Monday Music: Psychedelic Blues

I’m Hooked on the New Single from Night Beats

The new single from Night Beats is all texture. A slow shuffle with a droning undercurrent, it insinuates itself into the bloodstream.

Night Beats is Danny Lee Blackwell’s creation, formed in 2009 after he left Dallas for Seattle. I hadn’t heard of the Seattle-based band until it popped up in my podcast feed on The KUTX Song of the Day. The band “has a reputation for concocting,” according to teh KUTX website.

Blackwell can make a country song sound like a trip through the desert with Hunter S. Thompson. He can turn a blues riff into a full-on mind melting haze. Much like Beck, each release is a surprise of inspirations, but it all gets distilled in a way that is distinctly Night Beats.

AllMusic’s Tim Sendra describes the band as “giv(ing) listeners a guided tour of a wide range of vintage sounds from raucous garage rock and beer-soaked blues to trippy psychedelia and good old rock & roll.” He uses phrases like “swaggering attitude and a scrappy approach” and “blown-out garage rock” to describe the band.

“Behind the Green Door” is intoxicating and bluesy. The drum and bass have a jazz feel, hanging back on the beat and raising the intensity. It’s a sensual song, one that captured me wholly upon first listen.