Witch

People play and interpret psychedelic rock in different ways usually adhering to their vice. In the past collage kids in America have adopted the “you’re either on the bus, or you’re off the bus,” way of thinking but psychedelia doesn’t have to be hardcore. Like some never ending experimental road trip the sound of psychedelia continued to evolve as new extremes were invented. For instance, when Ken Kesey was graduating from Stanford, LSD (legal at the time) psilocybin, mescaline, and amphetamine IT-290 were the drugs of choice, but sounds would evolve as different substances became popular. With speed, the ephemeral bliss of Thrash Metal and faster, more phallic riffs; with Ecstasy the jams got longer with arching crescendos and a love of synths and electronics. There’s been one drug however that has survived all these ages that captures the psychedelia fan more than any, booze. With more exotic drugs leading the listener down treacherous paths of indecipherable hedonism or recently more classic club sounds the psychedelia fan is no longer the Merry Prankster, at best a retired stoner.

‘Maybe this typifies how psychedelia is no longer dangerous or exciting, that it’s not willing to take risks any more.’ This seemingly would be right had the genre died a deserved death back when the drugs stopped working, but the sounds are more exciting now than they have ever been. Now that we live in a society of 5% pure cocaine and where fizzy drinks keep you dancing longer than a pill, psychedelia has become a hot pot, a furnace, a cauldron even, of smoking head-y sounds. It’s had to compensate for crap drugs. Sure there are droves of pale imitators smokin’ doobies, wasting time talking about Hendrix in an ugly binary of ‘Yeah’ and ‘Dude’ but that’s because cannabis has become strong, too strong, resulting in many of them being unproductive and hyper reverential to times past.

When leaving Café de la Danse after a particularly underwhelming Dead Meadow show I passed the bassist who within a brief conversation managed to convey that he’d left the merch stall unmanned and was far too drunk to identify – let alone count – Euro notes. It appeared that the whisky and wine he consumed on stage with theatrical thirst had taken hold, further highlighted by his huge bail en route to sell the new album – I later concluded that it was inebriation as well as draconian volume control that compromised the gig.

I don’t know whether Witch have a poison of choice, my guess would be a couple of 40’s, although I could be wrong. The point is though, that the only way Witch could sound like they do – as it is with all psychedelic acts – is if they have a penchant for escapism, whether that be drink, drugs, fantasy novels or heaven forbid, the music itself. It’s probably a combination of the lot. Witch are psychedelia as fantasy – hence the name. It’s about absorbing the listener in a whole new world where the banalities of reality don’t take place. With J. Mascis on drums (where he should be?) there’s an irregular driving force behind the band and although the essence of the guitars is on familiar ground the sound as a whole takes you somewhere altogether new.

Whether it’s the booze and the drugs or more sedate substances that help you escape reality it doesn’t matter, but if at any point you’re looking for a change or a new fix, I’d give Witch a go.

Post-Scriptum

The fantastic Arthur Magazine has recently posted a recording of Dr. Christian Rätsch who specialises in ethnopharmacology and psychoactive plants and animals. In the lecture, Rätsch is quick to point out how Himalayan Shaman (professional psychoactive substance users) are known to be big fans of Everton FC’s favourite tipple, Chang Lager.  This alcohol malarkey must be pretty heavy stuff.