Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is known for two things: 1) being called “hippies” by Brian Jonestown’s Joel Gion in Dig, and 2) very strong live shows. So considering the latter, it’s fitting the group is set to drop a 2 DVD and CD live package, poignantly titled Live. The package spans a number of European shows on their Baby 81 tour. The jam hive hits shelves next Tuesday, November 10th. Wanna win a copy? Cool… well I have two to give away.

Just shoot an email over to kb@thedecibeltolls.com and tell me what you’d like to see more of on the blog. We’ve had a lot of discussions on how to better serve you, the smarmy blog reader. This way, we get something, and you get something awesome. Contest closes on Friday at 5 p.m.

You can peep the track listing and pre-order info here. Good luck.

MP3 :::
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Spread Your Love [Live]

I’ve been violently cranking Religious Knives as of late. I saw them once with, I think, Wizzardz (a Lightning Bolt side project). Or maybe it was Zodiac Mountain. I don’t remember. Either way, Religious Knives is boss, and reminds me of one of my forgotten favorites – Loop. More on that in a bit.

Religious Knives‘ latest is called Resin, just released on No Fun with my friends Hair Police. For those who haven’t roomed with pot dealers like I have, resin is the residue left in pipes and bongs after, um, religious marijuana use. I think pothead lexicons are funny, and New York-based Religious Knives makes no bones about what they’re, ya know, about. Or perhaps it’s tongue-in-cheek. You can never tell on paper. Regardless, tune in, turn on, drop out. Hallucinogenic anthems abound.

Loop was a nasty, abominable scourge on the pop-friendly C86 camp in late ’80s Britain. Foul beasts they were, Loop demonstrated their intent to keep music solemnly evil with 1989’s Fade Out. Neither image above is the cover of Fade Out, by the way. The one on the left might be 16 Dreams, which I do not have. There just aren’t a lot of Loop photos floating around.

Lore has it that Spacemen 3 hated them for reasons that remain unclear. They’re often compared to Spacemen 3, but Loop is decidedly closer to Blue Cheer and Hawkwind. They never changed their sound, so all their albums are equally good. I just tend to gravitate toward Fade Out, I guess, because it has the best hooks. Loop albums are extremely difficult to find. I nabbed my burned copy from my college’s radio station about four years ago. Best stoner metal ever recorded, in my not-humble opinion. Loop got off the couch long enough to start a MySpazzz for your soc-networking pleasure.

Since we’re dealing with some evil, sinister psych that you might hear at an Aleister Crowley-hosted dinner party… dude, czech out these skulls. Animated GIFs are awesome. Skulls are awesomer. CRUCIAL!

Throw them horns up.

MP3 :::
Religious Knives – In the Back
Loop – Black Sun
Loop – Fade Out

Whereas Mr. Beast was good, but not as remarkable as their earlier efforts, Mogwai is shaping up to release something really special next month if “Batcat” and “Devil Rides” are any indication.

I was totally psyched when I heard that the the mighty Roky Erickson, legendary psychedelic cult hero, was going to appear on the new Mogwai jam hive The Hawk is Howling, already notorious for its most triumphant track listing and flea market-worthy cover art. It’s quite amazing that Roky is not only still alive, but making music today (though most of it is only a shadow of the 13th Floor Elevators’ reach). I mean, how many languages can you say “fuck yeah” in? I can only say it in one, and that’s English, so I will commence into cheering a loud “fuck yeah” for (probably) the most important duet since Michael Jackson and Eddie Murphy’s “Whatzupwitu.”

At first, I wasn’t too sure of “Devil Rides,” a somber, spacey four-minute forlorn canticle. I felt it suffered from the same issue as their collaboration with Gruff Rhys on “Dail: Revenge” from Rock Action, in that Mogwai is such a musically complex group that any vocal contribution becomes more distracting than interesting. The composition itself is actually kinda similar to “Dial: Revenge” – slow, syrupy, packed with strings swells, absolutely gorgeous. Upon repeated listens, however, I’ve grown to be quite affected by “Devil Rides,” if for no other reason than tangential associations. Though Roky seems to have lost a little melodic quality to his voice, hearing this LSD-casualty (named “the man who got too high” by The Guardian) sing with such a pained demeanor, thinking about how this man has been through hell and back as documented by You’re Gonna Miss Me, really provokes an immense, beautiful sadness. I really love the sense of paranoia “Devil Rides” exudes as well, like you’re hangin’ out in the Panopticon. Needless to say, the Mogwai-Roky collaboration will probably not be a #1 summer jam.

Not much to say about the another new Mogwai song I have, “Batcat,” other than it’s another excellent stoner metal nickel in the jar, continuing Mogwai’s new economical, compact, harmonics-saturated, unapologetically sinister direction in the vein Mr. Beast’s “Glasgow Mega Snake.” This cut is heavier than most naval ships.

If you pre-order the album directly the Matador, you receive $1 plus a free poster. I appreciate how Matador consistently tries to hook you up. It’s good for business.

While we’re on this subject, it’s as good of time as any to express my love for the Elevators and post a jam or two. The 13th Floor Elevators continue to be one of my favorite groups, and I feel I get a new listening experience each time I pump them on the ol’ ghetto blaster. As with the often-fabled Alexander Skip Spence and Syd Barrett, Erickson’s batshit-craziness (including his writing of a notarized document proclaiming his secession from Earth, legally declaring himself an extraterrestrial – see below) adds a certain mystique to their repertoire that many of their contemporaries just can’t reproduce.

“Till Then” is one of my favorites, and also one of the last songs Roky recorded with the group before he was arrested in 1969 on trumped-up drug charges, then later institutionalized. “May the Circle Remain Unbroken,” so very very different from “Till Then,” is the 13th Floor Elevators at their most haunting. “Batcat” actually makes a rather astounding companion to “Circle,” being similar in its unsettling, elegiac mood – bridging a 40 year gap of music from a troubled yet revolutionary songwriter.

MP3 :::
Mogwai – Devil Rides
Mogwai – Batcat
13th Floor Elevators – Till Then
13th Floor Elevators – May the Circle Remain Unbroken