Psychic Paramount

Psychic Paramount

Blowing minds with one’s guitar/bass/drums rock band is nearly impossible in 2011, but if there’s any band doing it, it’s The Psychic Paramount. Formed out of the ashes of (the under-appreciated until after their demise) Laddio Bolocko, The Psychic Paramount take the simple concept of instrumental rock music and set the whole thing ablaze, using their superior musical ability not to dazzle or confuse but to translate the musical experience into a physical one. Their sound hits with force, charisma and vigor, as if the natural limitations of drums and amplified guitars don’t apply to this band, acting not as three separate players but a single indestructible unit. This is why their great new album, II, packs more emotion and provokes more thought than any other rock band I’ve recently headbanged to, probably the closest thing to magic that rock music gets these days.

Guardian Alien is a free wheeling ensemble coming into its own, having found just the right balance between structured arrangements and wild abandon. Helmed by Greg Fox, who has lent his percussive force to the likes of Teeth Mountain, Dan Deacon, and Liturgy, the ensemble was initially an extension of his solo music (GDFX). It rapidly took on its own identity and expanded to a core group of Greg (drums, vocals, electronics, arrangements), Alex Drewchin (vocals, synth), Turner Williams Jr. (shahai baaja), Bernard Gann (guitar and also of Liturgy), and Eli Winograd (bass), all of whom have lent their expansive talents to numerous other projects.

Guardian Alien's Thrill Jockey debut, See the World Given to a One Love Entity, is a 40 minute psychic/psychedelic meditation that is driven by an intensity that is at once expansive, focused, and heavy on multiple levels. The overall arc of the album is transportive and trance inducing. The cover artwork painted by Turner Williams is based on a specific and particularly weird experience of Greg's. It mirrors the music in its open-ended playfulness and true psychedelia.

To say that the music of Guardian Alien is also meant to be an experience is an understatement. Guardian Alien was very much born of the live performance so it is fitting that their first fully conceived album was recorded at Shea Stadium, the band's spiritual home, which is run by Greg's cousin Adam. It was mastered by Heba Kadry at the Lodge (Wooden Shjips, Eternal Tapestry). See the World Given to a One Love Entity is a single composition with a strong, singular vision. It is the culmination of a band coalescing as a group while heedlessly delving into the depths of the psyche driven by their core desire to expand their horizons, both musical and otherwise.

Big Al (DJ)

"Obvious choices. This dude was clearly raised on Puff Daddy and not much else." - Pitchfork Media

"Did he just play Ginuwine?" - Altered Zones

"Worst Bar Mitzvah I've ever been to." - Chris Weingarten

"... his track choices were pilfered from Q-Tip and Internet Xplorer. Try having your own taste for once." - Bill Pearis

"His face is way too fat for that haircut/outfit." - TimeOut New York

"People have given me offers to not have him play." - Tom Windish

"This is the best Bar Mitzvah I've ever been to!" - Lester Bangs

$10 ADV / $12 DOS

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Upcoming Events
Cameo Gallery

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Psychic Paramount with Stabbing Eastward (Tunde Adebimpe & Ryan Sawyer), Guardian Alien, Big Al (DJ)

Sunday, July 8 · Doors 8:00PM / Show 8:00PM at Cameo Gallery