Rising Aussie Psych Band Brings First U.S. Tour To The Independent
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The latest in a string of trippy Australian rock bands to make noise on a global scale, Perth's Psychedelic Porn Crumpets bring their first U.S. tour to the Independent in San Francisco Saturday night with support from like-minded LA band Frankie and the Witch Fingers.
Following in the footsteps of their Perth predecessors Tame Impala (and that band's associated acts Pond and GUM) as well as prolific Melbourne group King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, the PPC came together around lead singer/guitarist Jack McEwan to perform its first show in 2015 (drummer Danny Caddy, bassist Luke Reynolds and second guitar player Luke Parish round out the group). Quickly building a following with their ear-pleasing, guitar-driven psychedelic rock in local Perth pubs, the quartet issued its first recording High Visceral, Part One the following year.
Packed with knotty, swirling riffs and soaring vocal melodies as featured on mind-expanding anthems "Cornflake" and "Marmalade March," the tunes on the album range from the kind of succinct psychedelic pop nuggets that would have made the late Syd Barrett proud to more sprawling explorations of inner space. Australian tours with King Gizzard and visiting Canadian psych heavyweights Black Mountain coupled with some creative animated videos helped spread the word of the creative new outfit.
The Psychedelic Porn Crumpets followed with the second part of High Visceral in 2017 in addition to a six-song EP Old News For New People/High Visceral B-Sides on their own What Reality? Records imprint, issuing limited vinyl runs that quickly sold out and are already commanding top dollar from collectors. Last year brought a repackaging of the two parts of High Visceral as a double album and the single "Social Candy," the first song on the band's forthcoming new album set for release later this year.
The Psychedelic Porn Crumpets' first tour of the United States found the band playing well received sets at South By Southwest in addition to headlining dates with support from similarly exploratory LA-based psych band Frankie and the Witch Fingers. Started in Bloomington, Indiana as a two-piece by guitarist Dylan Sizemore and drummer Glenn Brigman with the aim of recording a surplus of lo-fi psychedelic punk songs Sizemore was writing, the band soon expanded to a four piece with the addition of lead guitarist Josh Menashe and bassist Alex Bulli.
After a self-released cassette Sidewalk in 2013 (which would later be reissued by Burger Records and Permanent Records) and an eponymous sophomore album, the group relocated to Los Angeles where they would hone a raucous, tuneful psych punk that touches on classic psych and power pop (echoes of Roky Erickson and the Flamin' Groovies) as well as the more modern, frenetic sounds of former SF standbys Ty Segall and Thee Oh Sees. The quartet just released its first album for new label Greenway Records, the explosive double LP ZAM that has already been earning Frankie and the Witch Fingers some of the best reviews of the group's career. This Saturday night show at the Independent will give the two rising acts a chance to impress some new fans in the spiritual birthplace of psychedelia.
Psychedelic Porn Crumpets and Frankie and the Witch Fingers
Saturday, March 23, 8:30 p.m. $12-$14
The Independent
