[the black angels]

[the black angels]
A psychedelic rock group from Texas, many of this band’s songs play in the modern darkening-yet-irresistible themes that make us think of sexy vampires and ironically funny zombie movies.
Tracks like Yellow Elevator #2 and Young Men Dead seem to fit perfectly into an epic soundtrack of bad-ass shoot ‘em up scenes, and slow motion explosions, but despite the genre they appear to fit into, they repeatedly deny the necessity for drugs in their vein of music.
In an interview with Andy Greenwald of Rolling Stone magazine, Maas (TBA’s front-man) said, “The music is supposed to take you there, to make you feel messed up. It’s a bad misconception that all psychedelic music creators are doing drugs.”(Rolling). Well put, sir.
With the slow and steady pace of tracks like Manipulation, you may feel your eyes beginning to half close in the haze of a smoky bassline, as the smoke of a re-verb vocal mic slowly curls around the back of your neck.
After a concert in 2007, J.D. Roth wrote on his website Folded Space, “I didn't know anything about the group going in — hadn't heard a single song — but after the concert, I'm a convert. These guys rock”(Foldedspace).
With virtually no hooks, and intros that blend almost seamlessly into the rest of the song, it’s easy to become a part of the music, and truly be carried away for just a few minutes.
In lyrics like “Hit hard with harm//She loves to off you then yawn//Never disarm, you know she loves to be drawn//You're leaching hard friend//I'm feeling down again”(Black), we are free to dabble in the darker, more sinister aspects of our basic psyche.
Trudging through the bleak lyrics, and dark sounds, we find that we are not alienated from the sound, because we know that many situations come to mind which warrant this unabashed view of our modern world.
But it’s also a sound that helps us cope- a song that would be playing in the dusky bar of the abandoned town, just as the hardened hero strides through the door in the final scenes of the movie.
And so, we tip our hats to The Black Angels, not only for their homage to Velvet Underground on numerous different occasions, but for giving us an outlet for our desire in devilry, while still making it fun as hell to listen to and jam with.