Psychedelic guitar hero brings new band to the Bottom of the Hill
SAN FRANCISCO -- The leader of San Diego riff rockers Radio Moscow visits San Francisco with his new band when guitarist Parker Griggs brings El Perro to the Bottom of the Hill Tuesday night.
Started in the early 2000s by multi-instrumentalist Griggs while still living in the small Iowa town of Story City, Radio Moscow was essentially a one-man project with Griggs playing everything on early recordings, though he eventually recruited collaborators to perform the material live. The guitarist handed off a demo of the project's initial Hendrix-tinged psychedelic garage rock offerings to Black Keys guitarist Dan Auerbach, who helped get the band signed to Alive Naturalsound Records.
Auerbach would produce the band's eponymous 2007 debut and collaborate on a couple of tunes with Griggs, but by the time the band issued it's celebrated follow-up Brain Cycles two years later, Griggs had taken over production duties. Mining a sound that nodded heavily to mainstream heavyweights like Hendrix and Zeppelin but still digging into the more underground psychedelic blues of the Groundhogs and Blue Cheer, Radio Moscow quickly found an audience attracted by Griggs' blazing guitar style, gruff vocals and high-octane tunes.
While there would be a steady turnover in bandmates -- bassist Zach Anderson played on both Brain Cycles and 2011's The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz -- an onstage meltdown during a 2012 tour between Griggs and then drummer Cory Berry ended with the guitarist getting beaned in the head by a thrown guitar. Griggs quickly convened a new trio to continue the tour while Anderson and Berry went on to form the similar sounding psych outfit Blue Pills.
The guitarist would eventually establish a stable line-up of the power trio and relocate to San Diego where bassist Anthony Meier (who also plays in hard psych band Sacri Monti) and drummer Paul Marrone were based, recording the well-received Magical Dirt in 2014 after some extensive road testing of the songs. The band would also document its fiery interplay with the concert album Live! In California in 2016. The following year, the band announced a major move, switching labels to Century Media for the release of the acclaimed psychedelic guitar workout New Beginnings.
While Griggs was busy touring with the band through much of 2019 with an extended jaunt through Europe, he also announced the formation of a new ensemble called El Perro. Taking a different approach to psychedelic rock, the group cites influence from acts on the more soulful and funkier end of the psych spectrum like Black Merda, the Bar Kays and Funkadelic.
The quintet featuring onetime Radio Moscow touring drummer Lonnie Blanton, guitarist Holland Redd (UFO TV, Petyr), bassist Shawn Davis and percussionist Blake Armstrong also injects some Santana-esque Latin flavor into its hard-hitting psychedelic jams. The band finally released its debut album Hair of on Alive Records early in June, putting its kinetic sound on full display with songs like "No Harm," "Crazy Legs" and the epic 12-minute "Black Days."
For this show at the Bottom of the Hill that was originally scheduled for February, El Perro will be joined by fellow Alive Records labelmates and co-headliners Dirty Streets. A power trio from Memphis, the group has been dealing out its soulful style of gritty, blues-informed hard rock since first coming together in 2007. Opening San Francisco band Agouti is the psychedelic-rock helmed by songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (bass, keyboards) and producer Carmen Caruso. Inspired by a trip to Costa Rica's cloud forest, Caruso returned home to SF and built a basement studio and began crafting the songs that make up the band's debut collection of shimmering psychedelia Nodes that received glowing local reviews.
El Perro and Dirty Streets with Agouti
Tuesday, June 18, 8 p.m. $13-$15
The Bottom of the Hill
