By Todd Lavoie
Fuzz fuzz fuzz! Douse yourselves in some sweet-lovin’ reverb this Saturday, Jan, 12 – that’s when LA’s narco-garage thumpers Darker My Love bring the noise to the 12 Galaxies stage, promising an evening of spark-shooting feedback and deep-echoed harmonies.
If you caught them at the Fillmore this past October, opening for the Jesus and Mary Chain, then you’re already well aware of the gothically monikered quintet’s proclivities for welding amped-up, chemical-haze clatter to billowy, sun-soaked vocals. If you didn’t – well, it’s never too late to learn, is it?
I’m a total sucker for the vocals – the slightly medicated, ethereal glows drifting from the harmonies of Tim Presley (guitar) and Rob Barbato (bass) are greatly reminiscent of those hoisted into all that shoegaze-y goodness by Andy Bell and Mark Gardener on Ride’s 1990 masterpiece, Nowhere (Sire). Get yourself an earful or two on their myspace profile and see what I mean: a couple of the songs currently featured (“Summer Is Here” and “Helium Heels”, both from their self-titled 2006 release on Dangerbird Records) feel like the logical next step for those British luminaries, had Ride decided to continue onward with the pounding, whooshing, swirling psych-rock of Nowhere rather than trying out that their pop chops (nothing wrong with this career move, of course, but oh how I loved the headthrob of early Ride!).