Video Vacuum - Pink Mountaintops, Depth & Current, Christian Bland & the Revelators, Pontiak, White Hills

Two Video Vacuums in one week? Weird, right? But I'm not feeling terribly work-oriented, so what better way to waste time than to toke up and get psychedelic on everyone's asses? (NB: In case anyone from work reads this (IE slim to nil, but still...) I haven't really toked up. I have just rubbed my eyes really hard because I'm so tired from working outside work hours all night long, and don't want to fall asleep because I love my job sooooooo much...) Plus it's Austin Psych Fest weekend, so in lieu of not being there, here are some images that might denote what it'd be like if we were...

Let's start with Pink Mountaintops, the side project for Black Mountain's Stephen McBean (they toured recently with Dead Meadow - I missed that hot ticket, and am still paying the price...). 'While We Were Dreaming' is not a new track but thanks to the excellent Ongakubaka blog I have reacquainted myself with this great song.



Continuing the vein of epic psych bands with the colour black in their name's side projects, Black Angels axe-grinder Christian Bland has been pumping out tracks off his own bat, backed by The Revelators. Nothing new here - what it is is bloody good though.



It's certainly no secret that I love the shit out of Pontiak, the Carney brothers' ode to all things psych rock. Their latest opus Echo Ono is one of my fave albums of the year thus far, and 'Royal Colours' helps to keep the good times roll. I honestly thing that if I spent a weekend with these guys, I would end up covered in metallic paint with a devilish grin also. Just sayin.



Another SM fave, and also with a rad album under their belt in 2012, White Hills have a couple of vids floating about on the back of tracks from Frying On This Rock. Both 'You Dream You See' and 'Pads of Light' encapsulate the space spazz oddities that Dave W and Ego Sensation are, and are rocking to boot. I am a massive fan of this band, and you need to be too.





Finally I mentioned Depth & Current last year as their debut LP (through Nice People) was pretty solid. Here is this also solid video for the track 'Pick Yourself Up' - this band is a slowburner, but when it does latch hold of you they sizzle. Check it out for yourself. If you are in Norman, Oklahoma this weekend they are playing the Norman Music Festival, alongside some other ace acts like Bloody Knives, Amen Dunes, True Widow and Woods. Nice...



NOW GET BACK TO WORK!

Digging For Fire = Paradise Found

I'm not gonna beat around the bush. We focus on a lot of psych bands here of all ilks and persuasions. We've had some good psych bands bring out some good straight up psych albums - Secret Colours, and Black Angels immediately comes to mind. And then there is Toronto's Quest For Fire. I'm not sure yet - I have to listen some more, its been in and out of the playlist this past week - but the more I take it in, the more I think Lights From Paradise could be the best straight up psychedelic rock album of 2010.

Massive call, right? Well, it has all the hallmarks of a classic psychedelic rock album - the ritualistic stillness of opener 'The Greatest Hits By God', to the 70s rawk-ness of 'Set Out Alone' and the trapped in amber stoned warble of 'In The Place Of A Storm'. Each song sets out with a purpose and sticks it out to its fiery end, not displaying the schizophrenic sonic shifts in tracks that some of their modern equivalents are prone to. And that isn't meant as a particular negative - many bands thrive in the altered time signature changes and shifts in tempo and velocity, but it is also somewhat refreshing to have a band show their different shadings spread out over an entire album rather than on a single song.

Quest For Fire didn't get enough praise for the brazen sun-kissed blasts of distorted waves they cut on last year's self-titled debut, but fingers crossed that Lights From Paradise does them justice, as it is awesome. And if you doubted the Toronto band's pedigree, two of them tour as the backing band for Black Mountain side-project Pink Mountaintops, whilst they are now supporting Black Mountain in a series of dates. Oh, and A Silver Mt Zion's Sophie Trudeau makes a guest appearance on the record. So yeah...buy it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (NB Hold yr horses - its not out until November 8 through Tee Pee Records - I'm just lucky enough to promo it! Still, get the debut, pre-order the newie, and drop out in glory).

Quest For Fire - Set Out Alone
Quest For Fire - Strange Vacation

Black Mountain Let Down Their Hair

Another cut off Black Mountain's forthcoming LP Wilderness Heart, entitled 'The Hair Song'. I have a feeling there will be a great number of people who wont enjoy this one - this has much more of the fuzzy country rock vibe than the psychedelia that the Canadians are more reknowned for. Maybe Lightning Dust and Pink Mountaintops, the band's other projects, are enforcing themselves more wholeheartedly on this trip? Anyway, some one mentioned The Black Crowes when I played this for em, and whilst that is somewhat accurate, I dont think it is a derogatory thing. Anyway, I think its rollicking, and here it is for you to make your own call. Wilderness Heart comes out in September via Jagjaguwar. And don't forget the gig featuring Black Mountain and the Black Angels in October!!!

Black Mountain - The Hair Song