It helps to think of Three Wolf Moon as something like an old Native legend and not, as you might be immediately tempted to do, an homage to Three Dog Night or the ironic, cult-folk t-shirt design (which I’m afraid it is). That way, when you drink in its hazy, star-filled, electric splendor, you can stare at the sky for hours with nothing but an affinity for wandering spirits in your mind. Indeed, W is a three-song brain-tickler, a delicate odyssey of garage-psych obsessed with alphabetical stress, and its trio of doubled-yous (“Water/Wine,” “Wetbrain,” “The Worst”) are indelible gifts of indie-freak you won’t soon forget. You know, there’s no reason this Canadian band, which features members of Black Wizard, If We Are Machines, and The Best Revenge, can’t run with the likes of Black Mountain and Weird Owl to whatever cosmic finish line awaits ‘em. And I’ll be on the sidelines doing my part by handing out the Kool-Aid when they pass by…and wearing that t-shirt, no doubt.
Listen to W (and download it for free) right here!
Listening to Brooklyn trio Bad Dream is like being picked up on the side of the road by a bunch of bleary-eyed strangers in a black van who just stare at you the whole hazy ride, numb to their new friend, while you’re gripping your jeans, mistaking the flash of passing headlights for the glint of a hunting knife. It’s a heavy kind of nervous energy, a fuzzy psych-doom that spins thick webs in your head, and each of the songs on this 7″ drip with sacrificial wax. Side A’s “Black Blizzard” is a carry over from their Demonstration EP, but it sounds considerably more evil this time around, while side B’s “1134″ tortures you with its medieval riffs. Bad Dream might be a tad more psychedelic than Electric Wizard but they come from the same soul-frying school, that’s for sure, and will no doubt please all the dope fiends and (bad) dreamers out there.
Note: That’s not exactly the proper cover; there’s all sorts of different coloured covers, which you can see here. I got myself the purple swirl cover on white vinyl, number 129/300. Oh, one more thing about Bad Dream…they have the best prices for merch. I got this 7″, a poster, a t-shirt, and some patches all for like $15. And that included shipping. You’d be crazy not to send ‘em some money.
Listen to “Black Blizzard”! This is actually the version from the Demonstration EP because it was all I could find, but you get the idea.
Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus Bloom
Transubstans Records
It might be a little tough to get by the name, but once you accept the fact that Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus isn’t the title of a long lost Hardy Boys mystery novel in which sleuthing teenage brothers Frank and Joe Hardy spoil an international spy ring led by an award-winning British actor and his band of no-good, rich, white skaters from the coast, and that they are indeed a loose n’ groovy psych-rock band from Stockholm, Sweden, then things suddenly become mystically boss. Bloom, their second album and first on label Transubstans after self-releasing their 2007 debut Elefanta, is an incredibly soulful jam that focuses the majority of its attention on delivering its hazy, swirling melodies in a clear and present manner instead of burying them behind layers of fuzz and mud like most acid trippers are apt to do; songs like the organ-fried clock-melters “Skin Deep” and “IAOA” are propelled by an earthy, bluesy force, “Tales of the Future” and “Cosmo Tropic” require some serious hip shakes before that third eye of yours will open, and the Zeppelin-esque “Fernando” might one day replace “Stairway to Heaven” as the last song at Swedish proms. But where JI&TRM really excel is, believe it or not, in their ability to channel the amplified love of Jeff Buckley, as “Elefanta,” “Golden Hours,” and the title track each swell with an unnervingly delicate beauty reminiscent of the late musician’s sound, elevating Bloom beyond a trippy rock n’ roll record into something much more magical. Highly recommended.
Three Wolf Moon
Bad Dream
Jeremy Irons & The Ratgang Malibus