Austin’s Black Angels waver somewhere between the bipolar,
overconfident heroin-jangle of the Brian Jonestown Massacre and the
warped, acid-drenched psych-punk of fellow Texans the Butthole Surfers.
On Passover, their impressive 2006 debut LP on local label
Light in the Attic, the band relished quiet-loud schisms and
cup-runneth-over moments. That album’s “Sniper at the Gates of Heaven”
demanded that everyone “wake up, wake up, wake up” before howls and
paranoid, tom-thumping rage. On Directions to See a Ghost,
though, their heat-stricken drone-psych brick-lays a wall of noise with
little in the way of rushes or momentum shifts. Here, the band keep
their fits in check, letting the intense moments (like the fuzz-guitar
payoff following a lengthy, building military march on “Mission
District”) come from a natural high. In short, these stoners finally
got some
good shit.
Tracks like “Sniper” were memorable, but they seemed to feed off a
sense of panic that wore a little thin on a full-length release.
Passover is all about comfort, groove, and maturity;
thankfully, this young band achieve their newfound musical ease without
settling on lackadaisical jams—a welcome thing to hear in modern
psych.
There’s slow grower “18 Years,” its organ lines and lingering
feedback pretty much mooning every critic who heaped Spacemen 3
comparisons on the last record. Also worth doting upon are two huge
songs both in length and composition: the eight-minute “Never/Ever,”
whose erratic start, high-tempo ramp-up, and Manzarekian organs meld to
overshadow the best of contemporary jammers Black Mountain; and
18-minute closer “Snake in the Grass,” a slow grower that sounds like
Mogwai’s “My Father, My King” drenched in bong water.
But what this record gets right—composition, execution, even
guitar tone—doesn’t make up for far fewer hooks and milder
delivery from lead howler Alex Maas. In spite of evident growth and
maturity, Directions whizzes by too easily, sounding more like
a bridge to eventual greatness than a masterpiece in its own right.
The Black Angels play Wed June 11, Neumo’s, 8 pm, $15, 21+. With
the Warlocks.
Perchance 
Mayhaps
Possibly
Maybe
The Black Angels
Directions to See a Ghost(Light in the Attic)