Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Crotch Chimes™ and heavy psych with Ecstatic Visions!

So evidently now we are just gonna start trademarking the shit out of things for everyone else as well. May as well, if they haven't leapt onto this train yet.
 
So Ecstatic Vision is this band from Philadelphia. We first heard about them last summer when they rawked our fucking faces off at the Meltasia Music Festival. They were so fucking good there, I was fully stoked to read that they were coming back to Atlanta.


They played at Union EAV- a venue where I was like- what in the fuck is this place? Turns out its the old East Side Lounge reincarnated into the same space with a different name. Its laid out so fucking weird to have a band play there I was interested to see how they were gonna have it set up- cause honestly its more like a bar with a teeny upstairs spot, where the dj used to set up back when it was ESL and more like a club. So what they did was have the bands play that teeny little upstairs spot. I couldn't fucking believe that tho because the rest of the space was basically sitting empty, then everyone there to see the show was crammed into the little scary fire hazard space, and I felt so bad for the bands having to drag their crap up there. However, it did make for a kind of cool little experience for viewing and I felt #blessed they had a couch up there for my old bones.

StalkerVision™ activate! 


I seent their van out back the Union and recognized it from cyberstalking them on instagram. I was stoked to see they had a dreamcatcher in their van, because its like THE most important thing to have if you are on the road. Besides the cord that attaches your ipod to your radio. And something to drink. And maybe something to smoke.

They had two local bands on first, the first of which we missed, the second of which was Gnomonaut. Gnomonaut were doomy and proggy, an odd mixture that actually worked out pretty well. Total white boy music. It wasn't not enjoyable.


[area.personality:  I actually really liked Gnomonaut.  They were Good 'n' Heavy™, plus they did a lot of their music in 7/8 time, which made the music nerd girl in me swoon a little.  Not enough to git up off the bar and stop drankin, but enough to go, "oh shit, that's 7/8 time."  I hope they show up again as some opening act I halfway pay attention to.  I really dig it when super heavy bands do odd time signatures because it makes you think you're rawkin and then jerks your brain into some other space and then you suddenly are rawkin in an unexpected manner.  Good times.]

Next up was good ol Ecstatic Visions. They did a great job melting our fucking faces off. I also really dug their lil light set up in combo with the indigenous artwork of ESL/whatever the hell its called now. I have to say tho that I was majorly bummed out to find that they only had a single drummer with them this time. That was like the fucking highlight of seeing them at Meltasia for me because they totally had TWO FUCKING DRUMMERS. One on a kit and one on an array of various percussive elements. But all was not lost cause they was still rawkin, with some facemelting guitars raining down and some lawng haiyuh flippin around. 



area.personality closeup foto with flash of the Crotch Chimes™ She thought they were crotch chiming more than at Meltasia, but I honestly felt gyped on the crotch chime this go round.

[area.personality:  It's fucking never enough, Dawg.  I was happy, but it's never enough.]


Here goes their video for the track "Astral Plane" which I really dig because I'm constantly talking about meeting up with people on the Astral Plane and also I really like this song. I think one of the things I dig the most about Ecstatic Visions is that they have that kinda far out tribal element going on with the drums et al (hence my dismay at being shorted one drummer) but they still managed to pull off that vibe despite being down one. Don't get me wrong, I love facemelting guitars and gravely rawk voices as much as the next person, but that heavily psychedelic trance inducing element is what really sets them apart, in my opinion. 


Another thing about the show: One final thing: So I totally tried to chat them up and ask some questions but I think I need to work on my approach :-( I think I come off like a drunk stalker, wait, maybe I AM a drunk stalker. Either way I had a shitty piece of paper with my little kid interview questions scrawled on it, and I must've looked insane. So I'm not going to include any of that jazz here, save to let you know that I asked the drummer what his favorite percussive element is, cause I love that question! I really dig a solid'n'sour cowbell, but that's just me. 

Oh we totally got some MERRRRCH, maaaaan! I was totally stoked up about that. They had some kinda cool lookin shirts, but as per ush, they only had dude sizes, so we will have to cut the necks out of these shirts to make them wearable for those with racks. I really dig all their graphics they be sharing on fb and ig so I had to go awn and git me a shirt. Plus I'm like the most enthusiastic person I know when it comes to merch. 


[area.personality:  GIVEAWAY ALERT!  Follow our blog and comment on this blog post and we will pick a winner at random to win an Ecstatic Visions t-shirt!  Mens' / Unisex size M, runs a little large.  If you are not a mens' / unisex size M/L, just let us know and we will cut it up for you so you can still wear it.  Or if you are a chick and you want it to look all lusty.  Or if you just want us to cut it up for you.  You could have your very own Ecstatic Visions / Rawk Talk custom t-shirt!  Do it!!!] 

So finally their record has come out today! Weeeee! I pre-ordered it, like a total fucking nerd, so I actually got it in the mail Friday, but then I was hanging out at the pool so fucking hard all weekend I didn't get pop it on until last night. Totes ordered the fucking sherbety swirl vinyl cause I'm a girrrrrrrl. Here goes a recreation of what happened last night in my living room.

Gratuitous close ups


Hippy Trippy Swirl Vinyl, maaaaaan




The record is pretty slammin, although I gotta say- its like the same five songs I've heard them play both times we seent em. I'm not mad, they are five slammin jams, man. And they are five slammin jams best served live, but they did a nice job capturing the vibe on wax. Its also cool to be able to cruise around in my Mystery Machine listening to it , as they were so kind as to include a download code. 

So I guess that's all for good ol' Ecstatic Visions. In the time that it has taken for us to publish this article they have completed their US tour and returned to their native homeland, and completed another world tour, and all got married and had families, and gotten divorces, and grown old and died, and have been reincarnated as another, more rawkin band, called Ecstatic Visions 2. Ok so maybe it didn't take that long to finish this, but it trust, its been a minute. Hope y 'all will all stalk them down on the world wide innerwebs so that you can see them live when they pass thru yer town! 







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