Wake To A New Dawn of Another Astro Era

With the departure of long time bass/drum duo Shimura Koji and Tsuyama Atsushi, Acid Mother Temple now have a new rhythm section featuring two young Japanese musicians, Satoshima Nani on drums and S/T on bass. Their new album, Wake To A New Dawn of Another Astro Era, is therefore the first record in the second chapter of this legendary Japanese psychedelic rock group.

Wake To The New Dawn Of Another Astro Era finds a rejuvenated Makoto Kawabata encompassing the best of what AMT has come to mean in the last 21 years. Deep ambient synth passages fade into deftly composed anthemic jams worthy of crowd favorite status like La Novia and Pink Lady Lemonade. Makoto's guitar prowess reaches unfathomed apexes in epic crescendos while the new rhythm section holds down heavy Kraut-influenced repetition. Straddling the line between composition and improvisation, this is a legendary AMT record for sure.

The double LP is pressed in an edition of 1000 and features light show artwork by LiquidbiupiL.

If you're not doing anything tonight and you've got the means to do so, you might want to check them out tonight at Club Goodman in Tokyo.

Acid Mother Temple at The Drunken Unicorn, April 24, 2013

Anticipation

Not that I'm counting or anything (okay, I actually am), but it's 16 more days until I see Seattle's Ivan & Alyosha at Bumbershoot.

18 more days until Glasgow's Chvrches at Portland's MFNW.

Acid Mothers Temple and Tjutjuna at The Drunken Unicorn, Atlanta

Bring earplugs.  

Last night, Japan's Acid Mothers Temple performed at Atlanta's Drunken Unicorn, and man, were they loud.  My ears are still ringing.

Denver's Tjutjuna (the "t's" are silent) opened.

I forgot to bring my camera, so all that I have to show are my crappy cell-phone pics.  

Tjutjuna are an experimental, instrumental psych-rock band.  They made good use of a theremin, and it's not too many quartets that you see that have two drummers - fully half the band were drummers.  Although the twin drums provided a propulsive rhythm, the first 30 minutes of their set was marred by the mix which drowned the guitar behind the rhythm section.  It wasn't until guitarist Brian Marcus finally plugged his guitar into another amp that it could be heard over the house PA system, which improved things considerably.  Here's a sample from their first album, Fire Talk.

As noted above, headliners Acid Mothers Temple were loud.  In all, they played a full, 90-minute set and although they didn't play an encore, I don't think anybody left feeling anything less than satisfied.

They sound as though they're influenced by You-era Gong and early psychedelic pioneers Hawkind (am I the sole surviving Hawkwind fan?),  which aren't bad influences at all.  Their typical approach to songs involves repetition and improvisation, with a riff repeated over and over again, each time with added intensity, until it gets so heavy that it would threaten to collapse under its own weight, and then repeated some more until it finally does collapse, and then repeated yet still more until it rises from its own ashes and is carried off into the stratosphere by the band.  To give you a better idea of what I'm talking about, here's the complete April 19 Acid Mothers Temple concert at the Mercury Lounge in New York, as recorded by NYC Taper:

Acid Mothers Temple

Acid Mothers Temple are coming to The Drunken Unicorn on Tuesday, April 23, 2013.  That's all the information you need.

Caveman

We last saw the Brooklyn band Caveman opening for Here We Go Magic back in May 2011, when they were touring behind their great album, 2011's Coco, Beware.  

Caveman has a new, self-titled album coming out April 2, and they will be coming to Atlanta's Drunken Unicorn on Saturday, April 6 in support of that effort.  Here's In The City, the first release from the new album.  

No opening acts have been announced for the Drunken Unicorn yet, but the April 6 show is the start of a run of great, post-March Madness dates at the D.U., including:

Monday, April 15th: Wavves, Fidlar
Tuesday, April 23rd: Acid Mothers Temple
Monday, April 29th: Akron/Family
Saturday, May 4th: Telekinesis