Levitation Room - Minds of Our Own

Artist: Levitation Room
Title: Minds of Our Own
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
2015
EP
Sounds Like: Temples
Favorite Track: Loved
Available as: Download and cassette (Burger)

I could probably make this blog entirely about the stuff Burger Records (and their DIY subsidiary Wiener Records) puts out. They're one of those labels that don't release that much bad stuff. There are certainly exceptions and they have put out things that I haven't liked, but in general their output is fantastic. While I've heard the claim that everything they put out sounds alike, and I can understand where that's coming from, their releases have enough variety to refute that stereotype.

Levitation Room is one of those bands that I really know next to nothing about. I found out about them by listening to Burger's Soundcloud feed. I don't remember what track they put up (it might have been "Loved" but I'm really not sure), but it immediately caught my ear. Amid all the lo-fi garage rock on Burger's feed, Levitation Room stands out - the EP is really well produced and clean. While I like the lo-fi aesthetic, it can sometimes serve to cover up the fact that a band doesn't really play all that well. Sometimes that's part of the fun, especially with punk rock. It can give the music a raw quality that often really fits. However, when you have songs that are as well-produced as these are, there's nowhere to hide, so bands have to be on the top of their game. In this case, they really succeed.

While I'm sure this band will probably take criticism for being a derivative of England's psych-pop superstars Temples, and there certainly are similarities in the vocals, playful melodies, and clean aesthetic, Levitation Room really is a different animal. While Temples tends to go all-out on bombastic wall-of-sound production and weird guitar effects, Levitation Room actually stays truer to their 60s psychedelic roots by eschewing electronic effects for simple fuzz and reverb. They also make direct reference to their influences in a lyrical tribute to Jimi Hendrix (their lyric "if six equals to nine" in "Visions of My Mind" is a reference to Jimi's "If 6 Was 9").

In today's neo-psychedelic scene, there's sometimes a conflict on how much weirdness is enough and when it becomes too much. It's really a matter of taste, honestly, but as far as I'm concerned, some bands go way over the top and end up making songs that just sound nasty. However, with this tape, Levitation Room enters the pantheon of fantastic modern psych, alongside Temples and Humbug-era Arctic Monkeys. I hope they release a full-length album soon - I need my fix!

Bill Frisell - Guitar in the Space Age

Artist: Bil Frisell
Album: Guitar in the Space Age
Genre: Jazz Fusion
2014
LP/Album
Favorite Track: Turn, Turn, Turn
Available as: Download, CD (Okeh), and vinyl (Music on Vinyl)

I hadn't really given too much thought to this blog over the last week. I mean, I have a list of artists and albums I want to write about, and I've been adding to it, but I haven't been doing much actual writing (which is obvious, since I haven't posted anything in almost a week). Then, I decided I would take myself out for lunch. I'd been craving gyros for a while and there's a place here in Bloomington that I remembered having good ones. Long story short, my memory was mistaken and the wrap really wasn't anything special. However, while I was downtown, I decided to stick my head in a couple record stores and see what was up. I grabbed an original 1969 Moby Grape (complete with middle finger) with a ratty cover but nice vinyl, and a CD from Fred Hersch, one of my favorite jazz pianists. Now, why am I writing about this album instead of that? Because, when I was listening to Fred, I was reading the CD booklet, in which he talks about dedicating a song to Bill Frisell and calls him one of his favorite musicians. Since I'm always on the lookout for new stuff to listen to, I decided to go on Spotify and check Bill out. Almost all the top tracks were from his new album, this one, so I listened to a couple and was immediately hooked in.

I don't know too much about Bill Frisell, apart from the fact that, like many successful contemporary jazz artists, he's been playing for a long time. I know enough about him to know that this album is a bit of a departure for him. It's not so much jazz as instrumental rock: similar almost to Joe Satriani, except several degrees softer. Guitar in the Space Age is almost entirely a cover album of songs from the early-to-mid 1960s, featuring a number of surf instrumentals (it starts off with a cover of the Chantays' "Pipeline"). There are a couple originals on the album, but they're actually far less interesting than the covers are.

Bill does something with his guitar on this album that's different than any jazz guitarist I've heard before, and which probably makes jazz purists very angry. He uses effects. Wah-wah and distortion. Not on all of the songs, but on a couple. That, along with the conventional structure of the cover songs (unlike many jazz covers of pop songs, these are pretty straight ahead without too much improvisation), is what makes this almost an instrumental rock album as opposed to jazz.

Although all the covers are fantastic, my favorite song on the album by far is Bill's cover of "Turn, Turn, Turn," originally a Pete Seeger song but made famous by the masters of 60s folk rock, The Byrds. Their version of the song has long been a favorite of mine, but Bill's version is almost better. The sharp tonality of his (and his accompanist's) guitar cuts through the air like a knife. It's slightly slower than the Byrds' version, which, to me, makes it seem less like an ordinary cover and more like a reverent tribute. The sound genuinely thrilled me, which isn't really all that easy to do.

It would be very easy for a guitarist of Frisell's caliber to simply throw off a cover album as a study in baby-boomer nostalgia, but on this album, he does so much more than that. He manages to make instrumental covers of pop songs that are interesting and genuinely enjoyable, and to cross the barrier between jazz and rock that so many other artists have tried with varied success. The album is, of course, on Spotify and iTunes, and the CD, on Okeh, shouldn't be too difficult to find as a fairly new release. There is a vinyl pressing which I would love to hear, but it's from Europe's Music on Vinyl label, whose releases are notoriously hard to get ahold of in the US. Maybe someday.

Buffalo Killers

Artist: Buffalo Killers
Title: Buffalo Killers
Genre: Psychedelic rock
2006
LP/Album
Sounds Like: Blue Cheer, Pearlene
Favorite Track: Something Real
Available as: Download, CD, vinyl (Alive)

Buffalo Killers is my favorite album to show to classic rock devotees who say "I hate modern music!" The wah-wah heavy psychedelic guitar blues featured here is retro, yes, but also very fresh and appealing: there's enough guitar soloing to keep classic rockers, well, rockin', but there's also a melodic sensibility and writing tight enough to entertain indie fanatics equally as much.

Buffalo Killers' unique brand of rock is very much an Ohio sound - I can only think of three bands that do this sort of thing, and they're all from Ohio, two (Buffalo Killers and Pearlene) from Cincinnati. It's based in Chicago blues of the 1950s, famously personified by Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, but also integrates a fair amount of late 60s psych as well. Vocals from the Gabbard brothers, Zachary and Andrew, remind me strongly of the bluesy yowl of Dan Auerbach's early work with the Black Keys, except an octave or so higher.

The writing on their songs is almost pure blues, using classic chord progressions and riffs accented and updated with wah-wah, distortion, and psychedelic lyrics. Unlike the current wave of neo-psychedelic pop spearheaded by bands like Temples, Buffalo Killers' music is distinctly heavy and rough, drawing well-founded comparisons to 1960s California stoners Blue Cheer, who recorded one of the best (and heaviest) versions of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues."

Although the band has tended away from their blues roots and towards more conspicuous psychedelica and stoner rock in their more recent releases, I much prefer this, their first album, over their more recent, trippier output. The writing is fresh and unadorned, and the energy seeps through even on the slow tracks. Surprisingly enough for an album from 2006, copies of the album aren't hard to track down, even on vinyl, which I highly recommend (it's a great pressing).

The Memories - American Summer

Artist: The Memories
Title: American Summer
Genre: Garage rock
EP
2014
Favorite Track: Dream About You
Available as: Download, 7" vinyl (Randy)

The Memories are a garage rock/stoner pop band, originally from Portland, that you don't need to be tokin' up to enjoy. Their lo-fi, chill atmosphere along with nice melodies, make for an incredibly enjoyable package, even in a record that's only around 8 minutes long.

They do a fair amount of genre-hopping in the six tracks on this EP, most of which are under a minute and a half long. They play reverb-heavy electric pop on a couple tracks and sweet fuzz-laden garage rock on "Creamsicle" but then switch to mostly acoustic instruments for a relaxed, folky feel to the rest of the EP. The atmosphere here is super relaxing all the way through. I think the guy on the cover looks like he's listening to the album - he's the perfect representation of the EP's chill vibe.

This is the band's first 7" release - they had done a couple of LPs and a whole bunch of cassette albums and EPs, but they'd never done a 7 before. It's put out by Chicago's Randy Records, which is run by one super nice guy out of his apartment. You can buy the digital album on Bandcamp, but it's kind of expensive. If you're going to spend the money, I recommend just buying the 7" from Randy. It's on Spotify for free listening as well. Even if you don't like it (and I'd be surprised if you didn't), it won't waste much of your time, but trust me, this is one you'll want to play over and over.

The Mozzies - Kool Patrol

Artist: The Mozzies
Title: Kool Patrol
Genre: Garage rock
LP/Album
2015
Sounds Like: Allah-Las
Favorite Track: She Left Me For A Letterman
Available as: Download, cassette (Wiener)

When I first heard about Wiener Records, a subsidiary of Burger Records which will press, promote, and sell cassettes of any recording you send them, I thought there couldn't possibly be anything good on there - that it would be the place you send your demos to when no other label will release them. Boy, was I ever wrong! I haven't delved very deeply into their catalog, but the first one of their releases I listened to was this album, and it's a real winner.

I know next to nothing about The Mozzies. I know who's in them, I know they're from California, and I know they play damn well. That's it. They play lo-fi garage rock that combines surfy guitar sounds with three-chord melodies that belie their real ability - when they shift keys or break into a guitar solo, you can tell that these guys really know their stuff. Their music has different layers of tune and rhythm that is unusual for DIY garage rock, but works very well, and in a genre that has almost completely discarded them, it's nice to hear some good guitar solos.

I expect great things from The Mozzies in the future. I'm doubtful that they'll ever break into the mainstream - this style of music is too retro to really be popular with a mainstream audience in 2015 - but I will be very surprised if they don't garner a considerable following in the next few years. I look forward to their next album. This one is on Spotify and is available from the band's Bandcamp page as a digital download or cassette, but, while their small supply lasts, it's cheaper to order the cassette directly from Wiener Records.

Allah-Las

Artist: Allah-Las
Title: Allah-Las
Genre: Garage Rock
LP/Album
2012
Favorite track: Catalina
Available as: Download, CD, cassette, vinyl (Innovative Leisure)

I figured it would be a good idea to start off this blog with a personal favorite, so here goes…

I discovered this album through the Cincinnati library's CD of the Month Club, and I can clearly remember the first time I listened to it. It was the spring of 2013. I picked it up, popped it into the CD player in my car, and went for a drive with the windows down in the cool spring air. The opening notes of "Catamaran" intrigued me: they were mysterious and ethereal, yet still catchy. By the end of the second track, "Don't You Forget It," I was hooked.

This album is incredibly atmospheric. It has an almost indescribable air of mystery that, for whatever strange reason, I associate with pictures I've seen of ancient monuments in the Middle East. Don't ask me why, because I can't tell you. But I also strongly associate music with what was happening the first time I heard it. For instance, I closely associate The Killers' album Battle Born with the summer after I got my driver's license and I drove all over town with my friends, blaring it over the car's speakers. Even in the middle of winter, Allah-Las still reminds me of the spring when I first heard it.

An interesting thing about Allah-Las is that they do instrumentals equally as well as they do vocal tracks. Normally, artists tend to do one or the other really well, but not this band. Even though they only have a few instrumental tracks on the album, they're among the most memorable, especially "Sacred Sands," one of the most atmospheric songs on the album. This trend has continued to their most recent releases, one of the best of which is a moody instrumental B-side called "No Werewolf."

The lyrics range from neo-psychedelic weirdness in "Catamaran" to standard, 60s-style love songs in "Vis-A-Vis" and "Don't You Forget It." The songwriting is heavily influenced by 60s garage rock bands, with its simple song structure and reverb-heavy production, but it manages to be more consistently interesting than many of its influences. This is not to say that I don't like 60s garage rock - I do, very much - but I've listened to enough albums to know that the genre, at the time, was oriented mostly towards making hit singles rather than well-constructed albums. Not so with Allah-Las. While they did release several singles, even before they were signed to their current label, they mastered the art of album construction with this LP. There's not a single song out of place and it flows smoothly from beginning to end.

It's a real tragedy that this band doesn't get more attention from the indie music scene. I can only remember meeting two people who know about them, one of whom is the librarian who sent me the CD in the first place, and the other is the record store clerk I bought the album from. I highly recommend that everyone check this album out. It's on iTunes, Spotify, and, for the physically-minded, is available from Innovative Leisure Records on CD, vinyl (a fantastic pressing), and cassette.