Moon Woman – The Pigs Are Dead
Genre: Stoner Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Garage Rock
“Don’t sleep easy, don’t sleep at all.” That’s what growls over the speakers as you hear Moon Woman’s “The Pigs Are Dead,” and it’s hard not to believe that whatever they are predicting will come to pass.
The fact is that there are two types of musical entertainers in this world. The first includes folks who hope they’ll get bought a drink by audience members after the show and be told how good their performance made them feel. That’s 99% of all musicians.
The rest, an anomaly in this world, are there to terrify the audience. They don’t do it only because they hate the listeners. Maybe they do it because the audience needs a bit of a jolt. Maybe they do it because this kind of tension is part of the artist’s very being. Mostly, they don’t know why they do it.
Moon Woman’s “The Pigs Are Dead” sounds like a stoner-rock hijack message. It’s bleak but hypnotic, sparse but carefully arranged. It sounds like the kind of music played in order to confront paying customers at a concert. It’s the kind of music that ought to be played behind the safety of a glass cage.
Bikini Beach – Nightmares
Similar artists: Ty Segall, OCS
Genre: Garage Rock, Alternative Rock
Rock musicians are still very much envied in most societies. This is still going on in spite of the fact that this kind of profession isn’t paying like it used to and doesn’t guarantee tremendous fame. Still, if asked, most people will tell you that they’d rather be writing songs or playing them on a guitar and that doing these things would make them happy and proud.
Why? One of the main reasons is that artists, in general, have the opportunity to make sense of their lives, their dreams and various events that, to most people, would seem meaningless. Rock musicians, in particular, have at their disposal the kind of tools to communicate these visions quickly, elegantly, and in a way that audiences can understand.
Bikini Beach’s “Nightmares” features a retro psych-rock vibe, but it’s so straightforwardly written and arranged that it shouldn’t fail to make an instant impact with modern audiences. Part fever dream, part eerie pop song, “Nightmares,” makes you want to envy Bikini Beach and the kinds of folks that could create such precise beauty out of things that confuse the rest of us.
