GLITTER WIZARD (us) + TRASHLEY (fr) + WAVY GRAVY DJ Duo

Praise for Glitter Wizard‘s Hunting Gatherers from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: We thumbed up the spacey synthy glitter-glam garage retro not-really-metal of this SF band’s Siltbreeze7″ a while back, but then somehow skipped over reviewing their subsequent full-length, and are even a little behind the times in getting to this new LP of theirs too, but that’s ok ’cause the Glitter Wizard guys are also behind the times.

Or maybe way out futuristically in front, way out anyway, again using ’60s and ’70s rock inspirations like Deep Purple, Hawkwind, The Doors, Bloodrock, Black Widow, and Iron Butterfly to help formulate their super groovy, more wizardly-than-thou sound, one that’s got lotsa synth, jamming electric organ, some flute and sax. Along with catchy riffs and amusing lyrics, often gleefully unserious (“I don’t worship the Devil, the Devil worships me”). Our kind of entertainment!

There’s one little hushed-folky-trippy-acoustic number, ‘Sunlit Wolves’, but otherwise most of the trax are swaggering rockers, such as ‘Wizard Wagon’ (about the singer’s van, it would seem) which definitely has hit potential, in our world anyway.

‘Motorider’ reminds us of both The Stooges and Steppenwolf, and when they get heavier on the 7+ minute ‘Space’ it sorta sounds like an agitated Om with keyboards. Album-closer ‘Big Sur’ also has that Om / Sleep vibe, due to the chant-like vox and slomo swinging plod. It’s another long one, the longest here at close to 9 minutes, and so about half way through stops plodding and starts ripping and rollicking, reminding us more of early early Sabbath, like back when Sabbath covered Crow’s ‘Evil Woman’ on their first single.

That said, though, mostly Glitter Wizard doesn’t even seem all that heavy or metal or even proto-metal. They’re retro-proto-proto-metal maybe? Definitely G. Wiz love their ’60s sounds but do their own cool new thing with that, rather than going for some kind of Nuggets redux. For fans of Blood Ceremony (minus the female vox and much of the metal) and Danava and Mammatus when they do get heavy-ish.

http://glitterwizard.bandcamp.com/

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.

TRASHLEY (fr)
dancepunk mayhem
http://trashley.bandcamp.com/
http://trashley.incongru.org/

Wavy Gravy dj duo = DJs GINGERMOON & SONIC DEVIL