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The Black Angels
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The Black Angels
Origin Austin, Texas, U.S.
Genre(s) Psychedelic rock, Alternative rock
Years active 2004 - Present
Label(s) Light In The Attic Records
Website Official Website
Members
Christian Bland
Alex Maas
Stephanie Bailey
Nate Ryan
Kyle Hunt
Notable instrument(s)
"Drone Machine"
The Black Angels logo.
The Black Angels logo.
The photo of Nico on which it was based
The photo of Nico on which it was based
The Black Angels are a psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas,[1] formed in May 2004. Their name derives from the Velvet Underground song "The Black Angel's Death Song".
Friday, August 5th 2007, they played at Lollapalooza in Chicago. Among other venues, they have played at SXSW 2006 & 2008 and All Tomorrow's Parties 2008. Touring partners have included the blues rock band The Black Keys and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
The group's debut LP Passover was generally well received in the underground independent rock community and was noted for its dark tones and lyrical content. A review of the Black Angels album Passover described them as "Walking in the shadows cast by Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized mastermind Jason Pierce" and compared them to The Warlocks and Black Mountain, also invoking "dirges" reminiscent of both The Velvet Underground and the 13th Floor Elevators.[1] The band's icon is a stylized/high-contrast image of Nico.
Passover included a quote in the liner notes from Edvard Munch; "Illness, insanity, and death are the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life."
The Warlocks Biography
Heavy Deavy Skull Lover
Bio 2007
Same old story?
Band builds out of indie labels, becomes a cult sensation and moves on to bigger things...too many cooks in the kitchen and the band loses their sense of themselves, regroups back on a cool indie label and returns to form?
With the Warlocks you learn to expect the unexpected.
Always shrouded in mystery and dressed in black this once octet known for their signature sound and live shows, compared a million times to the Velvet Underground's Exploding Plastic Inevitable, have always done the unexpectedwhich is what they promised to do since their critically acclaimed "Phoenix" EP (Birdman 2002/Mute 2003) and their first album, Rising and Fall (Bomp, 2001).
Almost at the brink of giving up music completely, leader Bobby Hecksher found the perfect label to let his art come before song and song come before art. Teaming up with Tee Pee Records (Brian Jonestown Massacre, Witch, Earthless, Entrance), a label known for giving their artists complete creative control, they signed the Warlocks with no idea of who was in the current line up and with no current band images except the insane collage art by Steve Quenell that Hecksher wanted to use as the bands promo photos. There were no demos of new songs, no deadlines or marketing meetings, and no throwing around the phrase "radio friendly." Tee Pee trusted that whatever was forming in Bobby Heckshers head would blow minds and twist ears after the trainwreck trip that almost saw the band's demise.
The new trimmed-down line up, once known for taking long meticulous recording session journeys into hell, banged out this new album within weeks. Manning the controls was the band's old friend Rod Cervera, who recorded their first EP Rise and Fall. Rod's credits include Weezer, Lavender Diamond, Young People and Silversun pickups.
The mystery remains, and this recording cannot be easily described. You must listen for yourselves. Rather than a radio friendly dominant soundwe believe it to be a tad more headphone friendly.
In fact, opening track "The Valley of Death" may be one of the most radio unfriendly album openers to ever be put out to the world ... this followed by the 11 minute-plus "Moving Mountains."
Track 3, "So Paranoid" again calls to mind some beautiful moments from Pink Floyd dark side era and maybe even Radioheadwe really can't say where this new, even blacker Warlocks is coming from. The record moves on to the almost trance-like "Slip Beneath" and into the more twisted and pulled "Zombie Like Lovers," a track that almost sounds like it could have come off the bands Surgery (Mute, 2005) except inverted, disjointed, cut up and pasted back together...much like the band themselves.
Running through the rest of the tracks like "Dreamless Days" and "Death I Hear You Walking," the Warlocks' morbid combination of sound and sense should not be lost on anyone.
But with this seasons' disco indie rock monopoly ... we are betting it will...
The Warlocks are giving us art for art's sake. It is a long trip, not a glimpse, into a world that is both beautiful and frightening.
The Warlocks Discography
Rise and Fall (Bomp) 2001
Phoenix (Birdman) 2002
Phoenix reissue (Mute) 2003
Surgery (Mute) 2005
Destroy and Rebuild (Bomp) 2006
Heavy Deavy Skull Lover (Tee Pee) 2007
thewarlocks.com
myspace.com/thewarlocks
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LocationThe Annex
1206 Regent Street
Madison, WI 53715
United States
Categories
| Minimum Age: 18 |
| Kid Friendly: No |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: No |
| Wheelchair Accessible: No |
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Contact
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