Drinking Flowers is a band I have seen several times around clubs and if you were near the Echo/Echoplex/Bootleg this summer there is a good chance you caught one of their gigs too! I have always enjoyed their performances filled with a powerful shoegazing wall-of-sound psychedelia, and I have just learnt that they have a new EP. ‘Shadow Show’, which will be out on October 17th on Lolipop Records in the US and Eager Waves in the Netherlands, will follow their previous ‘Sanity Restored 1972’ EP, and I guess Velvet Underground, Brian Johnston Massacre, the Warlocks, Jesus and Mary Chain fans all-united should check out this band.
The sound is dark with throbbing and mostly slow pop songs leading to cathartic endings before venturing into psychedelic pleasure. The vocals are monochord, bored and distant, hypnotic at time, even incantation-like, while the guitars can turn very surfy (‘Rabbit Hole’) reminiscent of the 60s, as if the Byrds had decided to cover the Black Angels…’Your Head is Reeling’ starts with authoritarian drumming and slowly spreads like a throbbing march of a cult chanting back up vocals, then suddenly turns mad, bringing distortion and grinding noise. ’Pop Underground’ is more imbued by California sun and quite catchy, but you can always spot a bit of sunshine throughout the EP, despite the noisy fuzziness and the thick stupor.
The quintet tells us that psychedelia is back with a vengeance although I don’t think it was ever gone looking at the abundance of LA bands that currently cultivates the genre… However Drinking Flowers bring its own drone and unique twist on psychedelia, with reverb, echo, and fuzzy guitars transporting you in a real trance and pop songs escaping the darkness.
