It seems we can’t go very long in the blogosphere without turning our attention to America’s west coast and Washington state in particular. It would be an understatement to say that Seattle is home to a lot of artists who produce loads of new music. Today we have the pleasure of presenting the new single from Black Nite Crash – ‘The Take’ is a BIG track that could easily be branded as a theme song for Levitation festival, which has showcased its fair share of desert rock, or even the LIverpool Festival of Psychedelia (aka Liverpool Psych Fest), which unfortunately seems to have been killed by Covid.
The psychedelic rock outfit will be releasing their new album ‘Washed in the Sound with Black Nite Crash’ in mid-October. This lead track takes us down the rabbit-hole of what seems to be a sore breakup and betrayal. The video is a silhouette-laden clip, directed by the band’s frontman Jim Biggs with assistance from James Stone. Definitely sets the mood and we recommend watching it several times in any case (or even more to induce a thorough trance effect). Slow and brooding, their mixture of psychedelia and rock, with this steady yet mysterious backdrop and consecutive male-female-vocals, is a winning formula, producing an inescapably transcendent vortex of sound.
Formed in Seattle twenty years ago, Black Nite Crash has, over the years, involved more than 30 members around Jim Biggs, the last remaining original member. Yet somehow, the band has maintained a coherent sound and vision throughout. The band’s sound frequently draws comparisons to a lot of other artists – they are used to it. Primal Scream, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Jesus and Mary Chain and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, are often recalled, but the West coasters do actually have their own trademark sound that sets them apart. If we had to cite another few of today’s artists that they are not often likened to, The Asteroid No. 4 and The Kundalini Genie are definitely worth a mention.
Born of the desire to do something more simple and direct than the myriad Radiohead wannabes flooding the indie and alternative airwaves at the time, the band embraced loud guitars, memorable hooks and solid pop tunes with simple arrangements, which have guided the band in their compositions through to today.
Today Jim Beggs (vocals, guitar) is joined by John Parker (bass), James Stone (guitar), Tony Zuniga (drums) and Claire Tucker (guitar/vocals).
Jim Biggs speaks about their new music:
“This album was started before the pandemic and then endlessly delayed until now, which speaks to the perseverance of the band. This is the band’s fifth full length in nearly twenty years of existence, and it looks to be the start of a period of more frequent releases as we work through our backlog of unreleased recorded songs, not to mention the surplus of new material we’re working on even now. After a long career of creating fuzzed out noise pop with wall of sound guitars somewhere between psychedelia and shoegaze, we’re branching out into more subtle dynamics and stretching our sound to include different stylistic flourishes – everything from Murder Ballads to Baggy pop tunes. There’s also something about it that sounds like the wide open west; for a band that lives in the soggy Pacific Northwest, the sound of the desert has long seemed to haunt our music (to be fair, the band, as constituted on this release includes Tony and Sharim, both from Las Vegas and Jasun is from Arizona). All of that being said, we are not completely abandoning our fuzzy pop tunes.”
Work on the ‘Washed in the Sound with Black Nite Crash’ LP began before the pandemic, the songs a reflection of a band finding its feet again, with (then) relatively new members Claire Tucker and Sharim Johnson putting their imprint on this batch of songs. Then can lockdown before tracking could be completed.
In that time, longtime bassist Jasun Hadaway, who made a big contribution to the album, left the band. As things opened back up, we began to slowly progress towards completing the album. Sharim left the band just as longtime collaborator Matt Brown (Trespassers William) finished the mixing and the band handed the recording to mastering genius Adam Straney. The result is the most diverse set of songs the band has ever released, combining the band’s standard fuzzed out guitars with some newer flavours.
As of August 24, ‘The Take’ will be available everywhere online, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. The full album ‘Washed in the Sound with Black Nite Crash’ will be released on October 14 through the Neon Sigh label. Pre-order at https://blacknitecrash.bandcamp.com/album/washed-in-the-sound-with-black-nite-crash
SINGLE CREDITS
Jim Biggs – guitars, vocals
Jasun Hadaway – bass
Tony Zuniga – drums, percussion
Claire Tucker – guitars, vocals
Sharim Johnson – guitars
Matt Brown – organ
Written by Biggs / Black Nite Crash
Engineered and mixed by Matt Brown at Crackle and Pop and Spaceranch Studios in Seattle, assisted by Skyler Holcombe
Produced by Matt Brown and the Band
Mastered by Adam Straney at Breakpoint Mastering
Video directed by Jim Biggs with assistance from James Stone
Artist photo by Rose Dekker
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