Gris Gris
For the Season (Birdman)
Primarily recorded in a cabin near the tiny Central Texas town of Kosse, the second album from Gris Gris may be the most eclectic cut-and-paste psychedelic freak-out committed to tape in the Lone Star state since the Red Krayola cut The Parable of Arable Land back in 1967. Led by former Houstonian Greg Ashley, the Bay area quartet sets the controls for disintegration right off the mark with “Ecks Em Eye,” which opens with dissonant scattershot sax bleating before coalescing around an unholy Spacemen 3-style guitar riff. Like a progressive FM station in the Sixties, one song gradually fades out to make room for another. “Cuerpos Haran Amor Extrano” hits like early Pink Floyd with a penchant for Link Wray’s menacing rockabilly swagger, while the rollicking “Down With Jesus” melds an acidified garage groove to the short-lived “Jesus Rock” movement of the post-hippie Seventies. “The Nonstop Tape” isn’t a song so much as an esoteric collage of looped noises custom-made for CIA PsyOps use that serves as a midalbum breakdown. Continuing in non-sequitur mode, it’s followed by “Medication #4,” an eerie, organ-driven skate number. Once you’ve ridden the VU-flavored rhythmic crests of For the Season‘s epic title track, you’ll never look at Kosse the same way again. (Wednesday, March 15, 11:50pm @ Club de Ville)
This article appears in March 10 • 2006.
