Out on August 19th, Palo Verde is the third album from the heavy truckin' space fuzzers Psychlona. Hailing from Bradford, UK, the band draws inspiration not from its maritime home, but from the dust and bones of the Palm Desert scene of the 60s and 70s along with some punk and psychedelic sounds. To help expand on this heavy mind expansion, here's a line from the press release for Palo Verde that keeps giving me a contact high every time I read it:
"Counteracting far-out sensibilities with canyon-sized guitar chops, it’s the sort of thing that might have happened if Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats stared into lava lamps for a week, grew their hair even longer…and then bulked up in the gym. Tasty.”
Though it's their third effort, Palo Verde is the band's first album with the Las Vegas label Psycho Waxx–the in-house record label of Psycho Las Vegas Festival which has been making metal mayhem in the desert since 2013. We previously premiered the single, "1975" a jam that derives its grooves directly from the 70s and the scene created in the Palm Desert where elements of stoner rock, psychedelia, metal, and mescaline all mingle together with musical influences tied to the area like Matt Pike (a long-time member of the Psycho Las Vegas lineup), Fu Manchu, Yawning Man, Kyuss and Mark Lanegan (RIP). Here's a bit more from Psychlona vocalist and guitarist Phil Hey speaking about pulling the track "Rainbird" together. Like Psychlona, it's a vibe:
“The song originally came together from a bassline [bassist Martyn Birchall] was playing. It sounded kinda trippy and dreamy, so when we eventually got around to working on it we added some simple chord progressions and ambient guitar noises, then Dave brought the defiant, heavier playout at the end. Lyrically it's about not taking loved ones or anything for granted as they might not be around for as long as you hope. It had a couple of working titles then last autumn I sat in a taverna in Greece in the sun enjoying life and noticed unusual birds riding the thermals above, and the taverna was called Rainbird. It all seemed very fitting.”
You can preorder the “Rainbird” single here. Psychlona will play the next installment of Psycho Las Vegas, the Sonic Blast Festival in Portugal, and will hit the U.S. for a short tour starting on August 15th at the Starline Social Club in Oakland, California. You can pre-order the gorgeous galaxy color variant of Palo Verde (limited to 700 copies) exclusively at Psycho Waxx. Listen to “Rainbird” below.
