Posts Tagged ‘The Warlocks’

The WARLOCKS – ” Cleopatra “

Posted: May 7, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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Since forming 22 years ago, Bobby Hecksher’s psych rockers the Warlocks have enjoyed a career as turbulent as the circumstances under which they were born. As well as enduring the chaos that was the Brian Jonestown Massacre/Dandy Warhols saga (portrayed vividly in the film Dig!), Hecksher was rejected by Weezer. What else to do but form your own band?

But things didn’t get any easier. The Warlocks have worked their way through record labels and indeed band members like Pac-Man with little balls. Two years ago, Hecksher told us that he was unsure about the future of the band. But here we are, pandemic be damned, enjoying the release of the band’s tenth studio album.

As with the last two, the album is released through local label Cleopatra (the grey vinyl is a nice touch), and this time there’s a concept running through it — a story of a Bonnie and Clyde-ish couple on the run, called Rocky and Diamond. Not that you’d necessarily know if you weren’t told. This isn’t a rock opera; rather, the storyline lends some lyrical subject matter which, in truth, resonate in the current environment anyway.

“I’ve been reading lots of articles about our justice system” Hecksher said in a press release. “I’ve also been watching a lot of real-life/fictionalized prison TV series. All these young adults are caught committing very low-level crimes, but they end up getting these huge bits of their lives taken away from them. The ones who have money usually fair better.”

He has a point, and he makes it well on songs such as the touching “Dear Son,” “We Don’t Need Money” (with its enduring, repeated “rock and roll” refrain) and “Sucking Out Your Soul Like a Son of a Bitch.” Musically, the album is typically adventurous, droning Warlocks fare. The melodies are there, but they’re buried and require some effort. The ’60s psych/Madchester blend is still hypnotic. This is The Warlocks at their magical best.

The brand new studio album from L.A.’s premiere psych band, The Warlocks!
This ambitious album tells a single story, of two star-crossed lovers who commit a bank heist together, over the course of 10 gorgeous, densely layered guitar tracks spiced with keyboards and reinforced with powerful bass and percussion grooves!.

Available from April 3rd on CD, limited edition coloured vinyl in your choice of PURPLE or SILVER, and streaming in all digital stores.

 

The WARLOCKS – ” The Chain “

Posted: April 4, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The brand new studio album from L.A.’s premiere psych band, The Warlocks! ,The Warlocks started because of the their mutual love of all things Rock and Roll. We love a lot of the 60s, 70s and some 80s inspired music. We are not a retro band though. We all always try new stuff and from time to time hit something great.

This ambitious album tells a single story, of two star-crossed lovers who commit a bank heist together, over the course of 10 gorgeous, dense layered guitar tracks spiced with keyboards and reinforced with powerful bass and percussion grooves!, Holy shit, I have a few versions of we don’t need money on demo and unreleased recordings, but how cool to hear it fully formed! love that heavy fuzz bass and beat. amazing! Love the whole thing.

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The Rough Justice of The Warlocks’ The Chain, The longtime L.A. psych-rockers’ tenth studio album is released on April 3rd, 2020
“Creamy, dreamy, glass breaking-style storytelling” is how Bobby Hecksher describes the psychedelic-rock sound of The Warlocks’ tenth full-length studio album, The Chain, on Cleopatra Records.
“We’re telling a story this time,” Hecksher says about the album’s ripped-from-the-headlines concept, which he says had been percolating for a few years before it suddenly came to him with the delirious intensity of a fever-soaked dream, like that “out-of-body experience you get at a show when you’re drenched in sweat and suddenly feel so alive.”
That concept, Hecksher says, is based around “a Bonnie & Clyde-ish twenty-something couple who rob a bank but get caught and then are cast down the bottomless pit of our justice system. The main characters, Rocky and Diamond, come from different means and thus have very different outcomes. It’s a loose collection of ‘you got fucked and swept under the rug’-type feelings revealed amid happy songs about their relationship, provided as a kind of relief
Band Members
Bobby Hecksher,
JC Rees,
Jason “Plucky” Anchondo,
Earl V. Miller,
Chris DiPino,

Will be available on both CD and limited edition colored vinyl in your choice of PURPLE or SILVER! vinyl
released April 3rd, 2020

The WARLOCKS – ” Skull Worship Lost Gems ” EP

Posted: June 25, 2019 in MUSIC
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Well it’s that struggle I have with music. I write so much stuff and then end up leaving things off albums for one reason or another. The problem is a lot of these songs just didn’t fit for one reason or another. Or they did fit like “Keys To The Kingdom” and I ran out of money to mix it right. Still a lot of beautiful moments on here hence “Lost Gems”. Anyways I added as much as the original artwork ideas as I could along with some photos from the Skull Worship tour in Europe. This one is a little expensive because some of these tracks are just wav. files rough mixes and little too lo fi for my taste. To go back in time and mix these songs properly would cost a lot of studio time. I’m down of course but mixing can cost anywhere from 150-300 on up to mix 1 song a day and do it properly. You do the math its gets expensive quick esp. whenever everyone expects everything for free! Support the cause and pay it forward! If i can get these tracks up to snuff I’ll look into putting them out properly. The next generation (might) thank you! Kidding! No but seriously thanks for reading and take care.
Lots of love xoxo Bobby Hecksher restless spirit and leader of The Warlocks rock and roll band.
released June 25th, 2019

The WARLOCKS – ” Mean Machine Music “

Posted: June 1, 2019 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Warlocks started because of the their mutual love of all things Rock and Roll. We love a lot of the 60s, 70s and some 80s inspired music. We are not a retro band though. We all always try new stuff and from time to time hit something great.

Mean Machine Music is the highly experimental new album from L.A.’s spellbinding psych rock masters, The Warlocks! ,  Inspired by everything from Stereolab to Krautrock to Death Rock, this album presents 5 new compositions and then revisits those songs for instrumental reprises that reveal deep layers of melody and atmosphere! .  Engineered by Phillip Haut (Ariel Pink, Centimeters)! .
Follows on the heels 2016’s extremely well-received Songs From The Pale Eclipse as well as the band’s first ever official live album Vevey released in 2017! ,
Released May 31st, 2019

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The Warlocks return with “MEAN MACHINE MUSIC”, Their first studio album in 3 years.
The mighty Warlocks return on May 31st to melt minds with their own unique brand of dark psychedelia, served as only these purveyors of fine fuzz can offer. But let’s hear about what we have here, straight from the source!
The brave beware! This is no ordinary record by The Warlocks. It’s an experiment. We were inspired to do a heavy Stereolab, Neu, Death-Rock, Krautrock thing but struggled to get the drums and everything to sound good. After too much tweaking from start to finish (hence “Mean Machine Music”) we finally managed to finish the recording with our engineer Phillip Haut (Ariel Pink, Centimeters, Fancy Space People). I’ve always been proud the fact that for the most part we can try new things and get something out of it. We got shit for doing Doo-Wop type stuff which ended up on Surgery. We got shit for the discombobulated Heavy Deavy Skull Lover. Looking back that stuff still stands up! You choose and judge for yourself dear listener! There are def some nuggets in here like “Disfigured Figure” – super weird. It’s a curiosity that I had to wrestle with leaving on my computer or put it out. The fine folks at Cleopatra say “it’s good” and to “release it!” an d so it is. Enjoy! – Bobby Hecksher / The Warlocks – Feb 2019.
Mean Machine Music will be available everywhere starting May 31st via Cleopatra Records.

FUZZ CLUB EINDHOVEN Effenaar 23rd-24th August 2019

Posted: March 9, 2019 in FESTIVALS, MUSIC
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Fuzz Club Eindhoven 2019: Kikagaku Moyo + The Soft Moon + Iceage e.a.

Fuzz Club, organised by the label of the same name in partnership with Eindhoven Psych Lab, in that city’s imperious Effenaar venue, is ostensibly a ‘psych fest’. It’s a little steelier than most, perhaps – there is more psychedelia of the skull-crushing, motoric and guitar-based variety than there are whacked-out interdimensional synth voyages – but psychedelia it remains.

In the wider world, psych is somewhat on the wane in 2018, having hit a soaring high four or five years ago. In Liverpool, the annual International Festival of Psychedelia – one of Europe’s largest – was the undisputed daddy of the Scouse music calendar, a cosmic celebration imbued with a sense of starry-eyed optimism, a friendliness and community spirit.

After last year’s Fuzz Club Eindhoven, and before our ears had even stopped ringing, The Fuzz Club promoters began working on round two. Today we’re unbelievably excited to share the first seventeen bands who are set to play at FCE19 – taking place once again at the Effenaar over August 23rd-24th. You can find the line-up as it stands as well as a link to early-bird tickets below.

So, topping the bill will be everyone’s favourite Japanese mavericks Kikagaku Moyo, who will be bringing their transcendental blend of minimalist psychedelia, Eastern folk and krautrock. Also joining them will be Iceage and their twisted post-punk drawl and The Soft Moon, whose pounding cocktail of industrial, EBM and darkwave will be shaking floors in the early hours.

On top that there will be The KVB’s icy synth-pop, the shadowy drone-rock of Tess Parks and shoegazing legends The Warlocks and The Telescopes. Plus further Japanese hypnosis courtesy of Minami Deutsch, synth-punk workouts from Rendez-Vous and droning garage-psych from Alan Vega proteges The Vacant Lots. Oakland cosmonauts Lumerians, Chilean heavyweights Vuelveteloca and South African noise-pop duo Medicine Boy. We’ll also be bringing back Berlin post-punk outfit The Underground Youth and Porto krautrockers 10 000 Russos.

Bands for 2019 + more to be announced
Kikagaku Moyo, The Soft Moon, Iceage, The KVB, Tess Parks, The Underground Youth, The Warlocks, The Telescopes, The Vacant Lots, Lumerians , Whispering Sons, Rendez-Vous, Iguana Death Cult, Minami Deutsch, 10 000 Russos, Medicine Boy en Vuelveteloca.

The WARLOCKS – ” Songs From The Pale Eclipse “

Posted: December 29, 2016 in MUSIC
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The Warlocks started because of the their mutual love of all things Rock and Roll. We love a lot of the 60s, 70s and some 80s inspired music. We are not a retro band though. We all always try new stuff and from time to time hit something great.
The Warlocks were founded in 1998 in Los Angeles by Bobby Hecksher, who has led the band from strength to strength ever since. After seeing their debut in 2000 with a self titled EP released on Bomp! Records, The Warlocks followed up with the full length Rise and Fall in 2001. Since then, the band have released the neo-classics Phoenix, Surgery, Heavy Deavy Skull Lover, The Mirror Explodes & Skull Worship. All of which have lent to the bands worldwide cult status and a loyal fanbase that eagerly await The Warlocks’ next spell.

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The WARLOCKS – ” Shake The Dope Out “

Posted: April 24, 2015 in MUSIC, NOTTINGHAM CITY VENUES
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The Warlocks started because of the their mutual love of all things Rock and Roll. We love a lot of the 60s, 70s and some 80s inspired music. We are not a retro band though. We all always try new stuff and from time to time hit something great.

After forming in America during 1999, the ever-changing personnel of The Warlocks meant that the band had already featured nineteen different members before it was slimmed to the seven-piece outfit that they are today. Consisting of Bobby Hecksher (Vocals/Guitar), JC Rees (Guitar), Corey Lee Granet (Guitar), Bobby Martinez (Bass), Laura Grigsby (Tambourine/Keys), Danny Hole (Drums) and Jason Anchondo (Drums) – their two drummers with four guitarists formation produces a relentless, hypnotic wall of sound that suggests a collision between classic psychedelia, Krautrock and Velvet Underground style rock and roll. It’s just what the head doctor orders if you wish to be an underground stateside phenomenon and that’s exactly what The Warlocks became.

Front man Bobby Hecksher grew up in the swamps of Tampa Bay, Florida where he was practically raised at a radio station owned his Grandfather and where his mum also worked as a secretary. As a result Bobby was soon eating and breathing rock’n’roll on a daily basis.

Bobby recalls, “My granddad was an inspiration. He created the radio station out of thin air. And from it all these nuggets of rock’n’roll came toward me”.

At sixteen his family left the swamps and moved to LA where Bobby soon found kindred spirits. He jammed with Beck playing bass on “Stereopathetic Soul Manure”; he hung out in the in the decadent atmosphere of the ‘Mad Hatter’ club and moonlighted in the Brian Jonestown Massacre whilst also attending parties with legendary acid guru Timothy Leary, a potent cultural and creative mix that led to the formation of The Warlocks.

Interstellar Overdrive's photo.

 

Their debut album ”Rise & Fall’ (Bomp 2000) set out their template allowing The Warlocks to build upon their reputation as a forceful live act but it was the band’s signing of a worldwide deal with Mute (in conjunction with City Rockers in the UK and with Birdman in America) that led to the release of “Phoenix” (2003) a record that raised their profile significantly. The album’s varying moods and atmospheres range from the driving power of “Shake the Dope Out” to the 14-minute, hallucinogenic opus “Oh Shadie”. “Baby Blue”, the pretty and deliciously retro 7″ and CD single taken from the LP arrived awash with sitars, a touch of feedback and a melody that sounded like it had blown in from the West Coast of pop. The single’s extra tracks featured two songs from the album recorded on their British tour, “Hurricane Heart Attack” boasting a guest appearance from ex-Spaceman 3 front man Sonic Boom that together with “Inside Outside” successfully conveyed a sense of the band’s gigantic live sound.

Having left those who have experienced the sheer power of The Warlocks hungry for more, “Phoenix” is sure to be the first step on a ladder that could escalate the band to some lofty heights, a fact that Bobby Hecksher seems highly aware of.

“All that concerns me is making The Warlocks the best I can possibly make it. I want to move people. If they walk away from a show feeling something, or just experience a feeling that they didn’t feel before then we’ve achieved something. We’ve been through chaos and now, finally our destiny is whatever we want it to be…”
Genre Psychedelic
Members Bobby Hecksher
JC Rees
George Serrano
Earl Miller
Chris DiPino

Here is a partial List of the Musicians that have played in The Warlocks over the years. We will update this thing as we go along.

Ryan McBride: Guitar
Bob Mustachio: Drums
Jana Risher: Bass
Mimi Sato: Bass
Corey Lee Granet: Guitar, Piano
Jeff Levitz: Guitar
Jen Chiba: Bass
Caleb Sweazy: Bass, Acoustic Guitar
Laura Grigsby: Tambourine
Hunter Crowley: Drums
Bobby Tamkin : Drums
Anton Newcombe: Drums
Theresa Saso: Drums
Danny Hole: Drums
Tanya Hayden plays cello on Whips of Mercy
Rachel Hayden sings backing vocals on Cocaine Blues
Julie Hermelin plays violin on Dilauded
Ileen Goldsmith sings on Dope Feels Good