Tag: Lavender Blood

Top 30 albums of 2017: #’s 30 – 26

I reviewed close to 60 albums this year.  Post-punk made a big comeback for me this year, as did electro.  Let’s get this countdown started!

#30 – Ancient River – O.D.D.S. II

I’ve been listening to this psych-rock duo for years now, and they deserve to be better known to the world at large.  O.D.D.S. II was a wild, crazy record with heavy fuzz, vocals covered in so much reverb as to make them almost incoherent, and a mix of live and electronic beats.

#29 – Tinariwen – Elwan

These Tuareg musicians make music for desert landscapes, yet it fits in anywhere you are.  You could be in Antartica, the Amazon, or at the middle of Randolph and Michigan in downtown Chicago and this album’s haunting vocals and superb craftsmanship will make you feel your surroundings in a different way.

#28 – Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor – Lavender Blood

In a perfect world, this Detroit psych-rock trio are headlining music festivals.  This album, heavily influenced by a near-death experience shared by all three members during a flight to Greece, is their trippiest so far and might be the best Velvet Underground album never released.

#27 – Partner – In Search of Lost Time

This is probably the best debut album of 2017.  Josee Caron and Lucy Niles come out guns-a-blazin’ with this fine piece of power pop that contains heavy riffs, fun lyrics, and razor sharp song craft.  It’s loud and proud.

#26 – RIDE – The Weather Diaries

RIDE came back this year with one of the best albums, shoegaze or otherwise, I’d heard in a long time.  Shoegaze is enjoying a great resurgence right now, and it’s due in part to albums like this.  It’s a stunning piece and a record we didn’t realize how badly it was needed until we heard it.

Who’s in the top 25?  Stay tuned!

Keep your mind open.

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Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor – Lavender Blood

A near-death experience has a way of changing your perspective on things.  Everything is different afterwards.  Things you thought were important no longer are.  Things you took for granted become more precious than gold.  Your accomplishments and failures are brought into focus, and you either experience terror, joy, peace, or all three.

Such an experience happened to all three members of Detroit psych-rockers Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor while flying to Greece during a recent tour.  The plane depressurized as it began its landing procedure, unleashing oxygen masks and brief panic before the pilots quickly brought the plane under control.  As the story goes, a strange calm settled into the entire plane.  Strangers shared a bond they never expected and wouldn’t forget.  This experience shaped the sound and substance of SOYSV’s new album Lavender Blood.

The weird, almost out-of-tune acoustic guitar opening the album on “Cinnamon Blood” puts a weird angle on the record right away as guitarist / vocalist Sean Morrow sings about prayers and dreams in a voice that sounds like it’s been influenced by Middle Eastern vocalists.

The whole band breaks open on “Die Die Die.”  It hits like a wrecking ball with warped guitars, Eric Oppitz‘s pulsing bass, and Rick Sawoscinski‘s Black Sabbath-like drumming.  The song is as creepy and chaotic as you’d hope it would be with a title like that.  “Sky Greece” follows it, and it’s a mind-bending track with reversed guitar chords appropriate for a song inspired by a moment when the band thought they might be doomed but soon switched to calm euphoria.

“Rocking Horse Brain” is one of SOYSV’s biggest, in terms of spectacle, songs.  It opens with forceful guitars and bass and then switches gears (with sharp skill by Sawoscinski) into down-the-rabbit-hole psychedelia.  “See You in the Mourning” might be the closest thing to a Velvet Underground track SOYSV have ever written.  Morrow’s guitars sound remind me of a lazy cat stretching out in the sun, and Oppitz and Sawoscinski put down one of their best grooves ever.

You can’t help but wonder if the cacophony and roaring cymbals in “Cat Lovers Skull” are a reflection of what was happening in the passenger compartment of that flight to Greece.  “Milky Water Jesus” is the shortest song on the album but it has some of the hardest drumming of the album.

I love how the album ends with maximum fuzz.  “Rainbow Scarecrow” lies somewhere between psychedelia, funk (listen to that beat!), and shoegaze.  I can’t wait to hear this one live.

Lavender Blood is probably SOYSV’s trippiest record so far and well worth your time and money.  These guys keep bending and warping sounds in ways I still can’t figure out, but why bother trying?  Just sit back and let this record alter your reality.  Sometimes you need a jolt to remind you of what’s real and what’s illusion.

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Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor’s new album, “Lavender Blood,” due October 27th.

Detroit psych-rock trio Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor have announced the release date of their new album, Lavender BloodBandcamp page – October 27, 2017.  You can pre-order the album now and even hear one track, “Milky Water Jesus,” on their Bandcamp page.

The album was at least partially inspired by a trip the band took to Greece during which their plane depressurized during the descent.  The plane landed safely once pressure was stabilized, but an experience like that certainly changes your perspective on things.  Two of the album’s tracks are “Die Die Die” and “Sky Greece,” so it will be interesting to hear the music inspired by their near-death experience.

SOYSV also plan to tour to support the album, starting with shows in the Midwest and Canada.  Keep your eyes peeled for them.  They always put on a great set.

Keep your mind open.