Build Your Beast a Fire, the second full-length from Brooklyn band Weird Owl, carries the same folksy psychedelia over from 2009′s Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed, but atmospherically speaking, the albums sound worlds apart. The bluesy, acid-drenched rock found on that previous album has been spread out over many a wide spaces this time around and the result is an open-armed, communal vibe, like robed choirs ’round campfires, like groups of fringed-jacket smokers under diamond skies. Build Your Beast a Fire still bubbles with a mystic amalgam of Neil Young/Crazy Horse and some lo-fi groove, but develops what I can only call a more British sound, pulling in bits of Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, and the more modern, melodic pop styling of The Stone Roses, especially on the songs “Straj Proj” and “Skin the Dawn.” There’s 15 songs in total here, with a good handful being minute-and-half-long toss asides, but what’s left showcases Weird Owl’s ability to focus their third eye a little more on the turned on, tuned in, dropped out task at hand.
Listen to “Skin the Dawn” from Build Your Beast a Fire!
The Main Street Gospel Love Will Have Her Revenge
Tee Pee
Blowin’ in on the winds of yesteryear is The Main Street Gospel, a country-psych band with ties to Brian Jonestown Massacre and a sound so steeped in nostalgia and tradition you gotta blow the dust off of it just to discover the true treasure it really is. Love Will Have Her Revenge, the Ohio trio’s debut, is a laid back approach to the usual foot-stomp of mustache rock, and gets its point across by way of delicate pop melodies, tin cup blues, and breezy jams. While none of the songs here are exceptionally overpowering in their virility, they do have amazing breadth, depth, and reach, like the thick roots of an old and impressive tree. Not only that, but they shake and hum at times with a journeyman vibe, as the longest songs on deck (“Fool’s Gold,” “Ready to Shine,” and “She’s a Disease”) draw you into a solitary world of lonely rural squatting and the hallucinations it might induce with their 70s-inspired freak-folk rock. You’ll be able to hear a wide array of influences on this one, like Neil Young, Wilco, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Dead Meadow, and Blood Meridian, but in the end it’s just good ol’ rock n’ roll — vulnerable, honest, heartfelt, and a tad trippy.
Check out MSG performing the title track from Love Will Have Her Revenge!
Weird Owl
The Main Street Gospel