Angels in America
The Black Angels, Austin’s answer to the narcotic drone of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and the Secret Machines, signed to Seattle’s Light in the Attic in August, the label that will release their four-song EP next week. “It sounds like Da Nang and Qui Nonh on January 30, 1968,” says keyboardist Jennifer Raines. The local quintet already have a self-released EP; its “The First Vietnamese War” even won Track of the Week on BBC Radio-1 deejay Zane Lowe‘s Fresh Meat show earlier this year. “We had a lot of people over there trying to talk to us,” says Raines. “We’re definitely going out there next year.” First they’re headed on a three-week tour of the Midwest and East Coast after next Friday’s EP release at Austin YouthWorks with Ghostland Observatory, Dallas’ Strange Boys, and more. Not bad for a band together less than a year, and one that had trouble finding a drummer at first. “We e-mailed this girl to play drums, but she thought Black Angels was a virus, so she wouldn’t open it,” says Raines. “Two or three weeks later she read it and it was just asking her to play drums.”
TCB returns Oct. 20. Go ‘Stros!
This article appears in October 7 • 2005.