Bad Indians, as much as they sound like they’ve been living in a ramshackle ranch-house on a far-flung region of the Arizonan desert hunting rattlesnakes and howling at the moon, are in fact a very multifaceted four-piece garage band from up around the great lakes in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Perhaps you’ve heard of them, as they’ve been putting out some fine tuneage in the form of 7″s, cassettes, EPs, and LPs since 2010. Of these releases, the LP called “Are On the Other Side” is their newest effort and debuted in December on the Austin based label, CQ Records. But anywho, first and foremost, here’s what you need to know:
The amount of butt kicking Bad Indians is capable of is paramount to a possessed gas station clerk from Santa Fe holding up a bank, summoning the spirits of dead jackalopes, stealing a near-broken down 1955 ford-pickup, racing it at 90mph across the barren west Texas plains, hitting an inexplicably massive and well placed ramp in Dallas, launching them above the skyline, and conveniently landing in Chuck Norris’s yard in which the brisket is smoking, the beer cold, and a 35mm print of Delta Force 2 rolling into action on an outdoor projector as a band of resurrected and beef jerky chewing Texas rangers fires a 21 gun salute upon soon to be illicit semi-automatic AR-15s with attached bayonets. And of the songs on their new album, this could not be more true of the seventh song on the release, “Love & a Shovel”, a true gem of head-spinning, trance-inducing, and whirly-dirvish garage fury. And while they certainly prove quite capable of throwing it down hard, a variety of other sounds come through, as in the track “Darkside”. A slow and steady tune, the song hauntingly unravels itself amidst a wall of psychedelic organ chords and a lost lead guitar segueing perfectly into the hooky organ riffs of “Hate”, a song skillfully weaved together by and perhaps most indicative of the psychedelic potential of the band’s instrumentation. Venturing away from this psychedelic sound ever so slightly however is a track called, “She Is Gone”, which is in many ways reminiscent of some of the Babies earlier work both instrumentally and vocally, gives off a lovely jangle-pop vibe, and takes on a life of its own.
It’s an excellent album with a little bit of everything in the realms of psych, garage, and punk to offer for everyone. Check it out yourself, and be sure to pick up a digital or limited edition vinyl copy at the link below.
Links: Digital CQ Records Purchase, Bandcamp, Facebook, Blogspot
