Los Angeles, California: The Warlocks return with their 14th studio album The Manic Excessive Sounds Of, released today on Cleopatra Records along with their scintillating new video “We Are All Lost."
Frontman Bobby Hecksher says, ”Musically this song is inspired by some of my favorite 90s bands: The Feelies, The Vaselines, Television Personalities and 2000s Ezra Furman.I wanted to capture its East Coast urgency. Quick solos, semi lo fi acoustics and lyrically driven.
“The song is about relationships and making them work in our chaotic times. Our souls get hardened with age and this just amplifies everything. It's not about me or my relationships, but collectively what I see all around me. Loved ones, friends, acquaintances going through the shit."
Veteran purveyors of a relentless, hypnotic wall of sound that suggests a collision between classic psychedelia, Krautrock and The Velvet Underground, the LA band unleash their manic excessive sounds on what might be their wildest, weirdest offering yet!
A journey into the ether and outer limits, The Manic Excessive Sounds Of The Warlocks was written, says Hecksher, in a single day, hence its title.
A gear shifting, mind melting, twist and turn bending of genre and expectations, it is the sound of The Warlocks exploring our paranoid times through huge rock chords and choruses, delicious distortion through a modern psychedelia lens. The opener ‘Its A Fucked-Up World’ says it all!
But, Hecksher continues, “This album is a positive one, and it totally rocks in the best way, too. It’s about cherishing the things that matter – the ones around you, the people you love and dealing with those relationships that are oh so frail. Hopefully this album gives one inspiration, ammunition and hope to navigate the insane backdrop of our modern times.”
photo: Piper Ferguson
The Warlocks are certainly well placed to make such a promise. Having grown up in the swamps of Tampa Bay, FL, Bobby moved to L.A. at age 16. There he swiftly found kindred spirits, jamming with Beck on his Stereopathetic Soulmanure album and moonlighting in The Brian Jonestown Massacre.
The Warlocks’s debut album Rise & Fall, on the legendaryBomp label in 2000, set out their template, but it was the band's signing to a worldwide deal with Mute and the release of Phoenix (2003) that truly kicked everything into gear.
Subsequent albums (including 2005’s Surgery, 2007’s Heavy Deavy Skull Lover, 2009’s The Mirror Explodes, and 2020's The Chain) raised the temperature even higher, whilerelentless international touring and the sheer power of The Warlocks’ gigantic live sound has built a worldwide cult following for the band that has only grown and intensified.
But The Manic Excessive Sounds Of The Warlocks takes everything to an entirely new level. Backed by J.C. Rees (guitar), Earl V. Miller (guitar), Marlena Schwenck (bass), Oscar Ruvalcaba (drums), Rob Campanella (Organ) and Elina Yakubova (tambourine & percussion), Hecksher throws everything bar the kitchen sink into the seething sonic cauldron, emerging with what has to be one of the psych-freak albums of the era.
In other words, he’s completely off his rocker on this one. His mind has melted and his psyche, like Elvis, has left the building. But only in the best possible way. You have been warned.
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=the+warlocks+manic+excessive
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/ykzj8yj
Track listing
1. It's A Fucked-Up World
2. You Can't Lose A Broken Heart
3. We Are All Lost
4. A Duel Between You And I
5. Stars On Sunset
6. The Dotted Line
7. Don't Blame It On The Band
8. Don't Blame It On The Jam
