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!).
And speaking of throbbing: Andy Granelli gives plenty of reason for the Ride-reminiscing as well, thanks to a punishing drumming style similar to that of the aforementioned band's Loz Colbert. "Summer Is Here" boasts an insistent (freak)beat and manic guitar feedback, while Presley's and Barbato's vocals soar above the squall. "Helium Heels" offers a more malevolent vision of the early-'90s wall-of-guitars, reminding a bit of Serena Maneesh in its bipolar blend of sunshine vocals with misanthropic darkness and dissonance, courtesy of Presley and the band's other gutsy guitarist, Jared Everett.
Elsewhere on the disc, I hear elements of the Jesus and Mary Chain ("Post Mortem, Post Boredom" chugs and croaks with the doomsday nonchalance of much of Barbed Wire Kisses) and the Brian Jonestown Massacre ("Catch" with its plodding rhythm and Will Canzoneri's evocative whirring organ, shares a similar post-hippie-comedown feeling with much of Anton Newcombe's emotionally detached groovings).
Most intriguingly of all, Darker My Love's myspace profile also offers a fantastic demo entitled "Sleep Within You." Vocals swoop in and out of focus like curious apparitions while an understated guitar-fuzz rumbles over a folk-jazz bongo rhythm - it's the psychedelic indie-rock equivalent of a séance, all wisps and drifts and plumes of strangely-scented smoke. The LA black-leather counterpart to Dr. John's creepy-hoodoo conjuring on Gris Gris (Collector's Choice), perhaps? Or, if I close my eyes and throw myself firmly into the swirl, I also detect a snip or two of early, pre-"Bittersweet Symphony" Verve (particularly their ambient-psycheout experiments "A Man Called Sun" and "Gravity Grave"). However you snuff it, it's a bewitching demo. More, please!
Darker My Love delivers the sensitive-swagger on Saturday, Jan. 12, 9 p.m., at 12 Galaxies, 2565 Mission, SF. Tickets are $8; also playing are Hot Lunch and Brian Glaze and the Night Shift.
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