I wish I could go to all these Monday residencies at the Echo or Echoplex, every time, interesting bands show up and it is a mini festival of groups that are still unknown for a large part, but will certainly blow up in the future. This is Los Angeles, there are a lot of talented people around and every time I am blown away by these bands popping out of nowhere. Monday nights are hard nights because they are weeknights, but once in a while I deprave myself from sleep…
So last Monday was Mystic Braves’ residency at the Echoplex, but there were three other bands before them, and Drinking Flowers was the first one to take the stage. Immediately, the tone of the evening was given, a very psychedelic ambiance with a lot of fuzziness, yes, dark and dense layers of fuzz wrapped around reverb and drone, filled up the place. It was very catchy and infectious, in a druggy sort of way (some happier Warlocks?) and I liked them in the trippy sense of the term. I know it is easy and lazy to mention the Velvet Underground but some of their songs had that psych-out atmospheric languor. The quintet mostly played in a shoegazing style, despite the fact that a few songs moved way faster than others, but they kept this static attitude all along. I just would have liked some explanation (if there is one) for their matching berets, not that the hats didn’t suit them but it was a bit… unusual? Unsurprisingly, they will play the annual LA Psych Fest at the Bootleg in May and you can check their greatly-named album, ‘Sanity Restored 1972’, here.
Babies on Acid were next and you have to admit this is an appealing moniker! I like the fact that they describe their music as ‘experimental thriftstore folk’… and your guess is mine! All I can say is that they were producing catchy and super sweet melodies, a sort of dreamy pop, sounding very easy to like at the first listening, but not necessary falling in the easy music category, there were surprising detours and even an exotic vibe should I say? If Joel Jerome’s echoing vocals totally evoked a familiar retro psych-pop, the melodies were dominating everything and nobody was surprised when they covered ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’… Lennon’s shadow was all over their game of sweet harmonies bathing in a lot of drums and percussions. They even brought some languish sax in the party at one point and songs like ‘Epileptic Tunnel Visions’, ‘Cuz Im Dumb After All’, or ‘I Don’t Wanna Marry You’ made girls next to me dance. It is true that these were totally joyous tunes, taking unexpected and odd breaks like a Brian Wilson’s smile.
For pictures of the show, go here.
