Diagonal – 7th Level Music

Live: Leones, Diagonal, Necromoon – The Brass Rail – February 08, 2020

For a small place, Ft. Wayne, Indiana’s Brass Rail can pack in a lot of sound. This show of indie shoegaze and psychedelic acts was no exception.

First up was local band Leones, who played a good set of bass-forward shoegaze with thick Latinx psychedelic touches.

Second on the bill were Chicago’s Diagonal. I’ve been a fan of the band for a while now and was happy to finally catch them live. They played a sold psychedelia set of mostly new material from their upcoming album. One of the funniest parts of their set was how they kept referring to Gary Numan and playing parts of “Are Friends ‘Electric’?” after I played it on the Brass Rail’s juke box while they were doing their sound check.

Closing out the night was Ft. Wayne’s Necromoon, who are not a Dead Moon cover band. They play a mellower version of psychedelia than Dead Moon (and to be fair, few bands can match Dead Moon’s raw power) but still put out a lot of sound as they played songs about love and death and other subjects with a bright hope to them.

All in all, it was a fun night of live music in a small venue and a nice oasis in the dead of winter.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 20 singles of 2019: #’s 15 – 11

We’re almost to the halfway point. Who’s in the top 15?

#15 – Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor – “Godshe”

Detroit’s Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor released four singles this year, and this was my favorite. It’s bright, trippy, and moves along like a sports car set on cruise control.

#14 – Diagonal – “Negatives”

I’m calling it now. These Chicago shoe gazers are on track to be one of the Next Big Things. This cut blends psychedelia with shoe gaze and we’re all better for it.

#13 – Claude Fontaine – “Pretending He Was You”

Half of this album is dub, and the other half is bossa nova. All of it is good, and this was the first song I heard from it. I swooned.

#12 – Shopping – “Initiative”

Post-punkers Shopping slipped into the end of 2019 with one of the best singles of the year, poking fun at the rat race and The Man with a ripping bass line, typewriter-precise drumming, and that skittering guitar work only they can seem to play.

#11 – Public Practice – “Disposable”

Speaking of post-punk, Public Practice do it very, very well indeed. This single was a delightful treat in the latter half of 2019 and bodes well for hopefully a full album ahead.

We’re onto the top 10 tomorrow!

Keep your mind open.

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Top 30 Albums of 2018: #’s 20 – 16

We’ve reached the top 20!

#20: Diagonal – Tomorrow – My wife doesn’t really like shoegaze music. She just doesn’t get it. This record, however, made her say she might grow to like shoegaze. I can’t write a better recap than that.

#19: Blackwater Holylight (self-titled) – This debut from these dark psych rockers has sexy goth touches, doom riffs, and psychedelic flair that made it high on my list this year.

#18: Neko Case – Hell-On – Case’s latest is another beautiful record of masterful songwriting, sometimes heartbreaking lyrics, and plenty of folk, Americana, and outlaw touches.

#17: Shopping – The Official Body – This post-punk fun-fest is poppy, peppy, and punky. It’s fun from beginning to end.

#16: Terminal Mind – Recordings – Speaking of punk, this reissue of rare material from Austin, Texas punk legends Terminal Mind was a great time capsule from the Regan administration and full of anger, chugging riffs, and trashing of authority figures.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Diagonal – You Are Free

Chicago shoegazers Diagonal were already high on my list of favorite new bands for 2018 with their LP Tomorrow released back in July. Apparently bursting with energy, they released a new EP of material, You Are Free, just a couple weeks ago. It’s five tracks of mind-bending riffs mixed with fuzz, psychedelic touches, and enough reverb to power an eighteen-wheeler.

The LP opens with the bass-heavy “Spending Time,” which blends psychedelic riffs with buzzsaw guitars that remind me of early RIDE tracks. “Wise Mary” has a great fade-in that is like a swarm of bees glide toward you across a field. It then swirls and buzzes around you like those same bees, but it keeps a comfortable distance without overwhelming you. “Sines” is a mesmerizing track of instrumental shoegaze rock that is perfect for escaping gravity. I love when bands are brave or carefree enough to include instrumental tracks on records, and this one is top notch.

The opening guitars on “Can’t Be Real” sound not unlike a warning klaxon, heeding you to the massive bass and drums coming your way in just a few seconds. Those later give the floor to a shredding guitar solo that almost turns singer Andy Ryan’s vocals into backing vocals. The EP closes with “Send for Me,” which contains the clearest vocals on the record and sounds like an Oasis track if Oasis fully embraced their shoegaze love and stayed away from petty squabbles.

It’s another solid record from Diagonal. You need to get on their bandwagon now. They’ll become Riot Fest headliners in no time (which would be great).

Keep your mind open.

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Diagonal – Tomorrow

Chicago’s Diagonal have released their newest record, Tomorrow, and it’s such a good shoegaze record that my wife said it might make her like shoegaze music (which she just doesn’t understand).

Starting with “Find the Sun” (and Chris Detlaff‘s wicked beats), the album shimmers right away. Three different guitarists (Alex Brumley, Dan Jarvis, and Silas Mishler) merge together to form some sort of super-robot, and Dale Price‘s bass chugs along with the precision of a bricklayer. Andy Ryan‘s vocals on the big, spaced out “Wide Eyed” are appropriately drenched in reverb, and the whole band unloads with walls of sound. It’s one of my favorite tracks of the year so far. It’s been in my head for days.

“Control” ups the psychedelic touches but keeps the fuzz. “Jump Back” reminds me of Julian Cope tunes from the late 1980’s with its groovy bass licks and the crisp, yet distorted guitar riffs. The guitars on “True” are crispier, but the bass picks up the fuzz. It sounds like a Cosmonauts track. “Descend” could be a Black Angels tune, especially with that slight hint of Middle Eastern influences and the subtle reverb on the vocals.

“All We Need” breaks open with shining riffs and more sick beats from Detlaff. Jarvis add some cool keyboard flourishes that give it a space-rock feel. Price’s love of the Cure comes through on his bass line for “Shattered Glass,” and I like how Ryan’s vocals on it sound like they’re coming at you from the end of a long hallway. “Stay Awake” has a fun groove to it with more than a subtle hint of surf rock. The fuzz on “Feels” hits a bit harder after the mellowness of the previous track. It’s one of the loudest cuts on the record. The title track closes the record, and it’s a wild trip into the cosmos with dual vocals from Ryan and Misher that are barely discernible, bass so fuzzy it resembles an angry bumble bee, enough guitar distortion to power an eighteen-wheeler, and drums that go for broke and beyond.

Don’t wait until tomorrow to get Tomorrow. It’s one of the best shoegaze records I’ve heard in 2018.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Diagonal – self-titled (2016)

Chicago-based psych / shoegaze rockers Diagonal play an intriguing mix of both genres. Their self-titled album, currently only available on cassette or digital download, starts with a meditative, almost ambient, nearly instrumental song called “Aura.” I listened to this on a frosty northern Indiana morning as the sun rose over harvested corn fields. It was perfect.

“Wide Eyed” teases you with a bit of drone sludge before breaking into a heavy shoegaze riff. “Inside Your Mind” is so steeped in psychedelic tea that you can pretty much see rear projection oils when you hear it. “Where to Go” ups the fuzz and races by you almost before you realize it’s happening (and I love the trippy fade-out).

“Waterloo” is another rocker that puts in enough reverb to almost make it a weird dream that eventually turns into a crazy psychedelic nightmare. “Come Down” reminds me of early Black Angels material with its distorted yet somehow crisp guitars and lyrics lost in layers of reverb. The album ends with “Cave” – a loud, wild, feverish freak-out that swirls around you like a tornado full of broken, dead trees and shattered houses.

It’s a solid release, and Diagonal is definitely a band to watch and hear. They have the chops to be serious players in the psych-rock game.

Keep your mind open.

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