If you saw my top 50 of the year, you would have read how good last year's Shangri L.A. is, and know how high a regard I hold French one-man jungle groove machine High Wolf. He's all sold out of his special Japanese Tour released CDr, and it's up for downloading from his own label Winged Sun's Bandcamp at a fee of name-your-price. Jump on that HERE.
He's off to the US for a Not Not Fun-related tour that started last night in Seattle and heads into the depths of SXSW for an NNF showcase, alongside other psychedelic luminaries such as Plankton Wat, Pete Swanson, Starving Weirdos, Sun Araw, Robedoor and more - check out the poster on their site for more dates and details: ▲▲▲
Relatedly, I also strongly recommend you get the L'Amazon Ram Arkestra album from HERE for similar kind of steamy percussive thrust.That name should tune you in to the right plane of mental being.
One of our favourite bands just split up, divided into two mitotic super cells of West Coast sun saturated summer sensuality. Pocahaunted is no longer the duo of Amanda Brown and Bethany Cosentino. Amanda is taking Pocahaunted further out into the cosmic wilderness with a fuller band, essentially a supergroup of artists from the Not Not Fun records roster - Cameron Stallones (Sun Araw; organ), Diva Dompe (BlackBlack; bass/vocals), Ged Gengrass (Antique Brothers; drums), and husband/co-NNF label owener Britt Brown (Robedoor; guitar). Phew. Mega band.
NNF put out the final Bethany & Amanda Pocahaunted cassette before they split, 'Live From The New Age', which hints heavily towards this new sound with intensely heaving waves of drone lifting higher out of the vocal fog, hitting sharper peaks and rocking wider ripples as they splash back into the mix. Here's a video of the new incarnation playing eariler this monthon the European Tour at the Galeria Zé dos Bois in Lisbon, Portugal (04.07.2009)
Pocahuanted
New horizons in two directions. So where to now?
Bethany has sailed out onto a hazy washed-out technicolour sun-kissed beach front sound with Bob Bruno (Goliath Bird Eater; drums). Together they are the fantastic Best Coast. There's been a lot of positive vibrations buzzing around blogs heralding the Song of The Summer - The Sun Was High (So Was I). Suitably, beautifully justified hype that might well see this band get wider recognition that Pocahaunted - it's certainly a more populist sound with the modern lo-fi harmony buried in overdrive feel of bands from everyone beween My Bloody Valentine and Times New Viking - but this is far prettier, joyful, happier and above all more in thrall to the Beach Boys sense of of the psychedelic 60's West Coast.
Found this video on YouTube which is Sun Was High set to excerpts from Un Homme Et Une Femme by Claude Lelouche (1966). It kind of works really nicely, kind of doesn't but it's here for you anyways. I think it's probably better to jus thear it and conjour your own imagery.
In Bethany's words on her MySpace she says:
"allow me to reintroduce myself so i am back in california, and i thought what could be more fitting than to record a bunch of songs about summer and the sun and the ocean and being a lazy creep? so this is what i'm doing.
originally this project was called "sun dried" but then i realized that reminded me too much of old ladies with bad sunburns so i changed it to best coast. meaningful for two reasons, one is that obviously the west coast is the best coast, and two, BC are my initials.
the songs that are up here are just "demo" versions of the songs i have been writing, but my bff bobb bruno has been crazy at work adding drums, beach boys bass lines, and other amazing things. we are insanly trying to get this shit recorded and once we have at least one song fully recorded, i will put that shit up. i'm really fucking excited about this and i hope that every11111 likes it and can make out to it on a beach blanket this summer.
PEACE, bethany"
The debut Best Coast cassette Where The Boys Are is out now on Blackest Rainbow and a self-titled 7" featuring "Sun Was High (So Was I)", "So Gone" and "That's the Way Boys Are" will be out very soon on Art Fag Recordings.
