Cass McCombs
got topical last week — putting out a song in solidarity with PFC Bradley Manning, the soon-to-be-court-martialed WikiLeaks whistleblower who allegedly smuggled numerous secret files out of a military intelligence center onto a thumb drive more than 18 months ago.His woozy warble, the reverb-heavy organ and vocals, the traipsing tempo and minimalist strum, the contemplative moodiness, fit, more or less, the aesthetic of his two most recent releases, the both equally hailed Wit's End and Humor Risk... (Listen to a new song from the latest album: Cass McCombs - "The Same Thing").
Just about anything this folk-deconstructionist has done in the last five years has been heavily-critically-acclaimed, and metro-area music-heads can see why on Saturday, Jan 28th, at the Pike Room (Crofoot) inPontiac.
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Anyways...
About a month ago, the Jet Rodriguez released a new EP Faceless Entities — a follow up to 2010's Mourning Days / Mourning Daze, aiming for grander soundscapes this time around — blending airs of headswimming-psychedeila (via syrupy guitar fuzz) with the tumble and twang of Americana — keeping a keen sense for melody and heavy harmonic swoons. In essence, think Detroit's possible response to the theatrical jangle and soaring, rock-splattered arias of My Morning Jacket.
"Reptilian Man" is not only the weirdest title of the track list it's the most eclectic composition: gruff bluesy howls over crashing drums and intertwining guitars - complete with its own whizzled-out "Palette Cleanser" of backwards-strung guitar yawns - then recharging into the bolstering, funk-tinged bass rolls of "So Calmly By The Door" which, itself, surges into a cascading chorus over a slowed-down dicso-beat. All these zesty sonic tracts swirl around and into each other, yet still maintain that vibe this could be soundtracking some reckless cockamamie vision-quest of you traipsing out, directionless, under a starry sky at the edge of the desert... ...or something like that... falling closer to a Tame Impala-vibe, at the very least. ?
The Jet Rodriguez - "So Calmly By The Door"
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And,
...in just about two weeks, (Feb 10th) Ypsi-based Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor are to play a live set of songs from their latest LP Spectra Spirit inside the Magic Stick as part of a Detroit-hosted album-release show, (complete with "Psychedelic Supper II" - free Indian food buffet).
The echo-heavy psyche-rock trio has been making a commendable go of it, being their own press agents, running their own studio, booking their own shows, just...really...doing it; a sort of cool, calm, DIY-follow-through - 'tis the way of things, ain't it, in this bandcamp-world through which we whirl, and SOYSV's doing it right, so far.
Stream a song here, via New Fortune Records. Or, you can grab the whole album from their main site.
Their assiduousness carries through (comes through) their recordings and live sound; a roaring feedback singes the edge of every guitar tone, the bass and drums find this ominous, chest-thumping groove and the vocals wheeze out this raspy, cathartic growl. This is a psyche-band unafraid to be a pure psyche-band, not trying to dress it up with gimmicks or overly-heady conceptual compositions; if they wanna churn out a dreamy/nightmarish drone that swirls for minutes-on-end, then they're gonna follow it... ...a pure kind of contemplative, drift-and-dirgey rock/blues trip.
Anyways... ...their Detroit show is Friday, Feb. 10th (Magic Stick) - paired with Ypsi-based Bad Indians (who are on more of a shadowy punk-pop trip) and Detroit's Duende (who are more on a Delta-blues-by-way-of-Saturn trip), topped off by SOYSV's NY-allies, Dead Leaf Echo.
