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June 12-18, 2008
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Something wicked this way comes
The Black Angels conjure up the dark ghosts of the ’60s
by Adam Perry
The land of Oz
Brit rockers Ozric Tentacles dig up the past on their new tour
by Dave Kirby
Something wicked this way comes
The Black Angels conjure up the dark ghosts of the ’60s
by Adam Perry
For music lovers out there who think bands like Widespread Panic and String Cheese Incident are the sole and rightful carriers of the ’60s torch, I’d like to use this space to suggest checking out a few of the current impressively-tripped-out groups influenced by the other side of the ’60s: The Gris Gris, Animal Collective, Comets On Fire, Wooden Shjips and, more importantly (because they’re playing the Bluebird Theater in Denver on June 14th), Austin’s Black Angels. Heavily influenced by ’60s greats like the 13th Floor Elevators, the Velvet Underground, The Doors and early Stooges, the Black Angels — known for live performances that are frequently compared to Native American tribal ceremonies — are living proof that, in the immortal words of Frank Zappa, “flower power sucks.”
The Black Angels, quite honestly, scare people. But the band’s dark thrill-ride of a sound is unforgettable and addictive: simple, hypnotic drums pounded out by Stephanie Bailey like a muscle-bound Moe Tucker; huge guitar and bass lines straight out of White Light/White Heat; weird little drone-machine workouts and even organ parts reminiscent of Tom Constanten’s late ’60s work with the Grateful Dead; and an imposing, shamanistic lead singer (Alex Maas) who, with his messianic stage presence and lyrics like “you made me see that bright eye / between me and time / to just kill kill kill kill,” makes Jim Morrison seem dainty in comparison. Basically, listening to the Black Angels is like hearing death coming ‘round the corner and, after the hell they’ve shown you, not minding so much.
Touring their asses off — basically non-stop — over the past few years with the likes of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Vietnam, the Black Angels have quickly (and loudly) gained a large cult following and received high praise from critics all over, including Rolling Stone’s longtime “in”-guy David Fricke, who called the band’s music “acid-prayer stomp... medicine that works wonders.” And no less than the 13th Floor Elevators’ own Tommy Hall wrote a typically mad piece on the Black Angels’ website declaring “it is the quest for pure sanity that forms the basis of the Black Angels.”
The band’s new sophomore full-length, Directions to See a Ghost, improves upon the Black Angels’ critically acclaimed (and hauntingly explosive) debut LP Passover, which has been an underground phenomenon and included the brutal “The First Vietnamese War,” probably the best Iraq War protest song to date and quite possibly the best anti-war rocker since CSNY’s “Ohio.” And although Passover was an instant headphone classic that can hit listeners heavy and hard even more with each listen, Directions to See a Ghost invokes just as much raw, immediate emotion but in vastly different ways as it develops, rather than focusing on one wicked feeling.
“I think touring is a major part of our evolution and more group collaboration,” singer Maas told me recently. He also said his favorite frontman is Willie Nelson, which is surprising coming from someone who prowls the stage with the nefarious aura of crazed ’60s front-men like Morrison and Syd Barrett. Just don’t ask him if his classic-rock-style ringleading comes complete with leather pants: “Send me a picture of me wearing leather pants and I will do your laundry for a month,” he said in a playful rage.
Guitarist/organist/drone-specialist Christian Bland told me that the evolution came about partly from all the time on the road and partly because the band also shares a home: “We all live together, (except for Kyle who lives with his wife and child) so we can pretty much play music whenever we want to. The first album was mainly written by Alex and I, while with the second album, most of the songs were a collaborative effort. We would just start jamming in practice and once we hit a nice groove, we would work it out. We also switched up instruments on [Directions to See a Ghost], where as on Passover we played our ‘main’ instrument.”
New songs like “Doves” and “18 Years,” introducing a more traditionally psychedelic sound to the Black Angels’ repertoire, are the first Black Angels tracks I’d qualify as “love songs,” although lines like “she’s got control of you and you love it” aren’t exactly peppy. “Mission District,” which was inspired by a stroll the group took through this writer’s old San Francisco neighborhood after a show there last year, starts out as the proverbial tribal stomp with Maas growling “you only love yourself / you only care for you” before everything slowly descends into an “Astronomy Domine”-esque freakout. And there is indeed more of a Syd-era Pink Floyd influence (along with strains of Eastern music) to Directions than the Black Angels’ previous work, but when a band’s logo is a picture of Nico, it’s pretty clear where their allegiance lies. The nine-minute adventure that is “Never/Ever,” for one, has “Sister Ray” written all over it and definitely smacks of the legendary live Velvet Underground jams of the ’60s.
And on the subject of what inspires the Black Angels’ lyrics, Maas gave me a two-word answer: “the unknown.” As for the trippy garage-rock (in the vein of Brian Jonestown Massacre and BRMC with a poppy twist) the Los Angeles’ Warlocks, who will share the bill in Denver on the 14th, one only has to listen to songs like “Shake The Dope Out” and “The Dope Feels Good” to see what’s going on there. But in all seriousness, it’s a great match, says Bland:
“Touring with The Warlocks has been a long time in the making. They’re one of our all-time favorite bands. The Black Angels wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for The Warlocks. So we’re really looking forward to this tour.”
On the Bill
The Black Angels will perform with The Warlocks at 10 p.m. on Saturday, June 14, at the Bluebird Theater, 3317 E. Colfax Ave., Denver, 303-322-2308.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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The land of Oz
Brit rockers Ozric Tentacles dig up the past on their new tour
by Dave Kirby
We’re usually subtracting hours to get an interview time just right with Ozric Tentacles’ frontman/guitarist Ed Wynne, as we’re typically catching him at his UK home before his leap over the pond. Not this time — the band was crammed into a barn on a Cheyenne ranch, rehearsing at the in-law’s ranch.
We tried to picture Wynne, slinking across the windblown Wyoming terrain and dodging meadow muffins in his tie-dyed shirt, but Wynne said it was all business.
“The band is sounding really, really good right now. I couldn’t be happier.
“We came over to play [last week’s] Wakarusa Festival, and they wanted us to do two two-hour sets, on different nights, with no duplicated material.”
Yikes. Sounds like a bit of a challenge.
“A little bit, yeah, but we can do it. Lots of improvisation — that’s part of what we do anyway. We’ll just do a bit more this time,” he laughed.
“But really, it’s a good thing for us. It forces you as a band to dig deeper into your material, and that’s always a productive thing. Also, there’s a certain portion of the CD material that we just can’t do in concert. There’s too much preparation involved, or some of the sounds come from a series of accidents that can’t really be duplicated. So, as a practical matter, we’re a bit limited anyway.”
Musical offspring of pioneering space rockers like Germany’s Kraan and the UK’s near-legendary Gong and Hawkwind, the Ozrics got their start as a spontaneous jam thing at a Stonehenge festival back in the early ’80s, drifting from gathering to gathering as an itinerant franchise, dwelling amongst the far-flung hippie festival flotsam and distributing cassettes along the way for anyone willing to take one.
To mark their milestone 25th year, fittingly, Wynne and the Ozrics played the Somerset Sunrise festival last year, invited a few old band members to join, dusted off some very old material and canned a DVD of the event, recently released as a CD/DVD.
“We did it ourselves; we really didn’t want it to be a big commercial thing. We basically had several cameras and just edited it down on our laptop. And it came out very well, I think — looks very professional.
“Yeah, it brought back some memories… mostly good ones. It was a lot of fun.”
Over time, the band’s sound has evolved through lush, heavily improvised organic chillout meditations to hook-laden synth/guitar rock instrumentals to quirky Middle Eastern-flavored jams to volcanic space rock epics built around blistering guitar runs and whiplash time changes. Their references — ethnic, metal, rave, cosmology, fusion, trance — all percolate in the mix, bobbing and sinking, blaring and dissolving, and for a band so dependent on technology, the Ozrics’ greatest achievement may be to have made 25 years of this madness sound spontaneous and mirthful, avoiding clinical dryness or clubby detachment.
Two and a half decades later, downstream from dubious record label deals and countless personnel changes, Wynne represents the core of the band, leaning these days heavily on his American-born wife Brandi who is currently holding down second synth seat, having managed band logistics and playing bass for the last several years.
No Paul and Linda thing here.
“No, she’s really incredible,” says Wynne. “She does more than any other five people possibly could.”
As far as the personnel changes, and the resulting changes in character of the band, Wynne chalks it up to simple dynamics, the consequence of being The Guy who keeps Ozric Tentacles sounding like Ozric Tentacles.
“Over 25 years, it can be very difficult to keep four or five other musicians entertained and happy all the time. I mean, I tend to be pretty firm in the studio about how I want things to sound, and sometimes that doesn’t allow for others to get their way. That’s just how it works out. You do what you can, but sometimes you just have to move on.”
We also noted that the band has become something of a schizophrenic entity, constructing some deeply mesmerizing and complex atmospherics on their CD, but tending toward the more straightforward, guitar-based pieces onstage. We wondered if their current success on American soil, most recently at festivals like Wakarusa and Bonnaroo, has had an affect on their live set.
“To some extent, yeah, I’d say it has. The guitar is a lot more popular over here in America than in England, although that’s changing a little bit these days, I think. So, we do tend to include more of the guitar-heavy pieces in the U.S. shows. I just think that’s what audiences over here respond to most.
“I live in constant fear of boring people, so I’m a little reluctant to do too much chill stuff live. I don’t know, maybe I shouldn’t worry about it so much.”
On the Bill
Ozric Tentacles will perform with C-Mon & Kypski at 9 p.m. on Saturday, June 14, at the Fox Theatre, 1135 13th St., Boulder, 303-443-3399.
Respond: letters@boulderweekly.com
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