Tropical Popsicle - The Dawn of Delight (2013)

 

Here's a record from the not too distant past. Now a decade old, this lone full length from a San Diego band called Tropical Popsicle features 13 blissed out tracks that are equal layers psych-pop and garage, with an icing of 80's cold wave.

You've heard it all before, right?

There's something just slightly better about Tropical Popsicle, however, than your average 2000-teens garage revival. The music pushes the nostalgia to include, not just the better parts of 60's psych but also 80's synth pop. The result is both simultaneously recognizable and new... in a different place and time, with the backing of a major label, Tropical Popsicle could have been huge. Maybe the same could be said for anybody. But then, would that anybody also have record artwork nearly as interesting? Ooh-La-La. 

Vinyl also available through Volar Records. $10 frikin' bucks!

Groms - Drowning (2015)

Here is another fine San Diego band to grind up and smoke in your pipe. Groms play fuzzy, lo-fi garage rock; the kind of stuff that we play extensively here and that requires little else in the way of description. What these kids do right is inject a fine dose of fun and playfulness into their set. Light and airy guitars with subtle synth lines and drunken, skuzzy vocals make this a winner.

They just put this out on cassette via Wiener Records and played a release show at the awesome M-Theory Records in San Diego. Bring this to the next Bill Cosby live appearance and blast it on your boom box.

Get it here:
Groms - Drowning (2015)

Rum for Your Life - Punch (2014)

I have not been in San Diego for about a year now, and as we get closer to summer (at least here in sunny California), I have started to turn my fine-tuned ear to new sounds coming out of the city to act as my own personal soundtrack. The lo-fi shoegaze act Rum for Your Life has recently played their inaugural show at the Soda Bar (the hipster proving grounds for those not in the know), and have an EP that promises great things in the future. The band owes a debt to shoegaze pioneers that have come before them, but when you craft fuzzy tracks this cohesively, you are allowed to borrow more than a few shreds along the way. Tracks like "Swinger" have a bass riff that could sit well next to proto-metal and garage acts often celebrated here at Space Rock, and by the time we hit "Tower," the whole gloomy set is brought to a fitting, sinister close.

It is free to stream, but sadly no download is available. What is this, 2011? Anyhow, check it now while it is free and pristine.

Rum for Your Life - Punch (2014)

Emperors of Gnouv – Masters of the Galaxy (2014)

Lord knows I love me some Prog music! Yep, even the stuff that others hate, so feel safe sending me your concept albums about the life cycle of a salamander without fear of chastisement. Anyone who sends in a submission with text detailing the space odyssey their record is attempting to emulate gets a few points in my book. Better yet, as I am preparing to head back down to San Diego in the next few days (and record a special edition of the podcast related to said city), I was eager to pull together a few submissions from the sunny city by the border. In walks Emperors of Gnouv to meet both demands. With a band name like that, and a record titled “Masters of the Galaxy,” you know a psychedelic experience is just on the horizon.

The group has crafted some beautiful and melodic progressive rock that brings to mind Camel and early Genesis records. Lots of odd time signatures and processed guitar lines are placed next to tricky base lines are stacked on high, with few vocals to be found. Best yet, this stuff is danceable and fresh enough to be put on stage with dance punk acts, and the drug addled crowd would hardly know the difference. I’m looking forward to seeing what these guys do next.

Get it here:
Emperors of Gnouv – Masters of the Galaxy (2014)

Gregory Page - Shine, Shine, Shine (2013)

Not the normal SpaceRockMountain fare, but quality music that needs a larger audience. Gregory Page is a staple of the San Diego music scene and has been churning out what would have been standard pop music 60 years ago, but now sits in a small stable of acts that produce records from the Big Band days of Jazz. 

Gregory’s newest full length is titled Shine, Shine, Shine and finds him comfortably crooning over a hefty band capable of transporting your ears to a time when folks received food rations, married at 19, and owned transistor radios that hummed every summer evening. As I finish up work on my solo Elvis Dracula record, Gregory’s records have been played in concurrence with Chet Baker and Billie Holiday in recording sessions intended to situate myself in the musical world necessary to craft tunes from this era. 

Try and listen to the title track from Shine, Shine, Shine and not smile. Romanticism of the past is a fools errand, but there is nothing to Gregory’s music that is deserving of derision or scorn. 

Buy or stream it here:

Gregory Page - Shine, Shine, Shine (2013)

The Cutaways - Do the Disconnect (2012)

This wasn’t submitted, but rather picked up on cassette from M-Theory in San Diego. The cover looked a lot like Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality, and since I love that record so, I picked it up. They happen to be a band from El Cajon and sound very little like metal. I am getting more of a psychedelic cowboy vibe from the group. You can hear a real love for Neil Young in these recordings, as well as a late 60’s jam-out set of sensations. This stuff would make for great barn burning live sets, if there were any barns in El Cajon.

Sadly, I could not locate a Bandcamp page for the group, but they do have a few tracks streaming at soundcloud, and their record label is selling digital copies at their website.

Buy it here:
The Cutaways - Do the Disconnect (2012)