Podcast 2024.18 An Empty Mirror Reflecting The Moon

August 23, 2024

Floating Heads

#Psych #PsychedelicRock #Stoner

Heavy Psych from Scotland.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Crawl?
Floating Heads: Crawl the album. is influenced by loss and emerging from it lyrically speaking. The feeling of being reborn. Killing Floor is about alienation. Very much like the feeling from Joy Division on Shadowplay. Like an observation on rejection, doubt and success I suppose from romantic trysts or we call in Scotland ‘on the pull’. There’s a comedy line in it too ‘I should’ve left you on the Killing Floor’. That’s like saying you regret perhaps hooking up with that person in a club or something (the killing floor/like a fucking cattle market) Not the best place to find a lifetime partner. Ha ha
TMODM: What record changed your life?
Floating Heads: Loads of influences come from the band from 60s grunge, punk, psych rock , metal etc. As we all have different influences. If we had to pick albums. We’d probably say Passover from the Black Angels especially on The Raindance. Jesus and Mary Chains Psychocandy. Kind of, I suppose, as we wanted the record to sound massive. Like going into battle with the cacophony of different sounds and melodies.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Floating Heads: Well hopefully getting abroad next year! We’re in talks with a promoters
We want to play. The band is not about ‘making it’. But we’d like recognition of our music and playing to as many people as possible. Kind of sick of promoters and even other bands being the gatekeepers to gigs.
We want to break that cycle. We truly believe bands should help one another. This is why we predominantly share gigs and festivals with other psych bands. Even that can be difficult, as we’re judged on our social media presence for some bookings. Fuck that.
We need to stop giving the power to promoters to put on what they fucking want.

September 27, 2024

Traum

#AcidRock #Psychedelic #PsychedelicRock

With a classic power trio line-up and stone solid dedication to the cream of 1960s psych-pop sounds, Traum (German for Dream) draw their inspiration from the bands that originally defined the psychedelic aesthetic. From Germany.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Traum?
Traum: Magic Mushrooms, LSD-25 and the psychedelic revolution of the late 1960s
TMODM: What record changed your life?
Traum: Pink Floyd – The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn
Ash Ra Tempel & Timothy Leary – Seven Up
Lamp Of The Universe – The Cosmic Union
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Traum: We have a nice four song EP coming out on September 27 which will be released on beautiful 12“ white vinyl. It can be pre-ordered through https://traumtraum.bandcamp.com/album/traum
New songs and recordings beyond that are already in the making and there’s quite a lot to come. Stay tuned!

August 16, 2024

The Soundcarriers

#Experimental #Soundtrack #IndieRock #Psych #PsychedelicRock #Soundtrack

Psychedelic (post) rock band from Nottingham, UK.

July 5, 2024

Elkhorn

#FolkRock #AmericanPrimitive #AvantGarde #Noise #PsychedelicFolk

Guitar duo featuring Jesse Sheppard on twelve-string acoustic and Drew Gardner on electric, interweaving the extended folk tradition with psychedelic improvisation, moving freely from pre-rock to post-rock and beyond.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Other Worlds?
Elkhorn: I always said the album sounds a bit like Santana and Mahavishnu Orchestra crossed with Earth and Black Sabbath… but you judge for yourself.
TMODM: What record changed your life?
Elkhorn: Definitely had our lives changed by albums like Jimi Hendrix/Electric Ladyland and Peter Green/End of the Game but also John Coltrane/A Love Supreme and Peter Walker/Second Poem to Karmela…
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Elkhorn: Have a new one out already that takes a very different approach but you might also like: The Red Valley, by Elkhorn

September 6, 2024

Johnny Bell

#Ambient #Devotional #Kosmische #NatureSound #Psychedelic #Soundscape

Exploring the banjo as a progressive instrument desiring to evolve beyond its traditional roots. From within the lineage of American Primitive music Johnny’s current work juxtaposes traditional clawhammer banjo techniques with acoustic drone, ambient field recordings, radio broadcast, tape loops and other found sounds to create recursive sonic textures that are trance-inducing and cathartic.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Field Trips?
Johnny Bell: Living in the mountain west, I’m influenced by the beauty that surrounds me on a daily basis. The unique sonic footprint of this place is an obvious and explicit influence on the album. Beyond that, my desire is always to push the 5-string banjo outside of its comfort zone. Field Trips is the latest attempt to demonstrate “progressive banjo”.
TMODM: What record(s) changed your life?
Johnny Bell: A complete list would be a very long list. For the sake of brevity, I’ll just name a few. The first album that I distinctly remember changing my life was Operation Ivy’s Energy. That record made music for me something more than media or entertainment. It made music a way of being. Nothing was the same after that. Later on Modest Mouse’s Lonesome Crowded West changed my life. I can vividly recall all the feelings and all the places in my life that were soundtracked by that album. A little while later my life was changed by Will Oldham’s (Bonnie Prince Billy) Ease Down the Road. The way that this music resonated with me signaled a maturing in my listening. A bit later jazz changed me and specifically John Coltrane’s Ascension. Everything I thought that I knew about musical expression up to that point was turned upside down.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Johnny Bell: I’m recording with Andrew Weathers at Wind Tide at the end of the month. I’ve set the intention of recording a progressive banjo album somewhere between “American primitive” and “progressive metal”. Additionally, I’ve begun collecting sounds and piecing together the next “Field Trips” style record.

September 6, 2024

Groop

#GarageRock #Improvisation #Jam #Krautrock #Psychedelic #PsychedelicRock

Los Angeles based improv collective GROOP says : “Never the same song twice” Jams captured over the course of their ongoing 3 year residency at Zebulon in frog town, California. Each song developed on the spot live in front of an audience, then chopped and screwed by the band and their frequent studio collaborator (Grammy award winner) Mark Rains. Featuring members of Hooveriii, Ex Frankie and the witch fingers, Agriculture, Total Heat, Patrick Shiroishi & more! “Think more Hawkwind, less Grateful Dead”
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on This Place Is The Space?
Bert: I think the strongest influences on these recordings are the players. These are all cut live and improvised so we are truly just playing off of each other. You could say the same about Zebulon (the venue the album was recorded in) and the people in attendance. It was a big part of the process.
TMODM: What record(s) changed your lives?
Bert: Miles Davis “In A Silent Way” was my gateway drug to jazz.
Louis: “No New York” (particularly DNA) taught me a new approach to guitar
Alex: “Velvet Underground & Nico”
Baby Gabe: Beastie Boys “Check Your Head”
TMODM: What’s next for you?
GROOP: We are currently wrapping up LP 3, which we hope to share with y’all in the not too distant future. In the intervening time we may drop a live tape or two… maybe some shows

June 30, 2024

Psychedelic Suns

#Alternative #ProgRock #PsychedelicRock

Psychedelic Suns is one man band from songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Pauli Partanen, from Tampere, Finland.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Isolationmind?
Psychedelic Suns: strongest influence is Kevin Parker! You can hear it If you fan of Tame Impala!
TMODM: What record changed your life?
Psychedelic Suns: I think there is truly 2 records that literally changed my mind. “Metallica … And justice for all” is the reason why I started playing guitar and made me interested of creating something own too. “Tame Impala – Lonerism” was record that made me realize that there is good music outside of metal too haha!
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Psychedelic Suns: Honestly don’t think i’m releasing new music for long time, but i’m always doing something new music with different genres but mainly for myself.

September 1, 2024

Arbes

#Alternative #Alternative #Alternative #ArtRock #Bedroom #DreamPop #Post-punk #PsychedelicPop

Arbes are from Melbourne, Australia.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Counterways?
Sam (guitarist & producer): throughout the process I would continually check back in with ‘Crack Up’ by Fleet Foxes. Not because of any sonic similarities really, more so for the artistry that album contains as a whole package.
Jess (singer & bassist): If I hadn’t read about Solange self-recording her vocals on some of her records, I might never have had the idea to give it a go myself for Counterways. This would have resulted in a very different sounding record (vocally).
Anita (drummer): I’m always looking for moments in music that make you go ‘Oof!’. I feel there are plenty of moments in Counterways that are unexpected and dissonant
TMODM: What record changed your life?
Sam: corny but true, ‘Is This It’ by The Strokes
Jess: So many! But I’ll choose Tame Impala’s Lonerism
Anita: in the company of Sam’s response, for me it’s probably First Impressions of Earth by the Strokes
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Sam: making (hopefully) better & different music
Jess: Making our live show as compelling as it can be, endeavouring to write lyrics from a different well for the next album, & evolving our sound as a band
Anita: Exploring our sound, deeper collaboration & experimentation
Arbes: eep an eye out for our next single out next month 🙂

July 28, 2024

Clyde Von Klaus

#Doom #GarageRock #HardRock #OneManBand #Psych

One man psych doom metal band from Hutto, Texas, USA.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Forensics of Sleep?
Clyde Von Klaus: That’s a tough one. I just kind of decide to go make a song or two on any given day. Musically I was intending to let my love of the 80’s really shine through. That’s a wide and varied field. A few inspirations would be Celtic Frost, The Sound, Simple Minds, The Chameleons, The Accused and many more. I’m not sure I accomplished that in the end but in my mindset before recording I did.
TMODM: Is Forensics of Sleep an entirely solo project?
Clyde Von Klaus: Yes it is entirely me warts and all. If you listen at the end of some songs sometimes you can actually hear me pressing the stop button. The only thing I didn’t do is the mixing.
TMODM: Are you putting a band together?
Clyde Von Klaus: Possibly but more likely guests and collaborations on some new projects. Although I do really love the unique improv-esque process i use for recording songs. It’s all unplanned and started with drum beats. Once I get the drums i come up with decent enough I then let them dictate the flow of everything else. It’s as close to creating a band like experience all alone as I could figure but I do miss the volume and the bouncing off of ideas for sure.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Clyde Von Klaus: I just left the label I was on due to Ai music and art being used and promoted so I’m looking for a new label that wants CVK.
Currently all of my recording gear is packed up as my wife and I are moving from Texas back to our home town area in Western New York.
We just have to sell our house first.
Once that has happened however the music will be coming often. I can’t wait to get back to it. We are approaching a year since I’ve done anything music related. Getting very antsy indeed.

July 26, 2024

Eiktubaiktu

#Alternative #DesertRock #Heavy #Psychedelic #SpaceRock #Stoner #HeavyPop #StonerRock

Eiktubaiktu are from Vilnius, Lithuania. Vocals: Gabija Minkevičiūtė Guitar: Marius Survila Bass: Ignas Bitinaitis Drums: Mantas Navikas
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Industria?
Eiktubaiktu: When playing music or jamming it’s hard to tell where the influence could have come from. I was really forcing everyone in the band to record at least one FX track after we did the recording and I’m really glad that we did it – it really shaped the album to sound the way it is. I think I got that idea listening to some psychedelic songs and thinking of what I like about them.
TMODM: What record(s) changed your lives?
Eiktubaiktu: It depends on certain period in life when and how album changes the life, there is no definite one album. At 17 y.o. it was Black Sabbath – Black Sabbath and AC/DC – High Voltage, I was playing loads of guitar and loved those albums. However at Eiktubaiktu I play Bass guitar and this is my first band where I do it. Albums that got me into playing Bass guitar was split EP featuring OM – Rays of Sun / To the Shrinebuilder, also Acid King – Busse Woods & Spaceslug – Lemanis. There are many other albums that changed my life in different ways and it’s really hard to pick a few.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Eiktubaiktu: We have new album ready to be released, just have to think of its name and make the album cover – might take us another month or two!

November 5, 2024

Ghost Frog

#ConspiracyRock #ConspiracyRock #Grunge #Grungegaze #Post-punk #Post-punk #PsychedelicRock #Shoegaze #SpacePunk #SpaceRock #Stoner #StonerRock

Ghost Frog are four humanoids from the planet Earth who started to make strange, spacey sounds together in the winter of star date 2013. They play heavy psychedelic stoner grunge that combines doomy riffs with punk energy and otherworldly melodies while exploring themes derived from sci-fi/ horror film and literature, paranormal phenomena, and conspiracy culture.
TMODM: What had the strongest influence on Galactic Mini Golf?
Ghost Frog: My admittedly somewhat masochistic, self destructive obsession with the unsightly and unseen underbelly of our preposterously precarious global socio-political situation, conspiracy theories regarding said predicament, and their intersection with so called science “fiction,” these were the main conceptual drivers for both the song and for the album as a whole. I’ve had a strong (bordering on unhealthy) interest in these subjects for a long time, so much so that they would occasionally make their way into our songs (see our David Icke inspired song “Alien Hand,” which is all about the infamous shapeshifting reptilians and their insidious plot to possess the planet, which we released almost ten years ago, for example) but my appetite for this material went into overdrive during the “plandemic” which led us to write basically an entire album with this theme in mind. Over the years I’ve become especially drawn to the idea that more or less evil technocratic elites (who may or may not meet in secret in dimly lit smoke filled rooms to discuss their diabolic plans whenever they’re not conducting occult sacrificial ceremonies to appease their ancient demon gods) are continuously pushing society towards a dark and depressing future that increasingly resembles the dystopian science fiction of yesteryear, and that this is exactly what conspiracy researchers and so called “tinfoil hat” nutjobs like Alex Jones and Bill Cooper and others have been predicting since the 90’s when everyone thought they were crazy. Well they don’t seem quite so crazy now, do they? Our music has always had a dark sci-fi aesthetic to it, but now that the state of the world has caught up to where our heads were at tens years ago when we first started this band, our music feels more like a black mirrored reflection of the times we’re in right now rather than a bleak prediction or warning sign of things to come. They just had UFO hearings in congress recently for crying out loud! It’s getting to the point where the X Files is looking more and more like it was a documentary. This is probably not a very good thing for humanity, but I guess it’s a good thing for our band since it seems like we’ve become more relevant than ever! In spite of the fact that hardly anybody has heard of us still! But maybe that’s because our message is being suppressed by the powers that be? Indeed, perhaps we’ve been shadow banned by the Shadow Club! Well, if our subversive signal goes mysteriously silent after this interview goes live, I trust that you’ll all know the real reason why…
TMODM: What record(s) changed your lives?
Ghost Frog: My favorite album of all time is probably “The Cold Vein” by Cannibal Ox. For those who aren’t familiar, it’s an incredibly innovative early 2000’s NYC hip hop album that sounds kind of like if the Wu Tang Clan rapped over a boom bap version of the Vangelis score to “Blade Runner.” It’s so cinematic and creative and was completely groundbreaking for its time. It blew my mind when I first heard it as a young teenager, and made me realize that you could make an album that had the same level of thematic depth and complexity as a great film or novel. It’s easily my most listened to record of all time, as well as my desert island album, and ever since I first heard it I’ve always been chasing that dragon of trying to discover another portal-like audio artifact that is similarly able to fully immerse me and transport me to another realm, so much so that one of my goals with this band has been to make something that could hopefully evoke that same feeling in someone else someday. I set out to achieve this lofty ideal by combining my favorite aspects of various alternative rock genres (shoegaze, stoner rock, psych rock, grunge, nu metal etc.) with certain sci-fi elements in the same way that Cannibal Ox (and other El-P produced projects like Company Flow, plus some other underground hip hop acts like early Jedi Mind Tricks, Deltron 3030 and Non Phixion) did with hip hop. And of course there are many rock records that have also been very pivotal for us too, “Nevermind,” “Innerspeaker,” and “Significant Other” (yes that “Significant Other”!) spring to mind, but I’ve always appreciated “space rap” just as much as space rock for its ability to teleport the listener to a strange yet familiar setting and tell a cohesive story within that fully fleshed out world through only the use of sound and words.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Ghost Frog: We’re set to release our new album “Galactic Mini Golf,” on 11/5, the same date as the impending American presidential (s)election, where I feel quite confident in predicting that whichever corporate controlled Manchurian candidate “wins,” the American people and humanity at large will almost certainly lose. That is of course, unless we realize that we’re all being bamboozled and refuse to participate in this charade of a so-called “democracy” anymore. Vote or die? More like vote AND die! For as the late, great philosopher George Carlin once said: ” It’s a big (shadow) club, and you ain’t in it!” Wake up sheeple! TRUST NO ONE.

June 20, 2024

Dark Fog

#Alternative #PsychedelicRock #TrapPsych

Dark Fog have been destroying minds since 2003 with heavy space psychedelia throughout their long career (playing SXSW twice and on bills with notable psych peers) with vinyl releases on various US and UK based record labels as well as their own imprints. The latest incarnation of founder Ray Donato features a futuristic blend of Trap and Pop with Heavy Psych that no-one else dares to try…
TMODM: What are your biggest influences these days?
Dark Fog: I am still listening to current Trap, RnB, and classic psych rock- but my biggest influences these days are the songs that float within my psyche, that which is conjured from pure improvisation and intuition. The universe sending messages, and their interpretation. The sound of my instruments and of my past imbedded in my brain.
TMODM: What are you working on now?
Dark Fog: I am working within what has been my current framework as far as instrumentation, but am trying to transcend any predetermined outcome and let the songs flow freely. I am working on a part 2 to the last EP I released based on the idea of psychometry called ‘PSYCHOMET’.
TMODM: What’s next for you?
Dark Fog: I hope to soon figure out what is next for me, no plans at all except to keep making my music!