Review: Geezer – Groovy

It must have been five years ago when I took a punt on buying the LiVE! FULL Tilt Boogie cassette after hearing a track online. The tape arrived in its killer packaging with stickers and patches and the recording from Kingston NY back in 2014 totally blew me away.

Fast forward beyond a couple of “end of year top 10” albums in Geezer and Psychoriffadelia, the New York State 3-piece returned last year with the more spaced out psychedelic blues EP Spiral Fires, setting the scene for what Pat Harrington (Guitar/Vocals), Richie Touseull (Bass) and Steve Markota (Drums/Percussion) were putting together for what we have here.

Dig is a word that I recon Pat Harrington says at least 20 times per day and it kicks straight in with a huge rolling riff, backed up with some sweet cowbell. As you’re asked “can you dig it?” it’s already obvious how good the albums production is, as it feels huge. The main hook of the song is based around a couple of big groovy riffs that have that fuzzy edge, and again that cowbell appears and there’s no way you can sit still to this. With a brief interlude, the song slows down a bit, feeling like you’re off out into the swamps and you get the first taste of the bluesy solo guitars that walk away in style and take you out there, before that riff roles back in and you walk with that swagger again.

Atlas Electra starts with a slow riff with a massive groove to it and I can see why people are giving comparisons of 70’s rock here. The song in many ways feels like the more laid back Geezer with a psychedelic touch to it, and that riff wraps itself around you and slowly grows as it takes control. As Atlas Electra slows down in parts, the production has a real up close and personal feel to it, as though you are right there in the studio with Geezer. Again, the solo work, laid back blues and slide guitar pull you in before Pat’s solo elevates everything higher and higher.

Dead Soul Scroll is a real moody affair with a dark trippy atmosphere that sometimes strips it so far back that it feels like Pat is having some sort of spiritual awakening. The final 90 seconds feel like he has been reborn as when the riff kicks in, the whole band let loose and rock out.

Awake rocks like a classic rock 70’s jam with its slow groove that tells you a story on the way to the last couple of minutes when the guitar solo takes over with epic proportions and you can feel your hair in the wind as you cruise on into the night.

Title track Groovy is something else. In my younger years when I first discovered Kiss, their unique way of strutting their stuff made a real impression on me, and the first time I heard Groovy it took me right back there. The riff is warm and fuzzy but has real purpose as you can almost see them strutting down 42nd street, cool as you like and not giving a fuck what you think. From drums to bass to the vocals, everything here just screams Groovy. The chorus with some keyboards and organ in the mix, will be in your head all day. When Kiss first appeared and did their thing on the streets of New York, there was a raw touch of magic, and Geezer have found it here.

The opening riff for Drowning on Empty is downright sleazy in the vein of ZZ Top or Mountain and just rocks after that. Throw in some Hammond organ and big 70’s solos and your set.

Now if you want to lie back and feel the night sky as you take a trip to the unknown, then Slide Mountain is your jam. A slow and winding journey into desert territory, the guitar glides in and out and soars towards the stars in the night sky. Sit back, close your eyes, open your mind, and this trippy five minutes of bluesy psychedelic magic is quite a ride.

Black Owl concludes the album with a huge near ten minute jam. Starting off with a big stoner groove with a southern twist that almost drifts into doom metal territory, Black Owl stomps around like a hurricane moving slowly across the land. Sounding more in the territory of some of their earlier work, I am definitely getting the sounds of Saint Vitus or Spirit Caravan here. As the song stretches out, the instrumental trip through its second half is another hazy trip, seeing all three members musically on top of their game.

What more can I say? Every time you think Geezer have hit their heights, they come back with something even better. With Groovy they pay homage to the best of 70’s rock and fuse it into the bluesy swagger they have more than already perfected. I could sit here and write line after line about how cool the record is, but you really have to go out and experience it for yourself.

Add to the listening the awesome artwork that shines like a backlight and you have an album that you’ll keep going back to for a long time to come.

Released on Heavy Psych Sounds, you know that there is a variety of cool versions to purchase. Dig!

Bandcamp – Instagram – Heavy Psych Sounds

Review: Desertfest Vol. 6 – Avon / Waxy 7”

German label H42 Records thought up the idea of releasing a 2-band split single for the Desertfest a few years back and already they are up to volume 6. Like previous years, it’s a limited run on vinyl and they’re not around for long. What makes this one even more unique is the fact that the festival fell victim to the Covid-19 pandemic and never actually happened.

Like previous years singles, I have no real idea how they pick the bands and neither of them were actually playing the festival this year, but when you mention the bands Avon and Waxy, you cannot but think of the Californian desert.

Avon’s track Men of Medan starts with a catchy hook of a riff that keeps returning throughout the next 3 minutes. They have that stoner rock vibe to the songs but their twist on it has a stripped back feeling as though it’s been jammed out there and then. The now 5-piece have the ability to write a song in the classic rock style, backed up with some cool vocal harmonies and when they throw in some guitar solo work, its top draw stuff. Let’s hope the follow up to Dave’s Dungeon isn’t too far away

Flip the record and you have a new song from Waxy, “It’s No Mistake”. Waxy manage to give off a laid back vibe whilst still having that more dangerous punk edge to them. The vocals have a certain harmony to them that is distinctly Californian desert and they flow nicely with what I can best describe as garage rock mixed with very early Queen of the Stone Age. Waxy have worked and played alongside many of the legends of the desert, and you can feel all these influences mixed with their own unique twist. They released their 5^th album, Better on Forgetting, last year and it didn’t get the push or recognition it deserved, so make sure you also get looking for that too.

Again, H42 Records have produced a cool looking package that follows on again with Alexander von Weiding’s killer artwork. The press included 150 red Waxy edition, 150 gold Avon edition and 25 test presses on black. Get to it as I doubt they will be available for long.

H42 Records – Avon – Waxy

Psychic Lemon – Studio Jams Volume 1 Review & Band Interview

Sometimes a bad situation produces a good one, and in the case of a band member tripping on an amp and needing recovery time whilst also in lockdown, the vaults of Psychic Lemon have been opened and jams have been jammed out.

I am the first to admit that I was slightly late to the Psychic Lemon party and it wasn’t until I heard Live at The Smokehouse that my conversion happened. My world of Psychedelic Rock always borrowed from the Heavy Psych/Desert/Stoner Rock background, but the more I explored the bands from the Psychedelic/Instrumental/Krautrock world, the musical path crossings are limitless, and Psychic Lemon are one of the UK’s finest purveyors of Cosmic Psych Rock.

To quote the Cambridge 3-piece, “….we are releasing Studio Jams Volume 1, a 44-minute collection of our favourite jams, spread across three tracks. Two of the tracks are recordings of spontaneous jams, while the third track evolved from one. All three tracks were recorded live in the studio, using a £150 battery-powered recorder”.

Starting with 23-minute epic Jam 1, the bassline picks you up straight away and builds with the drums whilst both guitar and keyboard effects create the space travel feel, with the listener being taken from the edge of the atmosphere and out into the unknown. All three musicians are locked in perfect timing as the mission never once falls off course. The guitars soar towards you from above and beyond, the drum work, whilst never stopping, keeps throwing you more and more beats and cymbals to keep you on your toes as you can feel yourself hurtling into deep space, and the synth’s keep swirling and twisting at your brain. The intensity of the song has the epic Hawkwind Space Rock trip to it.

Jam 2 slows it down with a bigger, more rhythmic drum beat over a guitar that screeches slowly, whilst subtly sat quite far back in the mix, kind of reminding me of The Cosmic Dead. It feels darker in places like a giant hurricane, with the rhythm section being the eye of the storm that never stops revolving and the guitar acting as the volatile weather that you never quite know when its power will erupt. The explosive eruption doesn’t strike, but the huge walls of sound swirl round and round, leaving the listener in a state of near hypnosis.

The third and final jam, Jam 3, speeds up again with a lot more distortion in the mix this time ala The Heads. Feeling as though each instrument is travelling at speed and trying to elevate and take over, it creates a feeling of positive and negative particles pushing against each other, creating a powerful electric charge. Mix this with all the far out synths and keyboards and you are taken on quite a cosmic adventure. 

Following in from last year’s highly praised Freak Mammal, these 3 jams are a welcome continuation in to the minds of Psychic Lemon. To think this was jammed out and recorded live on a battery powered recorder show that the band are always at the top of their game. I’m sure post-injury and post-pandemic we will see more from the vaults, and be able to witness their explosive powers of psych in a live setting.

Knowing that they had been busy during the lockdown hear in the UK, I sent over a few questions to find out what else the band, Martin Law (Drums), Andy Briston (Guitar & Synth) and Andy Hibbard (Bass), have been up to…..

1. So how is lockdown and social isolation working for you as individuals as well as Psychic Lemon?

Martin: Thankfully, my life hasn’t changed much because I can work from home. Andy H says that he was already a hermit, so lockdown hasn’t changed his day-to-day life too much!
Andy B: I’ve been furloughed, which is great, but there’s no guarantee my job will exist when that scheme ends, so it’s a mixed bag. In the meantime, I’ve taken the opportunity to upgrade my home studio, explore my locale by foot and generally commune with the flora and fauna of my garden.
As a band, we’re still not able to rehearse or record with the lockdown, which is a shame. 

2. Your blog mentioned that Andy H badly dislocated his shoulder a few months back, causing the band to go on hiatus. How’s the recovery going?

Yes that’s right. It’s pretty serious as far as dislocated shoulders go. Andy H was offered surgery just before lockdown, but chose to try physio before making that call. However, it looks like surgery will be needed after all. That’ll be in September, and hopefully back to full rehearsals before the end of the year. We may do some very short sessions before then, but things won’t properly start back until the end of the year.

3. What’s the story with releasing Studio Jams Volume 1? Was it a matter of piecing together various bits of tracks and recordings or have you got a secret vault full of epic late night jams? 

We have a huge vault going back years. Every rehearsal involves at least one new jam, and we record everything, from little surf rock throwaways to 20-minute space journeys. These days all our tracks start from these recordings.

4. Had the three jams been compiled using older material or material you had already planned for a future record? 

It’s a mixture: two of the jams (Jams 2 and 3) were born on the same night, 17th December 2018, though Jam 2 is a one-off recording from that night and Jam 3 has been reworked over the last 12 months. That one is likely to end up on the next album. Jam 1 was a one-off recording from May 2019.

5. As you titled it Volume 1, is it right to assume that you have more volumes to follow soon? 

We’ll see how long the lockdown lasts, and how many tracks we can find that are well recorded. We are slowly cataloguing and reviewing (and mixing) things. We’ve just put out a live track for an NHS charity compilation with the promoter Fishbowl Events (https://fishbowleventsuk.bandcamp.com).

6. You had some killer reviews of Freak Mammal. How are you going to top it?

Thank you. We never have a grand plan when working on a new album, all we ever want is to end up with a collection of tracks that we’re happy with. Freak Mammal is dense and heavy in parts, so the next one may have more quiet moments on it. Though we thought the same thing before we started recording Freak Mammal...

7. I’m guessing that you are still itching to get out on the road to further promote Freak Mammal? Do you have any speculative plans for when you can all stand on a stage and rock out together again?

We’ve missed out on some big gigs, like the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, so we’re definitely looking forward to whatever the next gig is. That gig will now be going ahead in April, so that is the soonest one that’s definitely going ahead. We’re just excited by the prospect of just getting in a rehearsal room together and making some noise again.

8. Your records on Discogs fetch a fair amount for collectors already. Is there any represses in the pipeline?

We don’t think so, sorry! The repress of our second album, Frequency Rhythm Distortion Delay, is available on our Bandcamp page for £12. The first album, Psychic Lemon, was repressed just last November and sold out pretty quickly. Freak Mammal was also released in November, and although it sold out, I’m not sure if it will be repressed any time soon. You should interview Adam Harmsworth, who runs Drone Rock Records, and ask him! Represses are hard for independent labels, because although having every album in stock is good from an income point of view, it also means spending money on pressing records that might never sell, and it’s much harder to put together customer orders. Also your house would be filled with thousands of unsold records. 

9. Finally, do you think we will see any live music throughout the UK in 2020? Do you fear for independent venues, shops and record labels or do you think the dedication of all the underground music scene’s pulling together will make everything stronger in the end? 

We would love to get a gig in this year, but overall it’s looking a little grim at the moment. However, there is solidarity too. For example, the guy who runs our current studio has just had a successful fundraiser to keep his studio going. Other artists in the psych scene, like Black Doldrums, Helicon and Black Tempest, have been broadcasting live gigs at home as well. Now is the time for people to support the little people, in the music industry and elsewhere. Call up a local cafe directly and order something, buy things online from somewhere other than Amazon, buy your music from Bandcamp.

A big thanks from me goes out to Martin Law for sorting the interview. If you haven’t already checked Psychic Lemon out, then follow these links.

Website – Bandcamp – Facebook – Twitter – YouTube – Instagram

Review: Black Rainbows - Cosmic Ritual Supertrip

It feels to me as though Black Rainbows have been around for forever, and as time moves on they seem to get more and more productive with new records and touring, and the more they do it, the better they get. Stellar Prophecy and Pandaemonium raised the bar for the band and the subsequent live shows blew me away every time I witnessed them. With the constant touring, successful side projects and record label, I wonder how they get time to sit down and craft out more killer songs at such a pace, but here we are, Cosmic Ritual Supertrip.

It takes about 20 seconds before At Midnight You Cry kicks in, and kicks in it does. The song has all the structure of a Black Sabbath track with the open ended riffs to the full on rockin’ ones, but that fuzz n’ roll sound that is quite unique to Black Rainbows is all over it. The vocals fit perfectly round the hook of the riff that steam rollers itself through just under three minutes and doesn’t let up. Defiantly a song that will open a show and get the crowd going.

Universal Phase slows it down a bit with a big stomping monolithic-like riff that roles across the plains. Add in some Sci-Fi film quotes in the background and the track conjures up the images of the Earth under attack. The vocals are more hypnotic this time and Gabriele has this great ability to let his voice drift away at the end of a line, adding to the magic. As the song speeds up, the cymbals keep crashing, the guitars keep buzzing and the song finishes as powerful as it started.

You can see why Radio 666 was used as a single/promo video as it has that laid back California vibe to it. Starting off with the strumming guitars and cleaner vocals that have me thinking of 60’s/70’s psychedelia in the way that Monster Magnet always excel at, it creates that easy going feel to it. Whenever I think of Black Rainbows its always bad ass motorbikes, but this time they’ve swapped that for an open top Chevy or Mustang, and the riff hook roll’s on and on likes it’s tearing up the asphalt. I really dig the retro sound here.

You cannot but feel the 70’s groove of Isolation. Opening with a blue’s riff that gets the head nodding instantly, the lead guitar work over the riff is something rather special. After this the track tempo builds and builds with soaring vocals and some water tight percussion and half way through the song just opens up, jams along and doesn’t stop.

Hypnotized By The Solenoid keeps the fuzz but drifts into a warmer trippy psychedelic world. Drifting in with a hypnotic vibe, there’s lots of 60’s coloured lights that drift into Pink Floyd and Hawkwind territory, but still sound distinctly Black Rainbows. Gabriele’s vocals soar throughout, really making this one of the stand out tracks and the awesome solo at the end takes you high in to the sky.

The Great Design is a 2 minute trip through the mind and in to your sub-conscious, building a trippy atmosphere behind a mesmerizing guitar that walks you in to the light. 

Master Rocket Power Blast pulls you straight back from the sub-conscious with a full force assault of big fuzzy guitars. It’s loud, straight to the point and rocks with a slightly punk edge to it. 

Snowball has a huge groove that swings back and forth, soaring vocals, crashing cymbals and lots of guitar soloing and blues work.

Glittereyzed pulls away from the fuzz and creates an atmosphere built up on the strumming guitar work and rolls along with a hypnotic rhythm to it before everything turns to 11 and the song explodes. This is Black Rainbows showing many a band how to do stoner rock.

Sacred Graal closes out the album with more full force stoner rock that many bands only wish they could play. Again, Gabriele’s vocals are absolutely superb.

Now if you have the special edition record or digital version, your journey doesn’t end here, as you have 2 bonus tracks, starting with Searching For Satellites Part I & II, a mystical up-tempo acoustic trip that must have been created whilst sat round a fire under the stars of the night sky. Add in some sci-fi effects in the background and maybe we aren’t alone in the universe.

Fire Breather starts with the line “If you see this big bird, it’s the sign that you’re going to die real soon” which could be very true with the way the world is right now. Lyrics aside, Fire Breather is another rocker of a song that motors down the highway and out in to the desert sun.

Cosmic Ritual Supertrip is quite a ride and Black Rainbows are again on top of their game. The huge fuzzy songs get fuzzier and the psychedelic outings become more trippier. With various special edition versions provided by Heavy Psych Sounds, you know what to do.

Website – Bandcamp – Heavy Psych Sounds 

Review: ElonMusk - …As Your Wanderer Taps At The Invisible Gate

Nothing sparks my interest in music more than the sentence “new album that consists of one 37+ minute song” and it’s a journey in to space that not even the Space X entrepreneur could wrap his brain around.

Previous offerings from the Nashville 3-piece ElonMusk have clocked in at 9 and 16 minutes but this truly is a trip into the minds of a band that are taking you to realms beyond.

Everything starts feeling high up amongst the clouds as the guitar strums and the slow drum rhythms hypnotically hold you out there. There’s some keyboards moving in and out of the mix and the guitar begins to take flight and walk in to the distance reminding me in parts of Sons of Alpha Centauri and Yawning Man. At around 6 minutes the guitars really kick in and you feel the deep space like stomping groove as the instruments bend together slowly over the outer space keyboard effects. Add some soaring guitars to the mix and you can picture the kaleidoscopes of light in your mind as though they were playing right in front of you.

The eerie keyboards continue on as the guitar and bass output gets fuzzier, the elevated guitar work takes on another level and sounds huge, and they all intertwine for quite some time. The soaring guitars over the hypnotic drone like wall of fuzz is reminiscent of Electric Moon and Black Moon Circle, and how they take you from there to an almost dreamy landscape of what sounds like the sounds behind the atmosphere.

From here on you need to close your eyes and enjoy the trip as you take a heavy psych ride through the planets of space rock, accompanied by Ryan Westover (Bass/Synth), Frank Hand (guitar) and Kate Haldrup (Drums).

To add to the mind trip of an experience, an accompanying video has been produced by Stan Brakhage/Terrence Malick Films that lasts the full 37:35.

I highly recommend that you check out ElonMusk as they really have something special in the making here. …As Your Wanderer Taps At The Invisible Gate is available from the band on CD and cassette and I’ve just read that there will be some vinyl action soon from Worst Bassist Records.

Bandcamp – Facebook

Review: Mt. Mountain – Tassels 7”

I was late to the party with the Australian Psych scene but have had some fun making the time up discovering a long line of killer bands since, with one of these being Mt. Mountain. They first hooked me in with Golden Rise and I’ve been a fan ever since and discovering that a limited 7” with 2 new tracks was imminent, being the predecessor for a new full length to be released this year. 

Knowing that the first batch of the 500 copies went on pre-sale at 7am UK time, the alarm was set just in case, and I’m glad it was as minutes after I had ordered my copy it was already sold out.

Reviewing this, I haven’t got the item in my hands yet, though it looks like a rather special package from the pictures. So thanks to Bandcamp, here we go.

Tassels starts upbeat with levels of guitars and keyboard creating an ever growing soundscape that slowly twist away in the back of your mind. Like on previous records, the vocals quite subtly sit behind the music with a warm near-hypnotic feel to them. The first half of Tassels hangs off a cool psychedelic guitar hook backed with lots of cymbals, before the song bends itself into dreamy hypnotic territory with the organs and synth and the next few minutes are like a magic carpet ride into the unknown. Tassels is the sort of song that could play out for 30 or 40 minutes live.

Deluge is much more of a laid back track like a slow and magic trip into your sub-conscious. The warm dreamy mystical guitar lines walk you out towards the light backed up with hand played drum beats and it is pure magic. You can lie back, close your eyes and feel yourself drifting away, it really is that good. My only complaint is that as quick as it starts, your journey is already over.

This has really wet my appetite for what Mt. Mountain will be bringing us later in the year. I am not sure if the band or Six Tonnes De Chair Records have any copies left, but you need to be getting this from your usual digital platforms.

Mt. Mountain - Six Tonnes De Chair Records 

Review: Old Man Lizard / Big Pig – Split 7”

A couple of weeks ago the news of this split 7” unexpectedly appeared with two bands that I wouldn’t have paired together, but that’s the good thing about records like this.

Old Man Lizard’s track Queazy Like Sunday Morning is an absolute stormer from the moment it kicks off. There’s a twisted fuzzy feel to the guitar that buzzes along and hooks you straight in. There’s a mix of Sabbath and Kyuss with a definite English twist to it. After a couple of well received records, this feels like a step away from their more doomy miserable sounding slabs of metal and more like the band doing a stoner rock anthem. If this is the direction the band are going or not, the track is one of the best I have heard from them. The recording and production is another step up and the vocals, though still sounding strained (not in a bad way) really command themselves throughout the song. It’s like Old Man Lizard doing their Fu Manchu thing.

Flip the 7” and we leave England for California for the track Sweaty Palms by Big Pig. Knowing the Lalli family and Fatso Jetson connection, then you won’t be disappointed with this. It grooves with that desert feel to it, not to fast, not to slow and has that slightly darker twist to it the way the Melvins perfected. Sweaty Palms has a strong fuzzy feel to the song that stomps along, but all the little extras like the laid back grooving guitar that slips in through the background early on or the soaring solo that feels like it’s not a solo, add to what the two piece machine bang out here. I also have to mention how good the male/female vocal harmonies are throughout the song. Let’s hope they recorded more new songs at the same time.

The 7” is part of a limited split series by Wasted State Records so if I was you I would be ordering now before they’re gone for good.

Wasted State Records – Old Man Lizard – Big Pig