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LSD and the Search for God hit the Northern California coast in 2005––seemingly from another place and time––dosing San Francisco with hypnotic shows built upon swirling guitars, otherworldly drones, fuzzed-out pop melodies, and dreamy vocal harmonies.   With reviews of early shows and recordings drawing comparisons to My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Yo La Tengo, Spacemen 3, and Sonic Youth, the band quickly developed a must-see reputation within the underground psychedelic music scene.   When LSD finally released their self-titled debut EP (Mind Expansion Records, 2007) it sold out from the record label prior to the official release date. It earned critical acclaim and continues to frequently appear on lists of essential shoegaze releases. The EP was twice reissued on vinyl (Deep Space Recordings, 2008, 2015), twice on cassette (Cellar Door Tapes, 2015), and selected tracks were featured on three compilations: Mind Expansion Vol. 1, M.E. Vol. 2, and Australian nugazer compilation Take Me on the Wildest Spree (Rubber Records/EMI, 2008). LSD's most recent release, Heaven Is a Place (Space Age Recordings, 2016), captures a snapshot in time soon after Ricky Maymi (Brian Jonestown Massacre) temporarily joined the band on drums. Like the self-titled EP, it garnered critical acclaim and frequented many Best Of lists. Pop Matters calls it, "a long-awaited sermon for the faithful and a blazing induction for new converts," while Primal Music says it's "another astonishing collection of five psychedelic stories glistening with the same spaced out ingredients that blew my mind way back in 2007."   LSD's time and space travels have led them all over the U.S., Canada, and Europe, including tours with Martin Rev (Suicide), Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3), and The Telescopes, as well as appearances at Levitation--Austin Psych Fest, SoCal's Desert Daze, Manchester's Cosmosis Festival (with The Jesus and Mary Chain), Bathysphere (with A Place To Bury Strangers), twice at Desert Stars (first with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, then The Dandy Warhols), Calgary's Garbage Daze, and Portugal's Reverence Valada (with The Damned, The Oh Sees, and Silver Apples).  

Indie shoegaze stalwarts Film School return with their sixth full-length release and first for Sonic Ritual, We Weren’t Here, the follow-up to 2018’s Bright to Death. Whereas the band recorded the previous album while holed up together in the isolated Southern California desert enclave of Joshua Tree, the Covid pandemic forced a different kind of isolation this time around. Already divided between the SF Bay Area and Los Angeles, bassist Justin LaBo, guitarist Nyles Lannon, frontman Greg Bertens, and keyboardist Jason Ruck—each from his own quarantine home studio—had to collaborate on the songs remotely. Except for when newest member Adam Wade met up with Greg to record drums at LA’s Headwest Studio with mixer Dan Long (all wearing masks, of course), the bandmates never saw each other in person during the entire making of the album.   But the title We Weren’t Here isn’t merely a reference to its socially distanced recording method. During life in quarantine, Greg says, he became acutely aware of all the ways human beings try to avoid being truly present. Though lockdowns gave us the opportunity to spend “quality time” with whomever we live with—whether that’s a romantic partner, a roommate, a parent, or our kids—the pandemic also forced us to become more conscious of our own, uninterrupted, day-to-day reality—a disquieting sensation many countered with drinking more, streaming television nonstop, obsessively scrolling social media, or otherwise checking out. For the members of Film School, the making of We Weren’t Here reflects how music—whether you’re creating it or immersing yourself in hearing it—can be a transformative way to feel spiritually and psychically anchored again.   What emerges from beneath the waves of the album’s psychedelic dream pop are bittersweet themes of a year lived in suspended animation: anticipation, separation, regret, revelation. From the moody sonic crush of “Superperfection” driven by an icy yet ethereal harmony featuring guest vocalist Noël Brydebell of Wild Signals (who appears throughout the album), to the standout track “Isla” with its intertwining guitars and swooning synths, and culminating in the buoyant, nostalgic closer “Take What You Need,” We Weren’t Here bathes the listener in a soundscape of atmosphere and emotion. With their sixth full-length release since the band’s formation over 20 years ago, Film School crystallize their position in the shoegaze pantheon.

Lorelle Meets The Obsolete release their sixth album Datura on June 16, 2023.   It’s a short, sharp shock of a record designed to be played live. Gone are the psychedelic wig-outs of previous releases, replaced with bass-heavy post-punk grooves inspired by the roots of The Congos, the no wave of Ike Yard, the industrial hip-hop of Dälek and the dark modular moves of Hiro Kone, all while harnessing the elemental power of Jon Hassell’s Vernal Equinox.   The band formed in 2011 around the nucleus of Lorena Quintanilla and Alberto González and found favour in psych circles with their first two albums (On Welfare and Corruptible Faces). Originally from Guadalajara (they are now based in Ensenada, Baja California), their name was half inspired by a recurring joke in Seinfeld, half by an episode of The Twilight Zone.   Since hooking up with UK-based label Sonic Cathedral in 2013, they have toured extensively in the UK and Europe as well as the US over the last decade. As their sound gradually evolved from its psych-inspired beginnings to take in analogue synths and experimental grooves more akin to bands like Talk Talk across the albums Chambers, Balance and De Facto they have won over famous fans in Henry Rollins, Iggy Pop, Robert Smith, Mani and Sonic Boom.