It’s Sunday. A reading from the book of Hawkwind (via Ol’ Al Whitehead): “Give up illusions about ideas of order, accept nothing of inherited norm. Spread joy and revolution. It is the business of the future to be dangerous.” Our reading today invokes the spirit of the psychedelic warlords, a spirit that encourages us to head for the hills. Head for WHITE HILLS.
Give up illusions about ideas of order: the vinyl version of the self-titled album (brought to you by Thrill Jockey Records) from these New York freakazoids offers a different experience than the CD or digital version: different artwork, different tracks, different sequencing. We hold the vinyl in our hands and marvel at the reflective, extraordinarily elaborate embossing that graces the cover, a flawless execution of an idea that would have Uriah Heep sobbing into their thick, thick mustaches.
Of course, it’s the flawless execution of the music held within the grooves that really counts – and you can really count on being held within the grooves of music that is flawlessly executed. Actually, “held” is probably too gentle a word. Entombed within? Brainwashed by? Closer. There’s really no way to fully describe the mind-stretching, expertly-throttled, riff-space-doom-kraut-Brooklyn-acid-art-heavy-psych-freak-roomful-of-mirrors-goddamn-mirrored-cover journey offered by the band on this album. This album planted a flag in my brain, claiming it in the name of White Hills. You have to listen. Head for the hills and pick up steel (or vinyl) on your way.
WHITE HILLS – “In Circles Too”
P.S. – the same day I got the White Hills album that got this weekend off to a great start, I saw some guy named Roky Erickson play a show. It was awesome – and afterwards, I found what you see pictured below. I’ll describe it the only way I can: a psychedelic Shrinky-Dink. Approximately two-inches by two-inches and apparently colored by hand, it’s a find a shall cherish for the rest of my life. Or until one of my sons destroys it (it is the business of the future to be dangerous). Tonight, I will take in the “Dropout Boogie” tour in my nation’s capitol, where I will indeed dropout and boogie. In celebration of this fact (one has to assume), the excellent Drone Magazine has posted an excellent interview with The Black Angels. Man, those guys do drone on, don’t they?
The rarest album in my collection, surpassing my Spazz 7"
Revolt of the Apes 
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