U.S. Christmas
Run Thick in the Night
Neurot

Their name might invoke cheerier holiday associations, but the heavy, cosmic, psych-drone of U.S. Christmas (or USX for brevity) really has more in common with the eeriness of today’s particular celebration. I’m not saying that the North Carolina band’s fifth release, Run Thick in the Night, is some kind of spook-tacular monster mash, it’s just that it will stalk you like a dense fog rolling in off the docks and hunt you like a shadowy figure beneath a pale moon. There’s a wide range of tricks being offered here, including monumental opuses (“In the Night”), brazen circuit breakers (“Wolf on Anareta”), wistful ballads (“Fire is Sleeping,” “Devil’s Flower in Mother Winter,” and “Mirror Glass”), and a whole bunch of dreamy, string-infused dope rock that often gets labeled as post-rock, although to me it delivers a solid Earth vibe with vocals. The 13 songs on Run Thick in the Night thrive on a deep, dark, and hallowed psychedelic songwriting tradition of bloodshot eyes and loose dirt, conjuring up derelict spirits, otherworldly and otherwise.

Listen to “The Quena” from Run Thick in the Night!

Night Horse
Perdition Hymns
Tee Pee

Even though they hail from the City of Angels, Night Horse carry themselves with that Americana swagger befitting East Coast brawlers, chucking big, dopey, boogie-fried riffs at you like ham-sized fists that leave deep, lasting bruises. Picking up where their 2008 debut, The Dark Won’t Hide You, left off, Perdition Hymns lays the Southern stoner rock on nice n’ thick, incorporating plenty of organ, slide, and 70s-infused boxcar blues to send you on a weed-eating nostalgia trip to Altamont and back. Sure, it’s got all the dusty charm of Skynyrd or the Allmans, and sounds like a nasty mix of Cracktorch and the ‘Crowes, but ultimately (and maybe it’s because of the way singer Sam James Velde howls at the blood red moon) the songs on Perdition Hymns come off as bastard inventions from an alternate universe where Danzig grows up a wayward cowboy and not Lucifer’s brawny spawn.

Listen to “Shake Your Blues” from Perdition Hymns!

I’ve been wanting to see Moon for awhile now after hearing from a few people how mind-blowing it is, and I’m always up for anything Sam Rockwell does, and, of course, I wasn’t disappointed. I mean, it wasn’t exactly mind-blowing (too much hype perhaps?), but it was damn good, and it always amazes me how killer movies like this are released without much ado, and yet I have to see an ad for some hokey bullshit movie with Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant every time I turn on the TV. Who knows, maybe I’m watching the wrong channels. But no matter because I finally took a trip to the Moon, and man, am I ever glad I did. Now, unfortunately this one is going to be brief, and not because it doesn’t deserve a proper write-up, but because there’s not much I can say about Moon without spoiling it for you. It’s a real psyche-out, this one, but I should be able to give you the general idea.

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