Electric Kool-Aid Funeral Anthem's

The Black Angels, Phosphene Dream(Sep, 2010)

     I'm not going to analyze the hell out of this thing because I'm just too god damn exhausted after the week I just had. But anybody who follows this site needs to know about The Black Angels. Dylan, Jon and I had the opportunity to see these guys at Slim's on Saturday and it was siiiick. These guys are the front runners of the neo-psychedelic resurgence that we have seen taking place during the last few years.  An ode to many things we know and love, their influences are deeply invested in classic rock bands, and they end up with a murky flower power atmosphere. Directly speaking, their sound is heavily based on The Doors and The 13th Floor Elevators and even borrow the bluesy shuffle sensibilities of The Animals. The vocal harmonies on this track "Bad Vibrations," reminds me of those shaman like Pink Floyd moments, where even if you have never tried LSD, something about the climax in David Gilmours voice makes you feel like you have consumed ungodly amounts of the stuff. They have a heavy organ accompaniment, and carefully intertwined blasts of vibrating guitar chords. As much as they derive their sound from 60's psychedelia, they often bring you down a much darker street than the colorful tied-died likes of their influences, instead they bring the impending doom of The Velvet Underground, and sometimes reach depths of much deeper despair, although the lyrical substance is nothing compared to that of Lou Reed. Also like the Velvet Underground, they get into some pretty eerie, lucid jamming but can switch it from dark side sonic exploration, back to a pop sensible quality on a dime and often do.

Bad Vibrations-The Black Angels

Download Album: Phosphene Dream 

-Fedor