Crystal Antlers sera en promo et en concert à La Flèche d'Or le 20 février
“Tentacles”
Crystal Antlers were once a band of chimneysweeps—doing door-to-door hustle with broom and top hat all across the same California suburbs responsible for Saccharine Trust and the Middle Class, and after a long day up on the roof they’d return to write songs that went spiraling into space. (Early favorites like “Parting Song For The Torn Sky” and “Until The Sun Dies, Part 2”— even then, they were always looking up!) They covered Mose Allison and Chocolate Watchband, had their van stolen and then returned because of their sheer karmic purity, and grew from a viciously untamed bar band to fringe-psych explorers of the first order. Their first full-length Tentacles presents their permanent line-up—singer/bassist Jonny Bell, guitarist Andrew King, drummer Kevin Stuart, organist Victor Rodriguez, percussionist Damian Edwards and original guitarist Errol Davis back for reinforcement—in full roar.
By now, they’ve played almost everywhere: shows at the shuttered Mondo Video—home of
various outré porn shoots, where photos of band members’ vitals were reportedly displayed on
the wall—and at biker (leather kind, not spandex kind) fests in Vegas and metal fests in Reno and hill-top tee-pees in Los Angeles and even aboard a supercharged speedboat cutting messy diagonals in the Pacific with Crystal Antlers planted resolutely between the amplifiers and the mini-fridge.
Their veggie-powered national schoolbus tour this summer burned in their road credentials, but
they have their sea legs, too. (In fact, Bell is a certified Sea Scout—the amphibious division of the Boy Scouts.) By the time their self-titled EP (produced by the Mars Volta’s keyboardist Ikey Owens) was re-released on Touch and Go—and by the time it got an 8.5 rating on Pitchfork that predicted a “triumphant full-length”—they’d already sold five thousand copies by word-of-mouth. By the time you read this, that full-length will be finished.
Tentacles finds the Antlers exploding through the unclaimed space between ‘60s garage toughs like the Music Machine and the Misunderstood, red-eyed noiseniks like Guru Guru and Les Rallizes Denudes (whose ever-present turbine whine serves as the sound of the Crystal Antlers’ circulatory system) and the mechanized motor-soul of Osmium-era Parliament. Raw want meets raw power on songs like the title track and “Until The Sun Dies Part 1,” which push “Black To Comm” break-outs into “What’s Goin’ On?” sentiments while the trademark Antlers organ howls at lights on the horizon. Between the screamers come the scenery—the Pharoah Sanders-style sax snippets that confetti the end of “Sun Dies,” the gentle oceanic
drone-poem “Vapor Trail,” the album intro that sounds like Blue Cheer chasing Terry Riley’s “Rainbow In Curved Air.” It’s an album that functions as an organism—it breathes, it sleeps, it wakes up hungry and ready to chase something down.
tentacles
Touch and Go Records
www.touchandgorecords.com
www.myspace.com/crystalantlers
Thirteen tentacles:
1- Painless Sleep
2- Dust
3- Time Erased
4- Andrew
5- Vapor Trail
6- Tentacles
7- Until the Sun Dies (Part One)
8- Memorized
9- Glacier
10- Foot of the Mountain
11- Your Spears
12- Swollen Sky
13- Several Tongues
Beyond the sonic expansion, the band itself has grown: original guitarist Errol Davis returned to the fold for Tentacles, bringing the personnel tally to one bass, two guitars, two drummers, and an organ. Davis will also be a part of the Antlers’ manic and massive live show, joining them on the road for the North American tour in March.
For now, Crystal Antlers are about to set sail for their first, gigantic European tour.
Check it out!
Mon 26-Jan-09 UK London Luminaire
Tue 27-Jan-09 UK London Uncut at Borderline
Wed 28-Jan-09 UK London The Lexington
Fri 30-Jan-09 UK Glasgow Nice n Sleazys
Sat 31-Jan-09 Ireland Belfast The Pavilion
Sun 1-Feb-09 Ireland Galway Roisin Dubh
Mon 2-Feb-09 Ireland Dublin Whelans Upstairs
Tue 3-Feb-09 Ireland Cork The Quad
Thu 5-Feb-09 UK London Dirty Boots at Bloomsbury Bowling Alley
Fri 6-Feb-09 Belgium Diksmuide 4AD
Sat 7-Feb-09 Belgium Hasslet Muziekodroom
Mon 9-Feb-09 Germany Munich 59 to 1
Tue 10-Feb-09 Germany Duisburg Steinbruch
Wed 11-Feb-09 Germany Hamburg Hafenklang
Thu 12-Feb-09 Denmark Copenghagen Loppen
Fri 13-Feb-09 Sweden Stockholm Debaser
Sat 14-Feb-09 Sweden Malmo Debaser
Sun 15-Feb-09 Denmark Arhus Voxhall
Mon 16-Feb-09 Germany Berlin Magnet
Tue 17-Feb-09 Germany Cologne Sonic Ballroom
Wed 18-Feb-09 France Strasbourg La Laiterie Club
Thu 19-Feb-09 France Lille L'Aeronef
Fri 20-Feb-09 France Paris Le Fleche D'or
Mon 23-Feb-09 France Lyon Le Sonic
Thu 26-Feb-09 Italy Bolgona Locomotiv
Fri 27-Feb-09 Italy Verona Interzona
Sat 28-Feb-09 Italy Florence Flog
Sun 1-Mar-09 Austria Vienna Arena
Mon 2-Mar-09 Switzlerland Lausanne Le Romandie
Wed 4-Mar-09 Belgium Brussels Botanique/Rotonde
Thu 5-Mar-09 Netherlands Groningen Vera
Fri 6-Mar-09 Netherlands Amsterdam Paradiso
Sat 7-Mar-09 Netherlands Utrecht Ekko
Sun 8-Mar-09 Netherlads Rottermdam Rotown
Tue 10-Mar-09 UK London White Heat
Wed 11-Mar-09 UK Sheffiled The Harley
Thu 12-Mar-09 UK Manchester The Retro Bar