In The Einstein Intersection, Samuel R. Delany tells us of planet Earth abandoned by humans and inhabited by an alien race that wander across the forsaken detritus of our mythology, swearing by the Great Rock and Roll and Elvis and Bob Dylan, this is a psychedelic western where prehensile feeted Lo Lobey herds dragons in a trip whose vanishing point is a paranormal mexican standoff with red-haired, shark toothed Kid Death, somewehere in the bizarre streets of Branning-at-Sea.

It is a strange world, but not that different from the one we live in , think about it. Mutant kids of the digital age dig ceremoniously in the fertile soil where the corpses of their gaunt ancestors were buried still cradling their steel gueetars and harmonicas. Upon touching these bones, a mass download of crackling messages from another world occurs, and haunted by dreams of vast expanses under the sun, coruscating roads and golden fields, wind-kissed skulls of sacrificial heifers resting in the rich soil, they are inspired to create. Something is won in translation because we still need country epics to soundtrack our struts down avenues of cold concrete, under the gaze of invisible vultures perched from the roofs of the high rises, these are our very own mesas and our dust bowl, this is the sound of our loneliness, our hunger and our longing. Timeless shit, bring it on.

Another glorious forthcoming Woodsist release, this time by Meth Teeth. The album is called ‘Everything went Wrong’, which is the ultimate truth we all take to our graves with the expression of a flustered schoolchild to whom the logic of a simple equation has just been revealed*. It all sounds as full-bodied, rich and alive as ‘I Was Wrong’, weird punk horse being broken in an underground corral. You get kicked in the face. You lick blood from your lips. It’s all good.

Meth Teeth-I Was Wrong

Sic Alps just released on triple vinyl the rather mammoth ‘A Long Way Around to a Shortcut’ on Drag City, which is we believe the right place. This is a compilation of the diverse mutilated limbs and viscera wrapped in yellowed newspaper which our favourite San Francisco zombie cowboys have been lovingly dropping on their lazy pilgrimage across pressing plants, DIY venues and lounge sofas all over the USA. ‘Making Plans’ is an excellent example of what’s in store for those who visit this psychedelic ghost town: doomed stomping and mangled melodies laying waste to sound levels like the charge of the heavy metal brigade, or a love song so creepy it could have been penned by fucking Genesis P-Orridge.

Sic Alps- Making Plans

Ducktails are travelling somewhere different, but Wishes, included in their latest ‘Landscape’ album in Olde English Speeling Bee comes from the same place. It sounds like one of those electronic experiments that you can find hidden at the back of a Byrds’ re-issue, you know, an unfinished ode of reverb and painful reverie crafted with memories of misdeeds and muisunderstandings, over which a sweet guitar melody glides hopeful like that little red bird in the Lisa Marr Experiment song. So beautiful in its unfinishedness.

Ducktails- Wishes

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* David Simon came up with that one.

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