Thursday 17 October 2013

Night Beats - Outta Mind

Single review by kev@thesoundofconfusion.co.uk


Do you like psychedelia? Increasing numbers of people do it seems, in fact we're currently seeing perhaps the biggest psych revival since the early 1970s. OK, so psychedelia is a wide-ranging word, so lets examine the particular branch that Seattle band Night Beats favour. The trio released their latest album at the end of September, it's called 'Sonic Bloom', a name that it's you'd think would have been snapped up before, but, to the best of my knowledge, hasn't. 'Sonic Bloom' has a '60s sound to it. For starters one of the most important and prominent bands of the garage scene of that decade were The Sonics, and certain factions of the pop world went mad for flower-power for a while. There were blooms everywhere.

So it's fitting that 'Outta Mind', a single from the new record, sounds just like it was a glaring omission by Lenny Kaye when he put together the seminal psych/garage compilation series 'Nuggets' which focused on the second half of the decade of peace and love. The guitars are sharp and twangy with a surfy feel, the vocals echo around with frivolous reverb and the beat is solid; it has all the hallmarks of a lost classic. Well it's not lost (not yet anyway), it's new and it will hopefully help Night Beats become as revered as some of the other people currently exploring similar music. If not, then us fans of these authentic sounds will hold it close. It's worth it for that scream alone.



Night Beats' website

Buy the album

Catch them live:

Oct 18 The Observatory, Santa Ana, CA
Oct 22 The Crux, Boise, ID
Oct 23 The Urban Lounge, Salt Lake City, UT
Oct 24 Larimer Lounge, Denver, CO  
Oct 25 The Guild, Kansas City, MO  
Oct 26 Hexagon Bar, Minneapolis, MN  
Oct 27 Linnemans, Milwaukee, WI  
Oct 29 The Bishop, Bloomington, IN
Oct 30 The Brass Rail, Fort Wayne, IN  
Oct 31 Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
Nov 01 Jumbo's, Detroit, MI  
Nov 02 Happy Dog, Cleveland, OH  
Nov 03 Brillobox, Pittsburgh, PA  
Nov 05 Silver Dollar, Toronto, Canada  
Nov 06 614 Gladstone, Ottawa, Canada  
Nov 07 il Motore, Montreal, Canada  
Nov 08 O'Briens Pub, Boston, MA
Nov 09 Death By Audio, Brooklyn, NY  
Nov 10 Kung Fu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA
Nov 12 Mercury Lounge, New York, NY
Nov 13 Comet Ping Pong, Washington, DC  
Nov 14 The Milestone, Charlotte, NC
Nov 15 The End, Nashville, TN  
Nov 16 Hi Tone, Memphis, TN  
Nov 17 The EARL, Atlanta, GA  
Nov 18 Circle Bar, New Orleans, LA  
Nov 19 Doublewide, Dallas, TX
Nov 20 Red 7, Austin, TX  
Nov 22 Topaz Tundra, Tucson, AZ  
Nov 23 The Echo, Los Angeles, CA
Nov 24 The Casbah, San Diego, CA  
Nov 25 Detroit Bar, Costa Mesa, CA
Dec 03 The Rambler , Eindhoven, Netherlands  
Dec 10 The Roadhouse, Manchester, United Kingdom
Dec 13 Town Hall, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dec 14 The Assembly, Cape Town, South Africa





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