Saturday, March 3, 2012

Psychic Blood - Strain 7" [2011]


Psychic Blood are a group of noisy punks from Holyoke, Massachusetts. There is a lot of GUITARS on here. It sounds kind of Hüskers-ish -- right up my alley, and many of yours, I'm sure. The idea seems to be 'cram a folk melody under 30 tons of feedback,' and it sounds like flying down a highway at night with the windows down. Bands like this have a tendency to fall flat relying on the noise to cover their lack of songwriting. But that can't be said here. Thankfully, in Psychic Blood's case, the melody comes across pretty much intact, bringing with it all the cool additive chord voicings and resonance that it picked up in the feedback field. This stuff is really good.

Strain will be released as a 7" sometime soon, and Psychic Blood is in the process of finishing up their first full-length LP. In the meantime, put these guys in your hard drive and your ears. At Psychic Blood's soundcloud, you can also listen to their other two releases. All worth hearing.

Psychic Blood website
Strain

2 comments:

  1. Hello Noise In The Zen Arcade,
    I love your blog and I became a member. I also look toward new members on my blog:

    www.orogod.blogspot.com

    where you are welcome.
    Best regards,
    Oro

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  2. Much thanks for the kind words.

    First thing I saw on your site was a Black Santiagos record, so I knew there would only be good music throughout. Your blog is a wonderful project and I have put it in my sidebar. Thanks for your interest in my humble space.

    Cheers,
    Zen

    ReplyDelete