The Besnard Lakes

The Besnard Lakes

The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse (Jagjaguwar)

Montrealer Jace Lacek's falsetto is what Sixties beach bunnies dreamt of: "Baby, I've got some words for you." Except Lacek's Frankie Avalon would be the chain-smoker in leather. Along with wife and bandmate Olga Goreas, Lacek guzzles a cocktail of hallucinogenic daydreams and spills it all over The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse, the sextet's second foray into psych-pop fusion. The push and pull of Goreas-Lacek duet "For Agent 13" is all black-and-white, water dripping from the frame of a silent movie. Where the eeriness ends, the Zeppelin explodes with "On Bedford and Grand," only to be triumphed by closing pseudo-doo-wop "Cedric's War." The Besnard Lakes have perfected psychedelic harmonies and slurring melodies, but they're so much bigger than that. Each pluck of a violin string, each muffled vocal, each sneaky blast of a trumpet creates a lingering solar eclipse and eternal bonfire. (Thursday, March 15, Mohawk Patio, 8:30pm)