August Psychedelia Update

Some excellent old and new releases and a festival update

I’m particularly excited about the stuff I’m covering this time. Turn me on Dead Man has a new album and it’s absolutely fantastic. I’ve been wanting to write about Yawning Man’s new album for a while since I’ve been listening to it on repeat but I did not find the time before. Finally I discovered a previously unknown band to me at Los Almiros Festival and that’s always exciting. Speaking of Los Almiros, here’s a video of the moshpit at the Black Rainbows show at that festival:

Turn me on Dead Man - Cassiopeia

Label: Light Rail Studios

Release Date: August 5th 2023

RIYL: Nebula, Black Rainbows, Kyuss, Mammatus

Absolutely LOVE this monster of an album. Sixth release by these heavy psych veterans and it is a killer. The music is dominated by the two guitarists’ stellar work and gorgeous tone, build on top a solid bass and drum foundation. I love the driving rhythm and raw DIY (almost maybe punk?) attitude that you can hear throughout. It really is no surprise that the band has released some of their past albums on Alternative Tentacles and Heavy Psych Sounds. Melody-wise I hear a lot of middle eastern/psych riffage which works very well with the vibe of the album (see the second track “My Vast Empire”). All the tracks are super solid but by far my favorite is the sprawling title track “Cassiopeia”. Starting out slow and spacey, it builds up into an epic monster of a space/stoner rock opus. Towards the second half it also speeds up significantly even reaching proto thrash territory. Highly recommended stuff. Side note but I know their guitarist Nick, who is also a co-owner of Light Rail Studios in SF and he’s a class act in addition to being a stellar guitarist.

Yawning Man - Long Walk of the Navajo

Streaming Links: Spotify, Apple Music

Label: Heavy Psych Sounds

Release Date: June 16th 2023

RIYL: Colour Haze, King Buffalo, Causa Sui

Here’s a fresh release by these desert rock stalwarts. Three tracks of beautiful sprawling soundscapes that would make a perfect accompaniment to a long drive through the desert at night under an August full moon. The music is mostly driven by Gary Arce’s beautiful guitar work which at times is reminiscent of a stoner/psych version of Vini Reilly’s post punk project the Durutti Column but with more delay/reverb. My favorite track of this album is “Respiratory Pause” which starts out super stoned out and psychey and slowly builds up into an 80s soundtrack vibe. Yawning Man have been around for a while. First formed in 1986, they were part of the generator party circle of bands that also featured the Kyuss crew. It’s a testament to their resilience and creativity that in 2023 they can make an album as good such as this one. Excellent stuff.

Screaming dEAD Balloons - L’Un Ar ID

Streaming Links: Spotify, Apple Music

Label: Records DK

Release Date: January 18th, 2019

RIYL: Savage Republic, Sei Still, Thee Oh Sees, Singapore Sling, Loop

There’s many reasons I enjoy going to music festivals but my favorite one is discovering new bands that I know nothing about even though they kick ass. In this case I was taking my son to the Almiros Festival to see Black Rainbows and we ended up seeing these guys playing before them. Screaming dEAD Balloons are a three piece from Larissa, Greece, whose sound is somewhere at the intersection of garage, punk, psych, and krautrock. They’ve been at it since 2012, their sound is raw, their accent super Greek and they sound fucking awesome. They also seem to take from the same formula that made Loop so effective: take the raw energy of a proto punk band like the Stooges or MC5 and mix it with the repetitive hypnotic beat of Neu and Can. In that sense they are also similar to 90s/aughts band Singapore Sling or post punk band Savage Republic (which is extremely popular in Greece). Good stuff. I really enjoyed the track Mandolino but the whole album is worth listening to. Also the guitarist came down from the stage after the show and was chatting to Thomas for a while and also gave him one of his picks.