EP Review
We're currently in the umpteenth garage rock revival. That's actually a joke, because I don't think garage, psych, stoner rock ever went away. In every era, there are kids willing to blend noisy, trippy guitars with sneering, snotty vocals to blow your mind.
Sun Voyager and Greasy Hearts represent two slightly different approaches to that on their just-released split cassette EP for King Pizza Records.
The Sun Voyager half comes down more on the side of swirling and psychedelic. Carlos Valle's reverb-soaked guitar and vocals sound like they're coming at you from across the great expanse of space on "Desert Dweller." Things get slightly stompier on "Mind Maze" and "Let It Ride," but there's still a dreaminess to the vocals and a sharp edge to the guitar solos that keep things in the realm of psychedelic mind expansion for the Albany, NY trio.
Brooklyn's Greasy Hearts take things in a grittier, heavier direction with their half of the split. Peter Wilderotter's and Joe Farber's vocals are more up-front on "I Don't Mind," and there are a few more obvious hooks. There's less swirling reverb and more heavy guitar on all of the tracks. Set-closer "Pick Up Your Heart" has an especially southern, heavy bluesy feel to it.
Grease Voyage is a nice example of why all of that garage-, psych-, stoner-, blues-, whatever rock is just rock. Giving it all a label may help to sell it, but it's been what it's been ever since kids plugged in their guitars.
You can stream both sides of
Grease Voyage at the respective Bandcamp pages of
Sun Voyager and
Greasy Hearts. The cassette is available from
King Pizza Records.
Sun Voyager will be
at The Wonder Bar on January 3rd helping The Munsens to kick off their tour with Ashes to Oranges, and This That and The Others.
