IF THE words ‘chimney sweep’ and ‘soul psychedelia’ don’t go together in your mind, they just may after you take a listen to Crystal Antlers.
Long Beach, California, acid rockers Crystal Antlers play the Róisín Dubh on Sunday February 1 at 9pm. If you haven’t heard their debut EP, entitled EP, or checked them out on Myspace, some press quotes will give you a good idea.
“As much as it diverges from the brain-frying aim of typical psych-rock outings, EP is an unorthodox summer record, not so much for driving to the beach as actually being in its sweltering grasp, equal parts scorched earth and wide open spaces,” said Pitchfork.
Uncut described the band as “totally hot-wired and fried psychedelic punks” while Plan B said their music was like “a blast furnace”. NME simply said: “If you hear anything more exciting this year, you’re lying.”
Crystal Antlers are Jonny Bell (bass, vocals, woodwinds ), Victor Rodriguez (organ, Chihuahua enthusiast ), Kevin Stuart (drums, industrial kitchen appliance repairs ), Damian ‘Sexual Chocolate’ Edwards (percussion ), and Andrew King (guitar, used car salesman ).
As can be seen from above, the band have interesting non-musical interests, but perhaps the most curious of all is the day job of band leader Jonny Bell - chimney sweep.
“I was also attracted to having an old fashioned job,” he told consequenceofsound.net Jonny and two other members of the band worked as chimney sweeps and Jonny is the CEO of his own chimney sweep business.
“It’s pretty unsuccessful,” he admitted to pullmydaizy.com, “but it gives me time to play in a band. I worked for a really crazy old punk rock acid casualty and he was a chimney sweep. He was like, ‘Look, I’m insane and I could do this.’ He’s insane and he runs the business somehow so I figured I could do it.”
The band are also environmentally conscious (and doubtlessly want to try to spare their money ) and so they run their van on vegetable oil. It seems to work as it has helped them tour across the US successfully.
Tickets are available from the Róisín Dubh and Zhivago.
