& Stoned

Photo by Nuuj.

When I was TWELVE, there was this golden moment when I realized The Grateful Dead were not another awesome band with mind-blowing extended jams, far-out mascot skeletons and dancing bears. They were, in fact, shit. The universal symbol for lame stoner doods with extra-large T-shirts and a different hacky- sack for every day of the week. But like the electro and no-wave revivals we’ve all indulged in over the past few years, stoner-bliss has recently made it to round two. The good news is, this time it rules. Most of the new post-psych bands are giving up on old staples like hour-long jams and trippy iconography, but dreamy droner Fursaxa is taking tie-dye, alchemy, and speaking in tongues and clutching them closer to her breast than the first generation ever dreamed of. Prancing out of Philadelphia, Fursaxa’s human form, Tara Burke, is all about the simplicity of freaking out. As she puts it, “I just play things that sound good to me.” Her Japan-only release, Mandrake (which boasts trails of Jap-psych masters Acid Mothers Temple and was produced by the elf-king himself, Kawabata Makoto), dangles on the edge of some netherworld where every sound has an innate reverb and magic is spelled with a “k.” Fairy voices warble in and out of tune in this sonic forest of chord organs, while gnomes play elbow guitars in secret groves, and all there is to eat is acid tea and mushroom pancakes. It’s too bad the real world isn’t like this, but Tara says that her milieu is close enough. “Lots of moody lights and the smell of burning herbs—lavender, sage, rosemary—really help me make music.” She’s forgetting one other herb that we know she’s no stranger to. Tara is so high during this interview she sounds like that blonde bassist chick from The Muppet Show. Tara has played in a colorful spectrum of settings, from the Museum of Contemporary Art in D.C. to sharing bills with bands like Black Dice. She says that while her music may not appeal to either bourgeois art snobs or the noisy punk house at first, there is one divine element that links them all together. “When I listen to Black Dice, for instance, I feel a common thread in our approach to making music—finding beauty in a fucked-up world.” MATT EBERHART
Mandrake is available from more serious record stores and on obsessive eBay vendors’ lists. A new Fursaxa LPis in the works too.

Five Other Stoner Bands

Animal Collective

These Brooklyn kids have names like “The Deacon” and “Panda Bear,” and they sound like a crazed drum circle, but louder and with other instruments and chant-ing. Magnificent shit. Best record: Spirit They’ve Gone, Spirit They’ve Vanished (released under the name Avey Tare & Panda Bear, but good luck finding that one)

Circle

Finnish group that hovers between Judas Priest-y metal and lush medieval folk stuff. You can laugh at the singer’s trilly little inflections or bonghit out to their heavier, Faust-like drone bits. Best record: Sunrise

Nagisa Ni Te

Hazy progressive music and Nick Drake-influenced folk getting gently strummed by a Japanese hippie (hence you don’t have to worry about gay lyrics because it’s all in his native tongue). Best record: On the Love Beach

Six Organs of Admittance

This New York-based band is the reason the term “acid folk” was invented. Spacy fingerpicking, majestic electric guitar, and fucking tablas are all over last year’s Dark Noontide. These are the kind of guys who blink a lot when they’re outside in the daytime. Best record: Dark Noontide

No Neck Blues Band

This is a given if you’re into that whole free-rock heavy hippie music vibe, but in case you’re a neophyte, these guys are the bosses of it. Tribal, transcendent, and stronger-willed than you are. Best record: Sticks and Stones May Break My Bones But Names Will Never Hurt Me