The Strange Attractors

Midnight at Xochil’s (Past/Futures)

Many moons traveled this white vinyl of the Strange Attractors’ third psychedelic orb, last spring’s Midnight at Xochil’s. Austin/Chicago imprint Past/Futures Records first pressed the Austin drones’ 2009 sophomore sand-swirl Sleep and You Will See, as well as reissuing the slide guitar burn of the band’s coagulated debut two years previously on half sangria, half yellow crème-colored vinyl. Grooved to wax after a capital campaign, Midnight at Xochil’s strikes the Attractors’ most varied chords, “Sweet 17” opening a clip up from the band’s usual pooling tempo, Masonic temple vox and ship-hull guitar atmospherics capped by a phosphorous solo. A chopping riff boxed by blunt-instrument bass and flaring organ, “Premonition Equinox” pairs up in sonic diversity with the tin-can-phone vocals, snaking sonics, and percussive mulch of “Black and Mild.” Side two wears nostalgia on its tunic in Spaceman 3 footprint “Walking With Jesus,” which gives way to the tough bubblegum pop of “Psycho Babel,” faintly echoing the late-Eighties Ramones covering “Little Bit o’ Soul.” Midnight at Xochil’s: Mayan mood music.

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This article appears in May 25 • 2012.

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San Francisco native Raoul Hernandez crossed the border into Texas on July 2, 1992, and began writing about music for the Chronicle that fall, debuting with an album review of Keith Richards’ Main Offender. By virtue of local show previews – first “Recommendeds,” now calendar picks – his writing’s appeared in almost every issue since 1993.