Bird song and maybe the last, fluttering seconds of a film projector going down introduce listeners to the latest effort by Burque-based psychedelic rockers Sun Dog. The album is called parnassus, a Greek word that may or may not refer to the mountain that hosts the home of the almighty. The word is also used to refer to the output of such intense surroundings, mostly having to do with the music, art and literature produced under its heady aegis. But back to the new album by Sun Dog. Is the recording a veritable psychedelic Parnassus? You’re damn straight it is, pilgrim. With faraway and soaring tuneage like “her eyes on (horizon),” “playing patience” and the thuddingly anthemic, brain-boiling closer, “queen anne,” here is your official summertime listen.
Treehouse Basement If We DidnÕt Grow Old (Self-Released)
I really dig the syncopated, slithery opening to this album. It’s called “In Unrelated News.” It’s one of those rockers that takes it’s time—all of four minutes—to heat up and boil over into a beautiful amalgamation of minor-chord pop infused with thoughtful lyrics and a guitar that haunts listeners in triplicate while bound to an upbeat that keeps listeners wondering where it’s all gonna end up. The resolution, in this case, is melodic and searching and is followed by tracks that augment a positively inflected recording that includes playful instrumentation and quirky hooks (”Paper Airplanes”), world beat flava (“Tigers and Wolves”) as well as complex melodicism (”Wish”). The coolest thing about this work: The band members here are all capable multi-instrumentalists and their dedication to craft shows clearly in each crafty track.
Hennessey on Ice Let It Go (Self-Released)
This is one goddamn weird album, but it’s also a very enjoyable, thought-provoking one, too. Drawing on a iconoclastic inversion of pop, hip-hop and rock tropes, the artist responsible for this 11-track excursion to the most fun-filled, frequency-fed edge I’ve been to in quite some time should be congratulated for making my Memorial Day weekend worthwhile. After all, tunes like “Natty In The Silo” are what life is all about—if, like me, you like to be reminded how strange the world is first thing in the morning. The insane flows heard on “Footplant Dreck,” “I Need To Play the Drums” and “Weed Slump” remind me of old school transgressors like the Bloodhound Gang, but really we have the Beastie Boys to blame for stuff like this. Are you listening from the Bardo, MCA?
