Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Black Angels Dream Phosphene
Last week, I was putting together a playlist of post-’60s psychedelic songs from the likes of Apples in Stereo, Kelley Stoltz, Young Prisms, and the Lumerians. I wanted droning, distorted organ sounds, primitive drums and rattling percussion, guitars playing trebly minor-key figures, bluesy bends and fuzzed-out solos, wailing vocals, and everything soaked in reverb. But after I had dropped in “Bad Vibrations” by the Black Angels I stopped, realizing that all I needed to do to create my playlist was to put that band’s music on repeat.
The Black Angels emerged from Austin, Texas, in 2004 and took their place among the great neo-psychedelic bands of today. You know: Black Mountain, Black Lips, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (notice a theme?). They took their name from the Velvet Underground and much of their sound from fabled Texans the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and they have always been up front but not especially reverent about their influences. Their song titles often tweak ’60s classics: not only “Bad Vibrations” but “The Sniper at the Gates of Heaven” (compare with Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn) and “Yesterday Always Knows” (think Beatles).
That kind of trick gets to the heart of what makes the Black Angels stand out: the band revels in the past but transcends it through being so good. If they don’t try very hard to bring their sound into the 21st Century, neither do they try too hard to look and sound like 1967. Last year’s full-length Phosphene Dream was the most cohesive and accessible set of songs they’ve put together so far, and it portends great and strange things.
BLACK ANGELS: Belly Up Tavern, Monday, May 16, 9 p.m. 858-481-8140. $15 advance; $17 door.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Black Angels Dream Phosphene
Black Angels Dream Phosphene
Last week, I was putting together a playlist of post-’60s psychedelic songs from the likes of Apples in Stereo, Kelley Stoltz, Young Prisms, and the Lumerians. I wanted droning, distorted organ sounds, primitive drums and rattling percussion, guitars playing trebly minor-key figures, bluesy bends and fuzzed-out solos, wailing vocals, and everything soaked in reverb. But after I had dropped in “Bad Vibrations” by the Black Angels I stopped, realizing that all I needed to do to create my playlist was to put that band’s music on repeat.
The Black Angels emerged from Austin, Texas, in 2004 and took their place among the great neo-psychedelic bands of today. You know: Black Mountain, Black Lips, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (notice a theme?). They took their name from the Velvet Underground and much of their sound from fabled Texans the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, and they have always been up front but not especially reverent about their influences. Their song titles often tweak ’60s classics: not only “Bad Vibrations” but “The Sniper at the Gates of Heaven” (compare with Pink Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn) and “Yesterday Always Knows” (think Beatles).
That kind of trick gets to the heart of what makes the Black Angels stand out: the band revels in the past but transcends it through being so good. If they don’t try very hard to bring their sound into the 21st Century, neither do they try too hard to look and sound like 1967. Last year’s full-length Phosphene Dream was the most cohesive and accessible set of songs they’ve put together so far, and it portends great and strange things.
BLACK ANGELS: Belly Up Tavern, Monday, May 16, 9 p.m. 858-481-8140. $15 advance; $17 door.
Comments