The Black Angels are a psychedelic band from the musical capitol of Texas, Austin. They capture and carry the spirit of Austin’s deep psychedelic musical history from bands like; the 13th Floor Elevators and the Golden Dawn (among others). They forge their own sound with sonic landscapes of cross pollinations of the aforementioned psychedelic moniker as well as post punk, shoe gaze, new wave and just old fashioned rock + roll in the spirit of the The Doors and The Velvet Underground… Christian Bland is a founding member of the Angels as well as a founder of the Austin Psych Fest; an annual festival that hosts a variety of psychedelically influenced bands that range from; LA’s; The Black Ryder to the UK’s – Spectrum (with Pete Kember of Spacemen 3) to the God Father himself Roky Erikson (of the 13th Floor Elevators)… Christian also has a few other bands, most notably; The Revlelators and the UFO Club… both of which are phenomenal – Sat down with Christian after the Angels show in Santa Ana… and rather then conduct a formal interview, I thought it may be more interesting to just let the proverbial “tape” roll, while two friends, fellow musicians and music fans just talked one to one… this is the result of that conversation…
Gregg Foreman – Some people say the Black Angels and Austin Psych Fest in general have a lot to do with the resurgence of Psychedelic music. So why do you think in 2013 a lot of younger people have an interest in this sound?
Christian Bland – I don’t know – I think things are cyclical – I mean, I think maybe every 50 years things cycle around… I don’t’ know it’s interesting it’s definitely picking up .
GF – Well there has always been these rogue bands like the Paisley Underground in 80s and the Brian Jonestown Massacre…
CB – Since the 60s Psychedelic rock never left. you know bands kept it alive throughout the 70s like; Hawkwind and the 80s like My Bloody Valentine, Spacemen 3, Jesus and Mary Chain… 90s – Blur had psychedelic tendencies.
GF – Primal Scream.
CB – Jonestown massacre, Warlocks, BRMC… There has always been the torch bearers that carry it along… but now I don’t have an explanation for it…
GF – Just curious myself, since we are both big music fans… But like you said I don’t think it ever went away.
CB – We can see that with Psych Fest every year it doubles and doubles – first year we had 750 or so and now we have it in a big field with almost 3500 people…
GF- The word Psychedelic is overused some might say, as in anyone with a reverb pedal is suddenly psychedelic, but you may never have heard the Seeds what’s your opinion on that?
CB – Yeah I think it is, Yeah I mean that word psychedelic gets thrown around. I see in Austin people will put like “psychedelic show” on their poster And I’ll go check out their show and I mean It’s not really… psychedelic is such a wide genre It’s hard to uh…
GF – Well, just with the lineup you guys have, it, I mean, it’s like; The soft moon, they have psychedelic elements but on first listen you might think they’re more like…………. The Cure, but The Cure were sorta psychedelic too…
CB – Yeah And I mean we’ve got the Raveonettes on the bill and I feel like they’re pulling from the spirit of psychedelic so I suppose that’s more the common denominator of the bands playing at psych fest.. The spirit that the bands are all pulling from comes down to the same thing…
GF -This is another one I personally would like to know. What was it like to work with one of our heroes; Roky Erikson from the 13th floor elevators?
CB – Man, it was a really cool experience. We were on the West Coast on tour I think In San Francisco and we got a call from his manager asking if we would be his backing band… We all just FREAKED out and were like “what? That’s crazy!” So when we got back to Austin we set up practice with him And we were really excited to just try and play some of the 13th floor elevators songs. Alex and I had gone to see him and he played “you’re going to miss me” and “splash one” , But that was it and he mainly did his solo stuff…
GF – Like a “Cold Night For Alligators”and “Night Of The Vampire”?
CB – Yeah exactly… And so we had the goal that we were going to play the first five songs off the first album… So that was adding “roller coaster”, “don’t fall down” and “reverberation”. We went to our practice space with him and we tried to do “roller coaster” with him But he just got flustered and said; “I haven’t played that one in 30 years”. “So let’s try Night Of The Vampire”. So we would then move on real quick. What we figured out… Actually what we did was we invited him over to our house, sat down and played acoustically with him – Had the words and the chords printed out on a music stand, then Nate and I would go through acoustically with him. Then we’d figure out the songs. I just found the recording of Nate me and Roky trying to do “Don’t Fall Down” and it was really cool to listen to. We could play for about five minutes then he’d be like; “you guys about ready for a break?”
(Both Laughing)
GF – A lot of people don’t know that but ? & the Mysterians, the 13th floor elevators and the Velvet Underground laid the foundation for what would eventually be punk…
CB – Yeah yeah
GF – There were way more important than they were given credit for even…
CB – Very first time we played live and we played; “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, when he let those yelps fly… the hair on the back of our necks stood straight up… It was crazy !
GF – Yeah I had a chance to meet him the very first psych fest that I played with The Meek and he was just a lovely person… We briefly spoke and he was just a gent… So one of the last things I want to know is how did this psych fest come about? What was the catalyst ?
CB – Well the idea started in 2008. I think if not for The Black Angels the psych fest would not exist. The reason for that is we started touring with The Black Angels in 2005, and meeting all these bands along the way. We became friends with them and I had the idea It would be cool if we just invited ‘em for a weekend, just a psychedelic party!! Then I gathered a group of guys around me who all kind of had the same vision So pretty much it started March 2008. We decided to do it the weekend before SXSW Because bands were coming anyway. So, we were like – “let’s just have these bands that were coming for SXSW just come the week before and we’ll have a little psychedelic get together”.
So the first year was 11 bands. And I think that nine Of the eleven were all from Austin. There were two – The Quarter After, were supposed to play but they couldn’t make it. One other out-of-town, I think The Upside Down maybe? So the first year it was one day – Saturday. The next year was also the weekend before SXSW. This time it expanded to three days and we figured out… well we flew in – a place to bury strangers and they left and didn’t even play SXSW. So we were like – “well let’s just do it away from SXSW”. The third year it was like it is now in the end of April and three days long… Then for years one through five it was sort of a changing venue. Now the sixth year we have established a place – Carson Creek Ranch, which we hope for the next several years it will be at…
GF – Well I played one year at the Seaholm powerplant with The Meek and then one year at Emo’s I did double duty with Pink Mountaintops and The Meek… And you played with us with – The Meek and also the second time with Pink Mountaintops and The Meek…
CB – Right, that’s right!
GF – We met I think at a black angels show I was with Aly and Amy from the meek
CB – That’s right you rode over on your scooter I think ha ha ha ha …
(We both laugh)
GF – Last question what music are you into these days that is not necessarily under the title of psychedelic? What I mean is we are all such huge fans of art and music and film – I mean I love things like Hank Williams Senior to maybe Suicide…
CB – Jake turned me onto Billy Nichols …
GF – “Would you believe” yeah on immediate records . He was involved with the small faces.
CB – I have been into that and I have been trying to locate the albums that were inspired by pet sounds. That was one of them. Another two that I really gotten into are Del Shannon’s – “Home And Away”. Then the further adventures of Charles Westover. “Home and Away” – was an attempt to sound like “Pet Sounds: Andrew Loog Oldham tried to get it goin. Then Charles Westover, was an attempt to sound like “Sgt. Peppers”… You know I love old stuff, my parents Grew up listening to oldies 94.5 in Houston I just love it…
GF – Well cool… I find that when friends talk it’s a lot more conversational and open… So have a great rest of your tour and thanks a lot man we’ll be in touch…
CB – Sure thanks Gregg anytime man…
Gregg Foreman Echo Park 2013