INSIDE OUT YOUR MIND
The album that I have, Inside Out Your Mind (2015) I mistakenly thought of as their first album, but the band had been around two decades at this point. It wasn’t even the Loons’ first album on Bomp! Records; that was Red Dissolving Rays of Light five years earlier (also on order). After writing this post, I came across an interview with Suzy Shaw who said that they revived Bomp! Records specifically for the Loons; Mike Stax had always wanted to have an album on that label. The band’s new drummer on both of these albums was Mike Kamoo, who had been the drummer for the Shambles; while the line-up of the Loons was otherwise the same as on Paraphernalia. Bass guitar and album design are by Anja Dixson on Red Dissolving Rays Of Light, while the name Anja Stax is shown for both on Inside Out Your Mind. The only other change between the two Bomp! albums is that Chris Marsteller is also shown as playing keyboards on Inside Out Your Mind. The Loons’ original drummer, John Chilson had also previously played with the Shambles.
An overview of the Loons was published in the San Diego Reader in 2015 upon the release of Inside Out Your Mind; eight other articles about the band had been published previously by this alternative weekly. The article lists the “genre” for the Loons as noise/experimental and punk and describes the “full scope of their sound” as “Beatlesque vibes reincarnated in the form of post-punk fervency”. Influences are listed in the article as the Pretty Things, the Seeds, the Yardbirds, the Monks, the 13th Floor Elevators, MC5, the Misunderstood, and the Dutch band the Outsiders.
Rather than just staying within the well-trod garage-rock path that was laid out a half-century ago, the Loons take their music in unexpected directions and slip in 1960’s-style flourishes and riffs throughout their songs. Inside Out Your Mind was a thoroughgoing treat to these ears from beginning to end from the first spin, and I expect without even hearing them that their other albums will be the same way. As with most of my favorite albums, all of the music sounds great, and my attempts to pick out favorite tracks often approaches the full roster of songs.
The straight garage rock thrust of the opening track on Inside Out Your Mind, “Siren City” leads into the psychedelic delicacy that is “Moon and Tide”, one of my favorite songs on the album. The title song, “Inside Out Your Mind” has such an authentic 1960’s sound that it is hard to believe it is newly written. Just when you think the Loons might have run out of tricks, the Side 1 closer “Silence” serves up a psychedelic mood that is quite a bit different from “Moon and Tide”; the song ends with a lovely, understated instrumental passage that is so rare these days, when nearly all bands keep the vocals going pretty much nonstop.
Side 2 of the Loons’ album Inside Out Your Mind continues the kaleidoscope with the angsty “My Desolation” and the more wistful “I Don’t Live There Anymore”. The rocking “Transparent Eyes” is another treasure, with the recurring “nothin’” call recalling one of my favorite songs by the Canadian garage-rock band the Ugly Ducklings, the kiss-off masterpiece “Nothin’”: “Baby . . . you know what I need? / Nothin’ / I need nothin’”. This is 1960’s revival music at its most fulfilling. I look forward to working my way through their other albums.
(June 2017)
