THE GREEN HOUR BAND
s/t CD
Kingdom Records 2008
www.myspace.com/thegreenhour
New self-titled debut album from the fashionable incense and daisies group The Green Hour Band, who bring all the right elements of psych together to create an intense live show – unintelligible lyrics, extended jamming, crazy reverb, and unforgiving drum solos.
Stand out tracks include “My Thoughts in Mind” with its intro of random chatter (a la “Yellow Submarine”) and the catchiest song on the album and runaway hit on CITR radio, “Brand New Lover” (what a mashup of “Psychotic Reaction” and “Polythene Pam” would sound like).
Overall, though, this release is more self-conscious than the trippy psych I’d experienced from their shows. Their songs hint at something great, perhaps because they borrow heavily from The Beatles and Count Five, but lack any of the inspired experimentation that might occur at a live gig.
The last track, “Silent Madame,” comes closest to matching their live show but restraining it to just four minutes doesn’t give it room to really become the eleven-minute magnum opus it clearly wants to be.
I liked it best when I listened to it chilled out on downers, high as a kite and sprawled out flat on my bedroom floor, but I would have preferred a quick high from a Benzedrine inhaler to give it some bite. Like their influential ‘60s predecessors, I think their best is still a couple albums away. (Janelle Hollyrock)
