Tag: psychedelic rock

Yves Tumor at Austin Psych Fest 2023 by Grace Dunn

Austin Psych Fest 2023: Authenticity in a Far Out Place

Grace Dunn May 29, 2023

As a Black Angels fan, I followed Levitation (Austin Psych Fest)for years from afar, watching snippets of the festival on social media, because traveling to Austin from Los Angeles is a TREK that’s difficult for any overworked and underpaid artist, including myself. Through those glimpses, I recognized Levitation as a home to what I live for: diverse jams and trippy visuals. I could feel that I belonged there, but I had no idea how strong that connection was until the stars aligned and I finally made it out to The Far Out, the venue where the fest was held for the first time this year. related: My First SXSW- Confessions of a Fanboy Posing as Music Critic I’ve been to a fuck ton of gigs and festivals, but this one hit different. The people. All of them. Musicians, Organizers, and Festival Goers alike (groups that generally stay in their respective lanes during live show experiences) all blended into a vibrational tapestry, a collective, sewn together by their love of music. The connectivity and the community made this experience special. I will cherish it forever; “It’s All Happening”. Grace and I arrive in Austin, Texas: Ground zero for psychedelia, past, present,

Melody's Echo Chamber at The Lodge Room by Grace Dunn

Melody’s Echo Chamber at The Lodge Room: Dancing On A Psychedelic Planet

Rob Shepyer May 11, 2023

Melody Prochet and her solo project as Melody’s Echo Chamber have always been a much revered group in the world of psych rock since their inception. Able to fuse together so many of vintage rock’s most powerful musical signatures; from disco-dancing to space rock zero-g guitars, the band can just as easily fill an audience with stoner haze, Fleetwood Mac feels or mindblowing bombast at the snap of Melody’s fingers. It wasn’t just the proposition of having your brain melted that mesmerized Los Angeles into selling out three Melody’s Echo Chamber shows at the Lodge Room, these performances were symbolic of much more to the artist herself. related: Desert Daze 2022- 10 Years In the Evolution of a Music Scene If you want to make a comeback, Los Angeles is the best place to make an impact and the Lodge Room is the best venue to ensure sanctuary, spirit and an endless feedback loop of mana between artist and witnesses. Supporting her 2022 album Unfold, Melody’s Echo Chamber was back doing what she does best, and with tears in her eyes and sonic keys of euphoria in her voice, Melody unlocked the minds of every sparkling-rainbow soul inside the Lodge

Year in Review: Top 10 Albums of 2015 Rated by Contributors

Danny Baraz December 14, 2015

10 years from now, we might look back at the Top 10 Albums of 2015 as the year the “new music industry” became a viable business model. As the battle rages to fine tune some of the sticky points around streaming services, vinyl sales soar at the same time bands and artists offer free downloads, surrendering the traditional model and entrusting their legacy to future generations. With so many different ways to deliver musical products to consumers, our Top 10 Albums of 2015 list will include LP’s, EP’s and Mixtapes. We are not a hive mind at Janky Smooth so you will find albums we didn’t publish favorable reviews on in our contributors top 10 list. We here at Janky Smooth feel blessed to stand on the precipice with you and gaze upon the vast landscape of music that is exploding from all corners of the world. Top 10 Albums/EP’s/Mixtapes of 2015 Johnny Ramos- Photographer: Top 10 Albums of 2015 Tame Impala – Currents Beach House – Depression Cherry Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color Death Grips – The Powers That B Toro Y Moi – What For? Turnover – Peripheral Vision Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Multi-Love Hot Chip –

Dinoczar New Single “Burnt Out” Off Impending Debut Album

Brent Smith December 11, 2015

If you don’t remember Dinoczar, the darkly-weird Bostonians from our review of The House of the Rising Fuzz—an anthemic east coast garage psych compilation in which their single “Cream” blew off our doors with speedfreak riffs, muddled jive, and rambling, headbanging solos—then you have another chance to pay closer attention. We’re pleased to share the news that Dinoczar’s debut LP Sick Wind is due out early next year, and that they’ve dropped its first single “Burnt Out.” This time around, it’s less in-your-face punk and more proto-stoner metal that’s been dominating the underground lately. That’s not to say Dinoczar are backing off or falling in line, not in the least. Even though the band is a lowly three-piece, the only thing minimal about them is the vocals. The holy trinity of guitar-bass-drum assaults with formidable savagery. But it also pings the sweet side of the spectrum, and slows down for moments of instrumental rumination before crashing back into its biting, awesomely unintelligible chorus. About 20 seconds before it ends, the song eerily bleeds out into some Lynchian distortion that gives an out-of-body effect—like dying—before an unseen, omnipresent listener cuts the track with the press of an analog STOP button. (Rough

Review: “House of the Rising Fuzz” Boston Psych Rock Compilation

Brent Smith September 30, 2015

House of the Rising Fuzz It’s good to know that if I ever had to move to Boston, I wouldn’t have to worry about any lack of an underground rock scene. If you’ve had your antennae up lately, you’ve noticed spooky rock n roll action-at-a-distance in virtually every city in America. It’s obvious. Today’s fuzz is one huge EXPLOSION of epic garage/surf/psych/punk proportions. It’s everywhere. Psych alone has its string of festivals all over the country, and now the world. We have our own L.A. Psych Fest scene here in the southland. What used to be Psych Fest Austin quickly morphed into Levitation Austin, Levitation Toronto, and Levitation France. Denver Psych Fest transmuted into Synesthesia. Seattle has two: North West Psych Fest and HYPNOTIKON. There are even Psych Nights in both Brisbane, Australia and Cape Town, South Africa. We’ve definitely felt the detonation in SoCal. DIY indie bands out here are playing so hard and so far underground they’re practically egging on The Big One (and once they do, we’ll have front row seats). In revelry of this recent rock revolution, Ben Semeta has curated House of the Rising Fuzz, a ten-track odyssey that effectively sounds off the fuzz

Entering the Void at L.A. Psych Fest 2015

Brent Smith September 24, 2015

‘The unspeakable is the true domain of being.’ –Terence McKenna For lineup snobs, the 4th annual Los Angeles Festival of Psychedelic Music and Art may not have compared to the recent bills of Levitation Austin or Toronto earlier this year, or even Levitation France for that matter, which synchronistically went off on the same weekend. Nevertheless, for a homegrown spectacle, L.A. Psych Fest was a wildly intimate affair. It also served as yet another euphoric instance in today’s mushrooming psychedelic revolution happening everywhere from L.A. to Denver to Boston and beyond. If you weren’t in the crowd this weekend decked to the nines in glitter mascara and your old tie-dye, you definitely missed out. L.A. Psych Fest definitely started off on the right foot, with sick performances that first night at the Regent Theater by Jennifer Castle, Green Gerry, Mr. Elevator & the Brain Hotel, Night Beats, and epic crowd-pleasers The Budos Band on the main stage. The Echo proved to be the more fitting venue, as the fest really caught its momentum during a manic second day, headlined by instrumental giants Earthless. I personally couldn’t wait to finally see JJUUJJUU and Moon Duo live for the first time (and

Mystic Braves Headline the Teragram Ballroom shot by Johnny Ramos

Mystic Braves Bring Good Vibes To The Teragram Ballroom

Johann A. Ramos September 8, 2015

Ryan of No Parents illuminated at The Teragram Mystic Braves, Creation Factory, The Abigails and No Parents shared the stage on the first Friday of September at the Teragram Ballroom in Downtown Los Angeles. But one of these things is not like the others and it had me scratchin my head. Creation Factory, The Abigails, and Mystic Braves have a complimentary sound (and even common band members) with a 60’s psychedelic rock influence. This left No Parents a little out of place with their straightforward punk style. It’s not the first time No Parents’ name on a bill looked like a red headed step child in an African village. We’ve been noticing that a lot with this band but I think it’s just because every band in L.A. wants to play shows with them. It made for an interesting night. Johnny 2 Bags and The Abigails at The Echo: Two Generations of Heartbreak Music I’ve never been to the Teragram Ballroom before, and I was quite surprised with the venue’s sound and lighting. I’ve seen Mystic Braves many times in their rise through the L.A. DIY indie music scene so I’m intimately familiar with their sound. So many shows in dingy clubs

Kevin Parker at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Tame Impala: Tie Dye in the Sky at Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Danny Baraz August 8, 2015

There was tie-dye in the sky Thursday night in Los Angeles. Fluffy clusters of clouds blanketed the sky overhead and in the west, off in the distance, The fire of sunset in the clouds over the Pacific Ocean was the perfect backdrop, as I made my way over to Hollywood Forever Cemetery to see Tame Impala play the first night amongst the dead. I was a bit nervous. Tame Impala has been one of my favorite bands for the better part of a decade but my love for the band has been put to the test with the release of their latest LP, Currents. The over produced album under delivered on the epic and anthemic arrangements I have come to love and expect. While I love the risks that were taken, I’m not in love with the final product. How would these new songs play live and how many songs I love will be bumped from the set list? The power of the perfect setting for a concert cannot be overstated. As we walked down the main path of the cemetery, we were surrounded by the concrete and asphalt tombs of Hollywood royalty, such as Valentino, Mickey Rooney and Cecil

New Album Review: Tame Impala- Currents

Danny Baraz July 28, 2015

Hardcore Tame Impala fans, (like myself) could find it pretty easy to slam the new album Currents, released this month by Interscope Records on July 17th. There is little in this album that is reminiscent of anything fans fell in love with about Tame Impala in the first place, save for the sweet vocals of Kevin Parker. The fuzzed out guitars are difficult to place in most tracks and that, along with a more sequenced and produced drum track, remove the rock element from the album’s vibe, almost entirely. One of the most exciting things about Tame Impala’s music was the hard edged rock arrangements in tandem with Kevin Parker’s gentle, soothing, almost Barry Gibb-esque falsetto vocals. Currents is successful in almost entirely removing the bands hard edge. Currents takes a risky path. The magnitude of this path has not been seen since the likes of Radiohead releasing Kid A in 2000. But even Kid A had a segway named OK Computer, which hinted at a significant shift in their creative direction prior to dropping the hammer. This change of focus was not without it’s own warning, though. On March 11th of this year, the band released a song titled,