EP preview - PINBALL LIZARD AND THE ACID KINGS

"sleazy doom'n'roll from the dark side"

"A wild, mean, psychedelic, sludgy ride into the realms of chaos. Follow the path that leads from nowhere to nothing... It's a hell of a noisy road."

"We created nothing out of nothing. We're not afraid of paying tribute to the bands we love. We're not ashamed of our influences.Cos' there's nothing new under the sun, baby..."

This is how PINBALL LIZARD AND THE ACID KINGS describe their sound, identity and state of mind on their FB page and in my opinion there's more than a great part of truth in those words...

Formed by 3 ex-members of 1969 Was Fine, the band actually consists in : vx  (vox, analog synths, audio-generators), Mat  (guitar,vox), Cyril (sax, trumpet), Tristan (bass, vox) and Ben (drums).

Just about to release an ep called "Jonestown calling" by the end of the month, the band plays indeed some nice and nasty Garage-Stoner'n' roll,  something straight and not too complex in the structures but more musical than one could expect in the interpretation...

The use of brass instruments (saxo and trumpet) accentuates their originality and brings a more intimistic and refined edge, creating an amazing duality with their dark and psychedelic approach of heavy sounds.

It took me several listenings to really enjoy the vocals who in fact  make you realize the most about the rock n' roll influences from Iggy Pop, Nick Cave, The Cramps, Zodiac Mindwarp... hot, tasty and gloomy ! 

Some names more usually practised here could be cited too such as HAWKWIND and BLACK SABBATH, but coming back to their style's own description, I would just nuance the use of "DOOM"", even if this is indeed sleazy, pretty dark and never has some up-tempos.

So ok, this will not revolutionize the music of the next decades but it's ertainly not devoided of good ideas and there's definitely a great cosmic garage sound here, breathing  booze -and beuze!-, sweat and leather... and holy shit, that makes my day ! 

The ep will be released on vynil by their friends of Geisha Music (this is the own label of PUNISH YOURSELF , the other band of singer "vx") but will also be available as digital copy through Bandcamp; this month they will give two gigs in Spain (Zaragoza 17th + 18th), more dates will be announced shortly after the ep release; As for now, go on their FB or Bandcamp page to listen some songs of the ep (rough mix), there's also some rehearsal material  to enjoy on the latter...

And to end this little presentation, I wanted to know some details about the origin of the band's name, here are the singer's explanations about that :

 "Pinball Lizard" was an idea from  Matt, guitarist (also bass singer in Junkyard Birds), he dragged this play on words for years and suggested it when we were  looking for a name ... Between the reference to the Who and the reptilian side (which may  unconsciously make you thinking about Iggy Pop or even The Doors) that I liked,  I then proposed to add "& the something", like for   "Ziggy Stardust & The Spiders from Mars". After discussion, we were hesitating between "& The Kings Of Speed​​" (refering to the piece of Hawkwind) and "& the acid-testers" (for the stoner-folk folklore edge), finally it's  Niko from Tagada Jones who proposed  to merge it into "Acid Kings". We thought it sounded great ! and "the acid king" was the nickname of Ricky Kasso, one of those nice American  bloodthirsty crazyhead  that inspires so many people;) we can conclude that we are not afraid of references, even accidental;) "

http://pinballlizardandtheacidkings.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pinball-Lizard-The-Acid-Kings/345988102081514