The debut album from Nolan Potter’s Nightmare Band sounds like a long-lost private press from the early Seventies. Analog production warmth, breathy harmonies, and a guileless fusion of gnarly guitar riffs, old-fashioned synthesizers, and flute riffs hearken back to a time when psychedelia evolved into progressive rock. Only some keyboards and cheeky titles like “Singing a Single Song of Satan” and “Dosing the President” indicate Nightmare Forever wasn’t recorded in 1969. It would come off as all too precious if not for conviction. Potter and his cohorts lay down the lush proto-prog of “A Wizard of the Wind” and double-header “Elf Curse/Seahorse Retreat” with obvious love and devotion. It’s a refreshing stance to take in a music-crazy town that’s nevertheless managed to deny prog rock any real standing. The next step, of course, is to aim less for nostalgia and more for timelessness. Until then, the Nightmare Band’s breezy, expansive psych rock goes down smooth and tasty.

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This article appears in November 29 • 2019.

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Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.