California-based psych-rock four-strong band WAND, whose growing-up first album was released on Ty Segall’s God? label, have recently released their second album, GOLEM, on the cult rock ‘n’ roll garage In The Red Records (Jon Spencer BX, Thee Oh Sees, The Gories…). Rumours are circulating of one of the most striking live bands of the
California-based psych-rock four-strong band WAND, whose growing-up first album was released on Ty Segall’s God? label, have recently released their second album, GOLEM, on the cult rock ‘n’ roll garage In The Red Records (Jon Spencer BX, Thee Oh Sees, The Gories…). Rumours are circulating of one of the most striking live bands of the new generation. They are reaching us on 4 June, supported by the local Nikki Louder to set the standard of a striking live performance. Facebook Event
Cory Hanson: guitar, vocals, synthesizer
Lee Landey: bass guitar, synthesizer
Evan Burrows: drums, percussion, field recordings
Daniel Martens: guitar
What follows is a testimony of a surviving witness who was faced with WAND this March in Austin as part of the greatest US (and global) showcase, SXSW. In his own words:
“There’s three I definitely won’t forget: Thee Oh Sees, Destruction Unit, and WAND a relative unknown that, as Mikal Cronin recently put it in a tweet, has the potential to be “The Biggest Band in the World”. Playing yesterday’s Levitation party at Hotel Vegas (a pre-Austin Psych Fest gathering), WAND took a major step toward global domination, playing the best cuts from their new album, Golem, and taking the sparse afternoon crowd on a journey of ascending and descending guitar noise and prog-pop sludge. Vocalist/guitarist Cory Hanson swung himself around the stage, every note triggering an animated body spasm. If he held a string bend, he’d lean back, his figure forming a gravity-defying semi-circle. Trippy, catchy, and utterly heavy, WAND sounds like nothing else. They have songwriting to break scene barriers and bring together freaks, punks, popsmiths, and metalheads alike. The world takeover has begun.” Jon Hadusek – Consequence of Sound
go·lem
noun \ˈgō-l!m, ˈgȯi-, ˈgā-\
Definition of GOLEM:
1: grace as shapeless mass
2: a triangular office
3: grandparent, shrunken and chapped
4: an entertainer: as
5: slouching desk rider
6: little circuit sniffer
7: skin shaped coffin for your mama papa complex
7: an earthen figure brought to life by holy whispers, via telephone
Examples of GOLEM: “…your mother and father made you a golem…”
“…I went to school but found out I was a golem…”
“…your best friends know you’re a golem, most people do…”
… non-desiring, non-being, organized in abeyance; animated wildly within the confines of a bygone language. Scarfing bone-dry crust from an eclipsed earth. Composed of tiny, brilliant mammalian bodies, millions of faces ~ all indistinguishably broken into slackening outer-digestive circles. Buildings, civilization and planets sucked into an electrified mass that was growing before we were born and will continue expanding long after we are absorbed into it. The effortless planetary gol-em, anal eater of the stars. Amorphous bestial cloud of chrome smell and dream vapor, amongst which we are all subjacent to the largely un-compromised Thing:
grown, and fully realized, as such.
When they appeared at MENT Ljubljana, NIKKI LOUDER, Kamnik-based noise-rock three-strong were described as follows:
Animal drumming, thrumming melodic bass, squealing guitars and piercing screams are the building blocks of Nikki Louder. The Slovenian trio offers a sincere club experience that leaves no audience member cold. The guys have released three full-lengths, gone on countless tours, from the Balkans to England, and are above all a band that fans of noise rock shouldn’t miss.
