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I'll come out and say it, Abe Vigoda is my favorite band currently making music.
The Reviver EP is the latest release from Los Angeles band, Abe Vigoda and it's their strongest yet. Following up on the messier, more visceral Skeleton, Reviver unveils new dimensions of Abe Vigoda's singular sound. Few bands in recent memory have been able to coax such appealing sounds form their instruments. Guitarists Mike Vidal and Juan Velasquez have their short delay dual guitar interplay down to a science, going somewhat less pointilistic and embracing My Bloody Valentine noise dynamics while drummer and bassist, Reggie Guerrero and David Reichardt hold down tricky rhythms.
The band is pretty good about their name always conjuring references to the term "tropical punk" which honestly probably got them a good deal of their popularity, but they're definitely intent on refusing to be pigenholed. They cover Fleetwood Mac's "Wildheart" and totally deconstruct "Endless Sleeper" which appeared on Skeleton. Rounding out the EP are a handful of great songs which pull out all the tools in the Abe Vigoda arsenal. "Don't Lie," "House" and "Reaper are some of their strongest selections yet.
Abe Vigoda is playing tomorrow night with new drummer Dane Chadwick at the PAPER magazine party in Hollywood, but you've got to RSVP if you want to go. Otherwise, you can see them play with In the Red band, The Intelligence at Spaceland on April 18th, or in Palm Springs (suspciously close to Indio, where friends No Age and Vivian Girls are playing Coachella) on the 19th.
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Kawabata Makoto is the ringleader behind one of the most prolific purveyors of interdimensional face melting psychedelia, Acid Mothers Temple. They've been putting out records under different cosmic incarnations for about 12 years now and have well more than 70 releases under their collective hippie belts.
Makoto's been busy lately, releasing collaborations with like minded Croatian psych-prog weirdos, Seven that Spells and the manifestation of Syd Barret's film scoring ghost in the form of the Italian five piece, Jennifer Gentle. In keeping with the Acid Mothers aesthetic, Makoto has recently released a new solo effort entitled Rainbow of Love and is embarking on a US tour, the first stop of which happens to be in Riverside, California at the aptly name Pharaoh's Den Cultural Space Center (who are clearly Makoto's spiritual cousins). Rainbow of Love's format is in keeping with the Mother's penchant for unreasonably long tracks, consisting of two monstrous blisscapes, but unlike much of Acid Mother's analog delay twiddling, birds of paradise in outer space, full on aural assault, Rainbow is serenity made manifest. Layers of strings lull us peacefully, but never boringly, to meditative bliss carried on strains of Makoto's sarangi. Imagine Gavin Bryar's Sinking of the Titanic as scored by Arnold Dreyblatt and processed by Brian Eno while all three of them made love and were lifted to the heavens on DMT.
Also playing the Pharoah's Den are Bruce McKenzie (who it appears as though Kawabata will be performing with), Pegasissy (who I'll probably be playing with), the Antarcticans (postapocalypticrock from Los Angeles), Bill Wesley (the mad scientist from the Vaginals), and White Marsh (Kenn from KSPC). Seems like a lot for one night, but it can only be fantastic.
The Pharaoh's Den Cultural Space Center is located at 3579 University Ave, Riverside CA and the show starts at 8 pm.
