LINE UP——
FRIDAY—— SATURDAY——
Cosmic Dead (UK)
Much like Eindhoven and Liverpool, Glasgow is a DIY industrial town. And much like those cities, there’s a long tradition of fresh and inspiring bands. The Jesus & Mary Chain, Primal Scream, Teenage Fanclub, Mogwai, Arab Strap and The Delgados to name more than a few. In 2010 Cosmic Dead build upon that powerful legacy and expanded it with their own mix of kraut rock and space jams. If you understand White Hills and Hawkwind, you will certainly understand Cosmic Dead. Check out any of their releases, whether it be cassette, digital or LP to get deep into cosmic space with Cosmic Dead.
Website
Dans Dans (B)
It might get a little crazy. Actually, we’re pretty sure it will. From garage jazz, psychedelic blues and ecstatic noir soundtracks to spacey rock-‘n-roll: the labels that get thrown at Dans Dans give a pretty good indication of the extent of their eclectic style. Both their first album and their live shows are not only inspired by the likes of Sun Ra, Nick Drake, Sonny Rollins and Ennio Morricone, but involve taking these masters on fearless improvisational adventures
Disappears (USA)
This band gave Eindhoven a show to remember in 2012. Since then drummer Steve Shelly of Sonic Youth has left the band and Noah Leger of Electric Hawk replaced him shortly after. Every album since 2010’s ‘LUX’ is showing a more mature sense of minimalistic songwriting. Slowly evolving loops, repetitive guitar hooks and delayed vocals are still the pillars on which Disappears builds it’s strange dreamlike songs. Their latest studio effort ‘Era’, is full of short song titles like ‘Girl’, ‘Power’ and ‘Ultra’. It’s like a statement: ‘listen to the music, let it in slowly, get into our groove’. And it’s true, good music needs a patient listener, you will be rewarded!
website
Elephant Stone (CAN)
What an impression these guys made last year with their show in Eindhoven, shortly after their s/t release. Easy going psych rock with a subtle addition of sitar. Montreal’s Elephant Stone were formed in 2009 by sitarist/bassist Rishi Dhir. As one of the most highly sought out sitar players in the psychedelic music scene, he has recorded and toured with the Black Angels, Brian Jonestown Massacre, the Horrors, the Soundtrack of Our Lives, and many more. Let’s have a listen, shall we?
website
Follakzoid (CHILE)
Last year everyone in the universe realized there was a new kid in town. A Chilean kid actually. Follakzoid take everything that’s cool about kraut rock and mix it with their own special blend of space sounds. In New York, the quartet was noticed by Sacred Bones Records and they propelled the band into a cosmic trip around the world. They stopped over in Eindhoven as well last year and we knew straight away it wasn’t the last time they played out their musical visions of space in Eindhoven. Their album ‘II’ has quickly become a standard in the scene and a reference for all bands in the neo-psych galaxy.
website
Mugstar (UK)
The good thing about Mugstar is that they are not afraid of anything. They don’t care about what everyone else thinks, they just want to create a journey for the ones who are not afraid as well. The destination is different every night and the landscapes travelled through always change. It’s like sitting on a bus to a different planet. A different planet may well have been the destination during their recent tour with Mogwai, a trip instigated after a personal invitation from the iconic Scottish group.
website
Night Beats (USA)
These guys are no strangers to Eindhoven, recently rocking the daylight out of AreaFiftyOne and The Rambler. With their releases on Reverberation Appreciation Society, Trouble In Mind and Burger Records they sit exactly where they belong. If there was a prize for melting neo garage and psych, these three would win it. Check out their recent and incredibly well crafted collection of songs called ‘Sonic Bloom’. The missing link between Black Angels, Thee Oh Sees, 13th Floor Elevators and Electric Prunes? Here it is: Night Beats!
Pink Mountaintops (USA)
All star band? Check! Krautpop of the future? Yup! Frontman Stephen McBean of Black Mountain (!) is back with a glorious new album called ‘Get Back’. He took his phonebook, went to the ‘befriended musicians’ part and called up people like J Mascis, Gregg Foreman (Cat Power, Delta 72), Daniel Allaire (Brian Jonestown Massacre) and Stephen Kille (Dead Meadow), to name a few. The result (listen to ‘ Ambulance City’ or ‘North Hollywood Microwave’) is anything but a trend following adventure. It’s an adventure all right, but the word ‘trendsetting’ comes to mind first. Rap and saxophones in repetitive rock songs? Sure!
website
Radar Men From The Moon (NL)
After the release of their debut album ´Echo Forever´ and a crazy year of touring Europe, these Dutch meisters of instrumental shoegaze and neo-psych are back with a freshly recorded set of songs, called ‘Strange Wave Galore’ through Fuzz Club Records. We celebrated in style with The Oscillation and Those Foreign Kids on the 30th of January, which was also the first show RMFTM did with new member and synth psych-head Niek Manders. RMFTM will be exploring galaxies even further away at Eindhoven Psych Lab. We are proud to have such a cool local band on the bill!
website
Sonic Jesus (IT)
Everything on Sonic Jesus records has been through a fuzz pedal. It’s like they bought every single fuzz unit out there and use them all at the same time. Lazy? Maybe, but who the hell cares? They groove, they zoom, they pierce like a M%*&%$*$%*^$. You can always play clean when you’re older, no? It’s the way The Velvet wanted to sound but couldn’t, because they didn’t have the gear to do so. Farfisas, theremins, and did we mention fuzz? In the words of Sonic Jesus himself: ‘It’s time to hear’.
website
Suuns (CAN)
This band looks to the future, not the past. Not afraid to try stuff, even if it seems completely ridiculous. Electronica was never used this way before in rock music, creating vibes that would fit in any David Lynch movie without any trouble at all. Their latest effort ‘Images Du Futur’ is literally like a vision of what’s about to come in music. Highly danceable, deep, grooving, pulsating, poppy, dark, light. Suuns is a cocktail consisting of what seems to be a few ingredients too much. But it’s not. It’s damn tasty and you will get drunk, high and in love. They are truly the ‘lab’ in Eindhoven Psych Lab. An experiment gone well, would be the understatement of the year. The year ‘2020’ that is.
website
Terakaft (MALI)
A band from Mali you ask yourself? Why the hell not, would be our answer. Psych music is anchored in drone and repetitive rhythms and Tuareg music is too. Luckily, continents do not exist in music, nationality is not really relevant at all. It can, however, provide a sobering context, considering these guys live in parts of Africa where war and civil conflicts are part of everyday life. Terakaft are a group of Tuareg guitarists, in the same vein as Tinariwen. There’s nothing astonishing about the similarity, if you consider that Terakaft was founded by Kedou and is now led by Diara, both formative members of Tinariwen. They may well be one of the best rhythmic bands from Africa out there at this moment.
The Growlers (USA)
These psychedelic garage kings hail from California and craft their own twisted take on the music of their homeland. It’s hard to describe what they sound like, but the good old Beach Boys come to mind. The Beach Boys at a drug infected carnival that is. Flower power surf tunes are mixed with a smart sense of 70’s songwriting. Oh, and let’s not forget their wardrobe. It’s always a surprise to see The Growlers get on stage, and we don’t mean this in a Versace kind of way. These guys just have a style of their own.
website
The Underground Youth (UK)
Say their name and you will think of that legendary 60’s band from New York. It’s true, that tambourine rings in your right ear and there is a kind of indescribable sexiness in their songs. But there’s also the trancy shoegaze feel and that typical British talent for writing perfect pop songs. And.. it’s raw and psychedelic. It’s psych and we like it. If you haven’t already, check out their latest effort ‘The Perfect Enemy For God’. You will like it too.
website
The Wands (DK)
The Wands are a psychedelic rock duo based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Their EP ‘Hello I Know The Blow You Grow Is Magic’ really sums up what this duo - who drag a harem of mates along for the ride when they play live – are about. Good trippy music with intelligent hooks and lyrics, but with a generous touch of doom as well. We welcome these friends of The Woken Trees with much anticipation. Hell they might even get on stage with each other, just like at the Eurosonic Festival early this year.
website
The Woken Trees (DK)
These guys are from the Danish middle of nowhere. They grew up together and started making music and drinking beers, like any young boy would. In 2010 a serious rock band formed out of these friends and they called themselves The Woken Trees. Heavy reverb soaked vocals, post punk guitars that sound like screeching seesaws and dark ‘wovenhandish’ atmospheres are blend together into this very unique Danish psych outfit. You gotta hear them to believe it. You can start right away and listen to their beautiful dark debut ‘NNON’.
website
Wall of Death (FR)
Wall of Death can mean a lot of things. 1. The occurrence of an concert audience dividing in two then clashing into each other with great force on the sign of the band on stage. 2. A carnival sideshow where bikes or motors drive horizontally in a wooden cylinder. 3. A meeting spot for stoners in Seattle. But during Eindhoven Psych lab it only means this: the best psych rock band from France killing it with their powerful blend of San Francisco psych and European heavy rock. You can use their song ‘Marble Blues’ instead of coffee on a Sunday morning and smile all day long. This band will do very well with all The Black Angels lovers out there.
Weird Owl (USA)
You have these bands that sound typically American, but it’s hard to say why. Weird Owl fall into this category. Meaty drums, brilliant songs and very to the point. But these cats, ehm, owls are less easy to describe than this. Under all these great American big rock sounds lingers a veil of psychedelic goodness, which takes you to Pink Floyd’s Other Side of the Moon, 13th Floor Elevators mysticism, and even Led Zeppelin like trip outs. ‘Build Your Beast A Fire’ is released by Teepee records and it’s about time you listen to it.
website
DJ’s——
Al Lover (USA)
In short, Al Lover is a producer from San Francisco, a household name at Austin Psych fest, with a CV full of tours with bands like Night Beats and releases on every medium possible with ear crushing psych. He spins and mixes the best records you never heard. But there's more layers to his wall of sound then meets the ear. Over the last few years he has gained much notoriety for his melding of contemporary and past garage and psychedelic rock into harsh yet spacey abrasive beats. Influenced as much by The 13th Floor Elevators as DJ Shadow, Al Combines crunchy drums, shaky percussion, chopped samples and layers of textured effects to create an unexplored path for psychedelic music.
website
soundcloud
DJ Fitz (IE)
Are You Experienced? Not if you haven’t heard this guy spin it! He doesn’t play at parties, he creates parties. He knows a lot about music too, no really, he knows a lot about music! And he owns a lot of cool records as well. He might be the only dj that mixes Bollywood Soundtracks with obscure 60’s soul music, new wave and fuzzed out afro beat and gets away with it amazingly well. If fusion was a money maker like it is in the culinary world, Fitz would be a three star Michelin dj.
website
mixcloud