TOTW: Mystic Braves – Desert Island

It’s clear what influences the LA five-piece that is Mystic Braves have taken into account during the writing process of this song. The sound they have achieved when writing ‘Desert Island’ is evident as the psychedelic roots run deep within this track – in fact, this is true through the whole 2014 ‘Desert Island’ record.

They absolutely hit the bar on taking classic 60’s psychedelic beyond its limits and creating a unique style you may never have heard before, or possibly thought to hear.

The song’s guitar works have a funky reverb-tinted sound and the harmonised “oohs” add a trippy and dream like aspect to the song. Frontman sings chilling lines about how relationships will, in time, end up as if you’re stranded alone on a desert island – “Relationships, sunken ships, deserted on an island.”

Have a listen to the song below and see what you think.

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Return of the tape

When thinking about cassette childhood memories flow to my mind; sitting around with my brightly coloured cassette player, with it’s built in microphone, singing to my favourite tapes with the cheesy echo-effect. The times where I would steal my dad’s Jam tapes, and with no shame my sister’s Busted collection, ended abruptly with the simple insert-and-burn process that CD brought. These are memories that slowly vanished away with the introduction of Compact Disc.

The introduction of Compact Disc and MP3 didn’t help the cassette’s mainstream existence. But over the last few years it looks as if cassette is marching back on the rise, with bands and their labels releasing the majority of new material on this ‘dead’ format. Garage rock labels are especially notorious for releasing tapes; including labels such as Burger Records, Lolipop Records, Doghouse Records and Gnar Tapes who are just a few to support tape revival.

CDs and the MP3 introduced sound quality so much better that it has probably left tape jealous. But this in mind, the low sound quality and lo-fi tinted playback that you get from cassette is attractive to the garage rock feel. The ‘bedroom’ quality DIY effect has the potential to make the song what it is – just take a look at some of the work that Burger have done (click picture below).

Burger Records are the apparent godfather of tape release. Practically all of the singles and albums they send out are given a life on a tape before vinyl or CD – and some don’t even make it that far.  By the time August 2012 came around they had sold somewhere near 100,000 cassettes since they formed back in 2007. Something must be going right; it looks like the demand for cassettes is once again returning.

In an interview with allmusic.com they said, “The King Tuff tape we did was special because the guy who put out the vinyl kind of dropped the ball by not pressing enough copies and now it’s a $100 record on eBay. We’ve sold over 2,500 copies of the “King Tuff was Dead” cassette, that’s probably our best seller.”

The attractive thing about recording and selling tape is how easy it is to record, how cheap it is to record and how cheap it is too buy. Independent artists can set up a tape recording system in their room, record straight to tape and release it all in one evening. With a simple converter it can then be transferred onto the computer. Obviously this DIY way of recording isn’t going to give you the perfect quality but if it suits your style and you want to get something out there, then why the hell not.

Sony have recently built a tape that can store a record breaking 180TB of data – which, to put into context, can supposedly hold somewhat 47 million songs – and to make that simpler CNN writes that it works out  to store the same amount as 1,184 iPod Classics. Although it’s clear that these will be used for data storage rather than storing your music collection, I am sure one day one of your friends will be cruising around thinking he’s as badass by listening to all 40 million of his songs in order.

Click to go to Cassette Store Day’s website

There has even been a cassette spin off to Record Store Day, cleverly titled ‘Cassette Store Day’ which was first held in September 2013. Cassette Store day, rather than support independent stores as Record Store Day aims to do, it’s to celebrate cassettes and all its glory.

With the huge comeback of vinyl recently we have seen an increased number of record players making there way into homes. Can we expect people to be jumping up to buy a new tape deck? Or collectively sitting around one of those old school hi-fi systems your parents had when you were a kid?

It looks like old-school forms of listening to music are returning to the mainstream, but let us all sit down and pray that mini-disc doesn’t make a swift return.

 

Garage Rock Festival Sum Up

Once again it’s that time of year where festivals are your top priority for a great time and a chance to get away. Whether it’s a day or three days, festivals give you the chance to see a huge array of bands under the same roof (or on the same stage) for a cheaper price.

Here’s a sum up of two festivals from across the world that you should definitely make a trip to if you can.

Lolipolooza 

Echoplex – Los Angeles, California

28^th June 2014

Lolipop records and The Echo have teamed up to organise the first annual Lolipolooza Festival.

Set in the midst of LA this one day festival will be a treat for anyone who wants to see a collection of great garage rock bands play under the same roof.

The headline act is no other than 80’s new wave stars Missing Persons, who will undoubtedly be playing synth-pop classics such as ‘Destination Unknown’, ‘Worlds’ and ‘Walking In L.A.’

Some of the fantastic big names in the garage rock scene will also be playing the event; bands including beach rock revivalists Shannon and The Clams, Lo-fi heart-throbbers The Memories and Japanese inspired punky pop outfit Peach Kelli Pop.

Other artists worth noting down include The Lovely Bad Things, Mystic Braves, JJUUJJUU and Adult books.

The first festival is a guaranteed success and will no doubt be back yearly bringing the gift of garage rock to yours ears.

Only costing $20 it is most definitely worth taking time off to pop down and check this day festival out.

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Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia

Liverpool, UK

26^th and 27^th September 2014

This two day festival is a must go this year if you are around towards the end part of September. Last year’s festival was described by The Fly as ‘A weekend of glorious mind-melting psychedelia’ and what more do you want if you are looking for a festival of pure psych.

This year sees some brilliant bands from across the world set to play. The headline act are the highly acclaimed Swedish psych-rockers GOAT who will be bringing their ‘voodoo worship’ inspired music into the heart of Liverpool.

Also on the bill we have Belgium group Bed Rugs bringing their brilliant ‘Tame Impala-esque‘ sound over to the UK. They will definitely be one of the bands to keep your eye out for over the two days.

Label ‘Rocket Recordings’ have curated a list of acts under the name “Transmission From The Outer Realm’ which include the first UK live shows for bands Hills and Lay Llamas, as well as an appearance from Teeth Of The Sea. This is exciting for anyone edging to catch some fantastic live acts that you may never have the chance to see again in this country.

Some other notable acts playing that weekend include Woods, Suuns, Zombie Zombie and White Hills.

Tickets cost a comfortable price of £45 for both days, so it is well worth a trip to Liverpool during September for this showcase of live music.

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