You know what would be golden? You subscribing to us.]
Dayluta Means Kindness is a five-piece prog / psych rock outfit from El Paso, Texas. They play big instrumental jams that evoke images of alien worlds and cosmic exploration. The title of their four-song debut, The Ground Is Lava, suggests childhood playground memories, space exploration. and shifting landscapes.
The title track opens the record with soaring guitars that border on drone rock. “Everywhere You Look There’s a Mountain” has a title like a Zen koan, drums like a tribal ceremony, and guitar work like a slow avalanche. This would be perfect for hiking at sunrise in the American southwest. I must remember to put in on such a playlist for my next trip out there.
“Young Savagery & General Debauchery” is a great name for a juvenile delinquency movie from the late 1950’s, but the song is a long, floating piece of beautiful guitar work and stadium rock drumming. This track will change your mood, slow your thinking, and inspire you. To do what? That’s up to you, but I suggest rock climbing, meditation, surfing, or creating any kind of art.
The closer, “The Sun’s True Brightness in Comparison with Other Stars,” is as epic as its title. It builds from tones that remind you of a sunrise to a soundtrack for navigating an asteroid field. It belongs on your “morning run” playlist, and the whole album belongs in your collection.
Avant garde rock legend Gary Wilsonhas given us a cool gift. He’s released a 7″ single of two tracks from his first band, Lord Fuzz, from 1967. These psych-rock tracks are wild, weird, and wonderful. You owe it to yourself to pick up the limited edition vinyl record (only 300 copies) or download the digital files if you’re a fan of Gary Wilson (and if you’re not, what’s wrong with you?).
Riot Festhas announced it’s first wave of bands for their Denver and Chicago festivals. Both can boast a Misfits reunion, which is one of the biggest tickets of the year.
Denver comes first (Sept. 02-04) and has some excellent headliners. Jane’s Addiction, Sleater-Kinney, Bad Religion, Sleigh Bells, and Yo La Tengo are all excellent choices.
Chicago is two weeks later, and I’ll be attending. I’m not only keen on seeing the Misfits, but also The Specials, Bad Religion, The Hives,Bob Mould, Juliette Lewis and the Licks, and, yes, Morrissey. I have a lot of bands to research. The first one I’ve heard is Sleepy Kitty, and I think they’re already on my first-tier list.
Get your tickets before they sell out. They’ll go even quicker now that the first wave has been announced.
