Gospel Oak - Gospel Oak Gospel Oak grew out of the songwriting of Matthew Kelly, a former harp player for John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker, he found his way to the West Coast and did time in Horses, a band that featured future Miami Vice actor Don Johnson on vocals. Feeling his
talent squandered by the experience he left for England and hooked up with a group of Indiana ex-pats to form Gospel Oak. The band wound through blues, folk and 60's psych touches with a solid backbone in Kelly's songs. They even caught the attention of Beatles publicist Tony Barrow who wound up managing them and arranging their record deal with Kapp records. Seemingly all good blocks in place and perhaps if they had just a bit more luck they could have endured, especially given the UK's love for white boy blues at the time. However, the album didn't chart strongly and Kelly's visa eventually expired and he found himself headed back to the US before Gospel Oak really got their legs. He'd eventually go on to found Kingfish later in his career. Still, the album remains a solid bit of the blues crossover with nice flecks of pop and country and its found its way back into print recently. A worthwhile addition to any collection leaning towards studio blues from this period. Listen: Support the artist. Buy it HERE

Hierophants - "Pneumatic Drill" Video

Hierophants clean up their sound a bit from the scruffy singles that have previously eked out. The video for their latest, on Moontown Tapes is a simple idea, a blast of new wave color and flip book style, that pairs well with their clipped, jagged post-punk tumble. The 7" bodes well for an upcoming album and puts them higher up on the list of ones to watch for 2015. Still a rush of talent flowing from the South Hemi and as yet no signs that the tide is stemming.

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The Living Eyes

Geelong foursome The Living Eyes kick in a sophomore effort, following on the elastic crack of their eponymous 2013 debut with a new record that never loses step. Living Large expands on the band's spring wound punk, bashing through ten tracks that buzz with the tradition of Aussie punk from The Saints to Radio Birdman and while the record spit shines their sound a bit, cleaning up the grit that snuck between the teeth of their earlier work, it never erases the sneer constantly plastered on their lips. The secret weapon in the band's arsenal is Billy Gardner's nasal croon, whiplash tough and switchblade sharp; he adds a road burned charm to the band's faded leather punch. Just as brittle and brilliant as their last record, they remain a band to keep an eye on.

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ALBUMS
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King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Oddments /
I'm In Your Mind Fuzz (BUY)
Ty Segall - Manipulator (BUY)
Together Pangea - Badillac (BUY)
Warm Soda - Young Reckless Hearts (BUY)
Woods - With Light and With Love (BUY)
The Skygreen Leopards - Family Crimes (BUY)
The Fresh & Onlys - House of Spirits (BUY)
Total Control - Typical System (BUY)
The Advisory Circle - From Out Here (BUY)
Paco Sala - Put Your Hands On Me (BUY)
King Tuff - Black Moon Spell (BUY)
New Bums - Voices In a Rented Room (BUY)
Wand - Ganglion Reef (BUY)
Kevin Morby - Still Life (BUY)
Natural Child - Dancin' With Wolves(BUY)
Grouper - Ruins (BUY)
White Fence - For The Recently Found Innocent (BUY)
Black To Comm - Black To Comm (BUY)
Cool Ghouls - A Swirling Fire Burning Through The Rye (BUY)
Wildest Dreams - Wildest Dreams (BUY)

The Memories

The Memories have always had a strain of potential that runs through their output and tends to outweigh a lot of the final results. However, when the band hits that nail just right, they hit it square and along with the breezy Love is The Law their latest record Hot Afternoon captures their blend of lackadaisical summer Sunday vibes and pop transcendence at its height. The LP seems to have snuck out with little fanfare in the tail of 2014, but the inspired pairing of Sonny Smith on production with the band's stripped and swooning vibe seems far too perfect to slip away without notice. Its not a complex record, just the right feeling for the right time and when the ten tracks on this one hit you at the end of a long day, its all the salve that your frustrations need. Appropriately hitting the racks via Burger who've had just a touch quieter year in 2014 but as usual, seem to be keeping the dream alive.

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King Khan & The Gris Gris

As an addendum to their great single from Garage Swim, King Khan's teamed up with The Gris Gris for a full album's worth of tracks that balance Khan's fiery garage-soul with the Oakland band's psych touches. The tracks wander into some slow territory when the King gets to pinin' but when they kick up the fire it gives some new tack for Khan, sort of a 60's pop slide on his vocabulary. They even kick some new perspective on Shrines tracks like "Born To Die" – it’s easy to see how both halves of this equation were built for each other. Also, it’s just good to see The Gris Gris back on the circuit, having not really heard anything substantial from them since '05. I know they're still burning the L.A. live scene but this is the first recording that seems to have hit since a live bit in '08. For now Murder Burgers remains a treat on KK's bandcamp, so head on over for a late year bit of 2014 fire.

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	The Move - Message From The Country The Move certainly need no introduction, they've put their mark on garage, bubblegum and pop for years to come but their transitional album A Message From The Country is an essential piece of any 70's rock collection, and one that's too often
missing from most. Recorded in 1971, the album is largely driven by Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood, with bassist Rick Price leaving during the sessions and drummer Bev Bevan feeling on the outs with the group. Perhaps this is because the album was being recorded at the same time Wood and Lynne were beginning Electric Light Orchestra, there are some obvious crossovers between The Move's swan song and ELO's debut. But Message From the Country winds up on the rootsier end of the spectrum from the two, glossy but not so bright you can't see or feel the chooglin' vein pulsing through the album. In its expanded forms its embraced a clutch of singles from the era as well that landed better at radio, including the glam stomper "Do Ya" which became more synonymous with ELO in its live incarnation, and Todd Rundgren in his cover, but the alternate take on the reissue really brings light to what this song began as and how strong an entry it is to The Move's canon. Those singles aside though, the album has that early 70's inclusive experimentation that pulls in harmonic excellence, acoustic shades and an emotional core that would follow Lynne through his career. 60's garage fans may have the early Move tacked into playlists, vinyl collections and their sense of psychedelia but this one deserves at least a little spot next The White Album, No Dice and Ogden's Nut Gone Flake on the shelf and certainly needs to accompany Wood's solo effort and Wizzard. Listen: Support the artist. Buy it HERE

The Advisory Circle

Well the rest of the world seems doused in Year End lists already but seeing as we're not quite at the end of the year, there's more to assess before RSTB gets to our list. And how can we lock down 2014 without taking another visit 'round to the Ghost Box stable. With the already stellar release from Soundcarriers under their belt this year, the venerable UK label comes in late with The Advisory Circle's newest offering, a darker drip from Jon Brooks' filter than ever before. The album still hinges on Brooks' ability to craft seamless sound design that evokes Radiophonic flashbacks and library soundtracks welded into children's story book backdrops, but this time Brooks seems to be exploring more of the deep dark woods of the original Grimm set of tales than any Disney-fied singing animals and luxe colored castles. From Out Here flips through dusty cylinders, spliced reel to reel and Brooks' own deeply melancholic synth and guitar touches that skitter through misplaced misgivings like film spools that constantly dissolve into cigarette burns and away half-remembered premonitions of futures that you hope won't come true. In 2014 Brooks has found a way to melt copies of Alice in Wonderland and Brazil together into a Cheshire grinned wink at horrors to come. Its albums like this that make waiting for all the entries worthwhile before casting 'best of' ballots.

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Hideous Sun Demon

More fire from the South Hemi with the debut record from Perth's Hideous Sun Demon. The band, named after the cult 50's horror flick, burns with muscular, hip-slung punk that's driving from the well of Oh Sees fervor that's taken hold of more than a few bands their way plus six or seven dashes of homegrown Aussie Punk flashes. The guitars gnash while the rhythm section chugs like an oilcan of the cheapest lager. They bash through the bleak halls of The Adolescents, combining a knack for sneered sentiment backed with an angry clangor in fine fashion. And though clearly sucking on the tailpipe of those punk poses, notably its their swing from the bleak waters of post-punk to the edges of stoner rock's sixteen pound drudge that seems to really give them a unique shape. Pulled together with the snarling vocals of Vin Buchanan-Simpson, whose contempt can be felt slinking from the speakers and pulling the shades in any room, Sweat is a rather triumphant debut.

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Damo Suzuki & Mugstar

Hard not to be intrigued by this collaboration on name alone. Mugstar, the heir apparent to Suzuki's Can legacy collaborating with the legend for one night, one performance with the stipulation that they not practice or prep beforehand. The outcome of this experiment in psych is four tracks that burn with Krautrock fever, led by Suzuki's feverish vocal delivery but bolstered plenty by Mugstar's intensity and adept adaptation. They open on fire, burning though thirteen plus minutes of scorch and fury, then cool to the kind of creeping dread that both halves of this equation seem so succinct at invoking. The capper on the whole affair is the twenty-two minute coda that brings the night and record to a close. Leaving the intensity they built at the start looking like a warmup, the final track writhes and seizes with psychedelic shred. These bastards are limited to 500 and probably one of the best sets of improv psych going today. Worth tracking down.

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