Moonwalks
Until a few weeks ago, it would have been easy to write off Detroit psychedelic rockers Moonwalks as just another DIY club crawler with too many guitar pedals and too little inspiration. The bass-guitar-drum trio couldn’t have been more obvious about their White Strips fixation when they tapped that band’s producer Jim Diamond for their debut EP. Now on Stolen Body Records, their newest released a few weeks ago, In Light (The Scales in the Frame), hardly seems like the same band. Gone is guitarist Jacob Dean’s sleep-inducing Jerry Garcia noodling, and Kate Gutwald’s bass actually takes the lead from time to time, introducing a hitherto unsuspected dose of genuine funk. Even Kerrigan Pearce’s drums, which previously sounded like someone repeatedly dropping a toilet seat, seem to pop in and out of the mix for brief and powerful spitfires.
The recent single, “Sequins,” is still somewhat drone-drenched, with a Hawkwindian wall of sound that would be more immersive if used a bit more judiciously (or at least tracked at something less than the same bone-rattle volume throughout the tune), but it still manages to engage all the way past the six-minute mark. Their appearance at Soda Bar will be opened by Acid Tongue, a trip-o-tronic garage duo featuring Guy Keltner and Ian Cunningham.