Before my partying time was done, the seas were shifting I especially remember catching the early Black Lips at a few Atlanta shindigs. I was always wishing for a garage rock rave up. Back when I was a young buck right around the turn of the millennium, I stumbled into a number of those hardwood floor-shakin', bad-part-of-town house parties which had the hardcore punks wailing until the police showed up (admittedly for me a few times by way the primordial Glaze of Cathexis, Rocket Number Nine - not that we were hardcore punks). I almost didn't give this a listen because of it, but fortunately I did and there's some notable grooviness to be had here. Just to get this off my chest, change the name!!! For the love of God, change the name!!! I mean, I dig Tom Waits, but I wouldn't say he ever went psych rock and the pun brings me pain. Yeah, there are some diamonds to be found in the no-mans-land of Bandcamp, and this is certainly one of them. The guitars jangle, roar, or melt right when they need to. These are time tested approaches to melting the roof off of the club, but Tideland knows there stuff and presses most of the buttons that need to be pressed with a proper punk rock heart lurking deep inside the proceedings. reference all that much, but rather comes across like what the reverb god Dean Wareham would've sounded like if he drank a lot more coffee. "Dinosaur" actually doesn't justif my Dinosaur Jr.
The Valentine effect is in full force on "Carved In Mine," which sounds a bit like "You Made Me Realize," but doesn't suffer too much from the comparison. New acolytes will note the amphetamine rush of buzzsaw guitars heading straight for your soul. Once you've heard "Starblood," you'll already know if this is for you. There are no nods to electronic or modern rock here - just the jet engine roar that only the best create. I mean, let's face it, the Valentines don't have a whole lot of music to their name and this is some of the purest, straight ahead shoegazing I've heard in quite a while. Yeah, Tideland's going staight for the unobtainable heart of the Bloody Valentines, but they do an enviable approximation of the vibe by weaving in the pounding of Ride and the pure abandon of 80's Dinosaur Jr. Well, you could say that there's nothing new under the sun here, but then you'd be missing out on some shoegazing bliss. I hope some of you are on the same trip as me for this one and will dig the tunes. Only "The Gates of Ra" is a recent composition, and even that melody has been bouncing around in my head for the past few years (although with tragically stupid and offensive lyrics that I didn't use).
"Journeys of Pilgrims Under Moonlight" only received it's vocal chant last week, but the rest of the track dates from the aforementioned 15-year-old Dr. Most of these songs were actually composed more than ten years old, and I think this is my third round at recording them (the first two will remain unreleased because I, uh, lost them). The title track is a preview of the next full Glaze of Cathexis album, which will appear in the first few months of 2014. Of course, this is the psychedelic garage, and there are a few warped curve balls, but I think I was going more for atmosphere that innovation on this one. It's a venue for wailing away on my Fender Telecaster and trying to channel the Ventures and Dick Dale.
I guess I still haven't made an album for that genre, but here's an EP.
If you've been listening to previous Glaze of Cathexis, the signs were likely apparent (especially on the album "I Often Dream of the Apocalypse"). I've wanted to make a surf rock album since I was 15 years old.