Heavy Blues Rock/Psych Rock recommendations?

Cafe Society
21

Good, bordering on excellent, suggestions so far, I have a few personal favorites to add. Most of them are from Texas. Shoot me. I’m awful - I’ll probably live. Plus, we have a lot of crazy heavy/psychedelic bands. I could have gone on all night and still have been forgiven. (Hey, pass that damn thing!)

First, the young `uns. What Needs Must Be by Dead Meadow. Everything I’ve heard from them has a great groove, with a great mood. The more I hear of Jason Simon’s guitar playing, the more I think he’s distilled psych guitar when you describe it as “Blues in Technicolor”.

If I omitted my label mates The Fungi Girls or Year of the Bear, it would be out of fear of bragging. I swear to everything that makes you feel the least bit funny in the head that I am not doing some sort of self promotion, they simply rule. They’re some of the best modern stoner/groove/space/psych rock I’ve heard. The fact that I can hear bands like that every few weeks, for the price of a beer at the bar, almost seems like a crime.
And now, for the stuff that’s (gulp) more than a quarter century old.

Jimi(not its real name, its real name is a picture), by the Most Holy Butthole Surfers. Maybe it’s far beyond too heavy or too psychedelic. No one would accuse it of being a half measure. My wife and I both brought a copy of that record into our marriage. She’s incredible.

Hurricane Fighter Plane by the Red Crayola and the Familiar Ugly. Every song begins and ends with a free-form freak out. Even if they’re not your taste, it’s a Psych album that you have to hear if you haven’t yet. Released the same year as both Sgt. Pepper and Piper at the Gates of Dawn, but much more sonic-ally dangerous than either. Don’t expect any of their other albums to be this way, unless “this way” means “in a totally different direction than anyone else”.

The Flaming Lips were an amazing heavy Psych band before they went very pop, One Million Billionth Of A Millisecond On A Sunday Morning is a great example, and everything up to and including In a Priest Driven Ambulance is pretty damn great. A couple albums after that are damn good, too. After that, crazy pop ensues. I like a great deal of it, but it’s not the band that I first saw in '89. That band was heavy, hungry and crazy. Realize, this is a Texan commenting on a band from Norman, Oklahoma. If I said “they don’t suck”, it would be great praise.

And finally, maybe it’s a bit mellow for your aim, but probably the heaviest psych ever is Moon Glory and the Seventh Sun By Light Bright Highway. They were a three piece from Denton that did instrumental Psych. That’s side A, each side is one track recorded live. It takes a long time for a 23 minute song to get going, but when it goes into light speed at around 10 minutes, you’re really moving. It’s a psych jam, but it’s so heavy compared to every other jam band, that the term “jam band” doesn’t even do them justice - It’s Psych improvisation. Every show I saw of theirs was that good, if you see that album, buy it. I’ll never sell mine. Seriously, this record defines “room full of pot smoke” for me.

ETA: oooh, Bo, quarry.

22

Stevie Ray Vaughan, try “Voodoo Chile” or “Texas Flood”.

23

I’ve been enjoying The Dead Weather for a more blues sound.

24

Been following this - some good choices. I have assumed the goal was to identify newer bands, not name the classics…

With that in mind, from a couple of years ago, Wolfmother and their song Woman has a nice Deep Purple-meets-Zep/Sabbath kinda feel:

25

Okay, I’m still at work, but I don’t want this thread to just sink so here’s two more bands for y’all:

I’ve been pushing this band for a couple of years now, but for some reason either no one listens or no one likes them. To me, they are the single best example of a band emulating Black Sabbath, to the point of being so similar that even I sometimes have to think for a second or two when a song starts. Here’s Orchid with Black Funeral and Down Into The Earth.

Tony Iommi himself said that when he first heard this band he thought it was a lost Sabbath tape or something. I’ve described them on my blog as sounding like Buck Dharma had moved from New York to Texas and been the 4th member of ZZ Top. Here’s The Sword with a cut from their third album that shows what I’m talking about, Tres Brujas. And here’s a cut from their first album that shows what Mr. Iommi was talking about, Freya.

BTW, this kind of music is now known as Doom Metal. There are variants (Sludge, Stoner, etc.), but they all share the same love/worship of Sabbath-y riffs and generally favor a slower, more plodding pace than your average rock song.

26

Ugh! :mad:

I just got home and actually watched the videos I linked to above and I’d like to offer a new link for The Sword - Freya.

The sound quality is still compromised somewhat but not nearly as bad as that other link.

27

Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell.

28

Your recommendation posts are always varied and interesting. Thanks. These guys sound pretty damn cool. And the cover to Age of Winters looks like a cool old Art Nouveau poster.

29

You made a list of Texas bands & omitted the Thirteenth Floor Elevators? Two albums: Psychedelic Sounds & Easter Everywhere. A couple of folky tunes but the rest still sound fresh…

30

And, like a Canadian, I have to point out that The Sword is from Texas, too.

Why? I dunno, it’s the oppressive sun and the cheap weed, probably.

To bolster the case for Texas being a natural resource of heavy stoner/psych rock, I’ll add Crimson Witch (caution, that link will play the rest of the album afterwards), by Billy Gibbons’ first band, The Moving Sidewalks. It’s not quite Sabbath, but it was released around the same time.

Well, Bridget Burke, I thought I wouldn’t have to mention the Elevators. Like I said, I could go on all night. You folks should have me over for pizza.

(and hell, even the folksy tunes are trippy as hell, I even listen to Bull of The Woods)

31

Nobody mentioned King Crimson yet? They’re like a progressive Sabbath. You’ll enjoy.

32

This may be a little too jazzy for you, but try Frank Zappa’s “Dirty Love”:

[Note: some NSFW images and lyrics]FRANK ZAPPA 'Dirty Love' - YouTube

Everybody needs a little Zap now and then…:cool:

33

for some savage heavy rock, I’d check out Sir Lord Baltimore, Blue Cheer/Randy Holden, Pink Fairies, May Blitz, Atomic Rooster, Granicus, Budgie, Captain Beyond, Buffalo, Human Instrinct, Motorhead, UFO

some a bit darker: Pentagram, MC5, The Stooges, Iron Claw, Lucifer’s Friend

or bluesier - Ten Years After, Groundhogs

or jazzier - Soft Machine

or more of a Psych flavor - Masters Apprentices, The Misunderstood, early Alice Cooper, 13th Floor Elevators, Hawkwind, Kaleidoscope (UK), Pretty Things, pre-1972 Pink Floyd (especially Syd Barrett years), Velvet Underground, Moby Grape

not sure how ‘far out’ you want your psych, but there’s also the German early 70’s psych scene (aka “Krautrock”), that has quite a few great bands: Amon Duul, Tangerine Dream, Ash Ra Tempel, Can, Kraftwerk, and so many others. Just generally stick to pre-1974.

Maybe you could try out some folks suggestions, and give us your feedback? There are so many great bands, we just need some help to tailor to your taste…

34

I’ve never been able to categorize the Sisters of Mercy and I am not sure what psych rock* is, but check out Temple of Love with the amazing Ofra Haza (RIP) doing back-up vocals. I could listen to this 1000 times and never tire of it - SoM is one of my favourite bands.

*Like Pink Floyd et al? /like. Or like Kraftwerk? /like.

35

Are you familiar w/ Govt Mule?

The linked song is a familiar cover, but they’ve more to offer. I’m still discovering them myself, but wanted to throw it out there.

Might not be heavy enough for you, but certainly artsy and bluesy… with some balls !

36

Off topic, I know, but has anyone ever listened to the Black Keys and said “get a bass player, guys.” Get a bass player, guys!

37

For late seventies, around 3am, when almost everyone is passed out on the big velvet couch and beanbag chairs under a pall of smoke that hangs in ribbons near the cottage-cheese ceiling while a couple who first met earlier in the evening are clumsily making out on the coffee table, out of the hexagonal end table speakers on either side of the couch, I hear some random song (take your pick) by Soul Asylum.

They are not hard or fast or complex or trippy, pretty basic, but there is some elusive thing about their music that evokes that era.

38

Try Spooky Tooth – “Evil Woman” or “Waitin’ for the Wind”

And Blind Faith – “Had to Cry Today”

39

And in the Blue Cheer/Pink Fairies vein, there’s always Cactus.

40

There’s even an online store that sells nothing but this kind of music.

All That is Heavy