By Todd Lavoie
If you’re going to name yourself after one of the Velvet Underground’s most epic noisefests, you’d best be well prepared to bring the drone and stir the squall – we want sheets of feedback and hopefully plenty of nervous dread to go along with it. Such requirements are not an issue for Austin, Texas’ Black Angels.
Named for the Velvets’ signature drone piece “The Black Angel’s Death Song,” these folks remain one of the most convincing modern-day practitioners of late ’60s/early ’70s, antisocial psychedelia. Tapping into the bad acid comedowns and anti-Summer of Love vibes of the Velvets and the 13th Floor Elevators – with occasional devil dances in the direction of vintage Rolling Stones as well – the Black Angels specialize in delicious creep-outs and electrifying forays into the psyche’s darker recesses. Most importantly: they know how to write riveting songs, rather than merely settling upon a mood and a groove and sticking with it. See for yourself this Saturday, June 7, when they play the Independent. In the meantime, may I suggest practicing your strut. Oh, and maybe work on your most menacing lurch as well.
The Black Angels have just released their sophomore full-length, Directions to See a Ghost, and to these ears it feels even more focused than their blindsiding 2006 debut, Passover (both Light in the Attic). I must ‘fess up: I’m completely and utterly in love with the packaging as well. Boasting a day-glo pink and neon green concentric-circle op-art design – and what’s more, it’s embossed – there’s something immensely satisfying in losing oneself in the spirals as the Black Angels rattle out a steady prowling rumble. Plus, it’s embossed! Who doesn’t like feeling art and having it feel you back? It’s a damn shame you can’t run your fingers over the computer screen right now and see – no, feel – exactly what I mean:
