Just got the news early this week that I could finally talk about this great Shaky Shrines single Darren sent in recently. Today, April 2nd, this scuzzy reverb monster is finally released on Velocity of Sound Records. Shaky Shrines are a five piece from Pittsburg that came about when Braden Faisant got together with Nate Hanson to dive deep into the occult psych heavy delay of Wooden Shjips and Suicide and then combined it with monster movie hotrod spring reverb on this latest single from VOS Records. They are serious about their graveyard aesthetic and foreign psych sounds - check out this interview with Pittsburgh City Paper and especially their website for neon nintendo zombies in a graveyard. I still dream about video games like that.
A-Side's "Satanic Panic" comes on with a big rough tom sound and scuzzy shrill riffs. Braden is on vocals with a greasy Cramps style of big reverb pinging off cinder blocks and tile. They swerve from that low end groove to a solo shriek of a chorus taking big turns in melody and structure keeping the energy high like Les Savy Fav. The opposite philosophies of this keep running up against one another; that rough back alley riff and this catchy chorus track title that's the life of the party. They pay close attention to these scuzzier moments, really making them shine and this solo towards the end is run through a busted amp cone, full of the metallic frequencies like a french horn.
B-Side's "Ketamine" starts off with messy electronic bass blurping under loose tom's while a wailing strung out guitar blares away over reverb PA's. A couple characters chant "100 mg of intravenous Ketamine / that is the answer / to the questions you've been asking" getting louder and louder about it eventually taking the rest of this instrumentation with them. Things are weirdly separated in the mix leaving dead spaces possibly my residual flashback to this really good shit. It blows out with garage enthusiasm and mixes in the swirly hard to reach places of psych. Once it picks up this kind of steam it isn't letting anyone get out. The track slams into a wall and all that's left is a hubcap slowly rolling away form this complete obliteration. On the reverse sleeve is an upside cross under a rainbow. Really - that says it all.
Get it from the Velocity of Sound Records who guarantee not to make a penny on any release, they are priced at cost. Why? Because Darren loves music god dammit. And if you're reading this so do you.
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