Sweet, ain't it?
But howzabout some modern German psych-jam muthafokkin' BOOOOOM!!! to go with it? I ain't afraid. So before we even get to the playlist try this on for size:
But if that's not enough, this month's set is a fokkin' doozy! The heaviest of the heavy, the headiest of the heady. I'm serious. Hold on to your hats and glasses, this here's gonna be a WILD RIDE! First off, Goat defy any categorization; Swedes channeling monstrous psych guitar and Afrobeat riddims, all the while mythologizing themselves as voodoo shamans, and putting on a frenzied live show accordingly. Love. This. Shit. And of course, the Trail of Dead have always dabbled in serious prog rock, their roots as post-punk deconstructivists be damned.
Then we have some newbies (to me). Naam are some Brooklyn acid casualties who know how to translate the brain-fry into music. Their manifesto? "Disgusted by the lack of heavy psychedelic rock and roll, we deliver our deafening sermon to bring a new dawn for all civilization. The vast seas cannot drown us, the darkest caverns cannot conceal us. We will conquer insurmountable foes. We are war. We are peace. We are time and space. We are infinite. We are Naam." Well... I'll bite.
Causa Sui only came to me via an obscure Facebook post by a friend of a friend who wrote something to the effect of "Scandinavian stoner jam rock" and of course I had to investigate. Not only are they NOT your typical Joshua Tree stoner rock, they actually ARE jammy. Or at least jam (improv) based. But if this is jam rock, as opposed to that noodly hippie-dippie-shake Phish bullshit, then sign me up! These guys have released a prolific quantity of "sessions", all obviously extemporaneous to some degree, and are psychedelic as FARK. Not to mention incredible instruMENTALists. Bot to mention some really long and HEAVY songs. They rank among the most amazing musical discoveries I've had in many many years. Expect much more to come from them in future installments right here.
Back to known quantities, Tame Impala and their sister band Pond are an indefatigable source of Aussie-cum-Floydian psych gems. I may have to get help to get off of them before I just end up including their entire catalog here, they have such a wealth of epic material. Okay, I'll shut up about them now. Back to the garage, eh? Sic Alps were among the loosely-gathered genre affectionately known as shitgaze, a riff on shoegaze with an emphasis on intentionally fucked up lo-fi sound (see Tyvek, Times New Viking, Psychedelic Horseshit, et al.), but these guys have managed to surpass those limitations and become almost Elephant Six quality psych pop with their latest album, as this track attests. As does yet another sweet confection I can't seem to get enough of (and who I somehow overlooked for many years), San Francisco's finest, Thee Oh Sees. And continuing their manic drive (as well as the ethos espoused by their peers in post-post-punk pych freaks, and favorites of the SRC, The Men) we have, ladies and gentlemen, METZ. 'Nuff said.
Okay... taking it down a notch, we have yet another track from the aptly named Flavor Crystals, who, if they were a famous painter, would surely be Monet, with their soft-focus impressionistic leanings. And obscure Finns Joensuu 1685 (featured last month) take the idea of being spiritualized seriously. Speaking of Finns, the UK glam-psychsters Pink Fairies apparently had a momentous tour in Finland in 1971 and even covered this Beatles' psych classic in their own inimitable way. And yet another track showcasing that Finns are freaky (as if Circle hasn't made that fact gospel) we have another track from motorik freaks Siinai.
So on that note, let's get electronic/electronische/kosmische, shall we? Why not not ask Dan Deacon to remix Philip Glass, as long as he makes it psychedelic, eh? Works for me. As long as you're asking, Soft Moon remind me of when Cocteau Twins were a dark-psych 4AD act (check the flanged bass, amiright?). Keeping it weird-tronic is the ever-faithful Black Moth Super Rainbow, who on this track seem to exist as a bizarro-universe T- Rex. Shifting back to the RAWK, but remaining in bizarro world, both Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats and Golden Void fill the gap left by a lack of 21st century Black Sabbath (although I've recently gotten wind that Ozzy may be getting the geezers back together, so to speak). And returning to one of the best albums of 2012, Howlin' Rain also channel pitch-perfect bearded American "classic rock" of the 70s with not only a straight face but serious songwriting and chops, the straight-forwardness of which comes with just a little surprise when you're familiar with bandleader Ethan Miller's's time blasting face-melting heavy psych with Comets On Fire (and taking it even further with the recent addition of Isaiah Mitchell of Earthless).
Last month I included a song from my sadly unsung old band of psychedelic warriors Wood & Smoke, just for shits and giggles (in all modesty, we had our moments, and this is one of them), and said I'd post another, so here ya go. Apologies for the demo quality of the mix. But this time I wrap up the set with the inimitable sludge/psych metalgaze of Nadja, whose otherworldly drone-und-drang seems a fitting wrap-up to one of the most frenetic playlists I think I've ever assembled. And what of that? Just what the heck got into me?
For you traditionalists who don't mind streaming from this site, the following tracks should appear in the first player below:
The Spacerock Continuum Theme - bRambles
Goathead - Goat - World Music
Mountain Battle Song - ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Lost Songs
Lands Unknown - Naam - The Ballad Of The Starchild
Soledad - Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol. 1
Endors Toi - Tame Impala - Lonerism
Dig Brother - Pond - Beard, Wives, Denim
Glyphs - Sic Alps - s/t
Lupine Dominus - Thee Oh Sees - Putrifiers II
Headache - Metz - s/t
Cow In The Meadow - Flavor Crystals - Three
Crystal Light - Joensuu 1685 - s/t
Tomorrow Never Knows - Pink Fairies - Finland Freakout 1971
Marathon - Sinaii - Olympic Games
Alight Spiral Snip - Dan Deacon - Rework: Philip Glass Remixed
Remember The Future - Soft Moon - Zeroes
Windshield Smasher - Black Moth Super Rainbow - Cobra Juicy
13 Candles - Uncle Acid And The Deadbeats - Bloodlust
The Curve - Golden Void - s/t
Phantom In The Valley - Howlin' Rain - The Russian Wilds
Ballerina - Wood & Smoke - demo
Sky Burial - Nadja - Sky Burial
But don't forget, you also have the option of spacerock to go:
1. Click on the Divshare logo instead of pushing the play button in the player above.
2. Click "download" when redirected to the Divshare site (put it on your desktop for easy access).
3. Once downloaded, drag it to yer iTunes and sync it with yer pod.
And I must reiterate, this is the way to take your spacerock mix to go! You can DOWNLOAD it! It's YOURS now! It's an mp3 mix that pops right into your iTunes - it couldn't be simpler.
