Psychedelic sizzle

Music Row
By Brian Rademaekers

It’s hard to say just what’s in the Philly Tap these days, but whatever it is, it’s a chemical pushing a whole new generation of musicians to explore and re-explore the expansive and mind-expanding genre of "psychedelic" music.
And man, are the artists on the Philly scene having a good time with it, much to the approval of fans of those far-out sounds.
The trend is nothing especially new — see Sounds of Psychedelphia, circa 1999 — but the number and quality of recent bands who dip unabashedly into this diverse spectrum of music is something to take note of.
There’s the dark and brooding gothic folk psychedelics of bands like the Espers, Fern Knight, and Orion Rigel Dommisse, to name a few.
Bardo Pond and the respective side projects that emerge from that circle bring to the table crushing and ultra-extended guitar freak-outs that push the limits of progressive instrumental psych.
Make A Rising and Man Man dole out free-form, avant-garde sound collages whose loose narratives weave whole weird universes of their own.
Aunt Dracula, The War on Drugs, Kurt Vile and others are carving their own niches that depart from the traditional rock formula and veer to the pleasant pastures of experimentalism.
Then there are those bands — Dr. Dog, Cheers Elephant and the Creeping Weeds among them — that take a definite retro approach, sifting through the mystic harmonies of 1960s-era psychedelia and reinventing them for the digital age.
Philly fans can now add Doylestown’s House of Fire to the list of revisionist psych rockers. Celebrating the release of its debut album earlier this week, House of Fire has a fondness for "the psychedelic sound of the ’60s and the paisley underground and canyon rock movements of the West Coast," and come out sounding marvelous in their own right.
Founded in 2005 by lead vocalist and guitarist Isaac Betesh at his Doylestown pad, House of Fire includes E.J. Hagen on guitar, Dave Reis on vocals and bass, Lucy Rodemich on keyboards and percussion, Alex White on guitar, and Peter Trezzi on drums.
Hagen, White, and Betesh are formerly of Highspire (Clairecords); Reis did time with The Improbable before joining House of Fire.
Their eponymous (perhaps a nod to Alice Cooper?) debut is nine tracks of jangly guitar riffs, languid vocals and a wavering, hazy backdrop that completes what is essentially a feel-good album.
While there is a throwback element present in many of their songs, the cocktail of classic and modern sounds is apparent and delivered superbly by this troupe: Velvet Underground and Syd Barrett fit snugly up against Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Brian Jonestown Massacre.
The result is a collection of songs that are simultaneously rocking and dreamy, unreal but still very alive. And, for their first long-play, it’s a promising breakout recording.
Picked up by the local Universal Warning Records, the album was produced by indie vet Kramer, who has done work with the Butthole Surfers, Ween, Galaxie 500, Bowery Electric, Low, Urge Overkill, and the Danielson Family.
The team worked to produce a nice blend of lo-fi roughness essential for a good psych album with ’60s trappings, but the cleanness and professionalism are in all the right places too, giving House of Fire a crispness and shine that suit its shimmering songs.
This Saturday, the sextet will be so kind as to offer us a free show at that northern bastion of good music and fine beer known as the Green Rock Tavern. ••

Check it out . . .
Who: House of Fire
What: Bucks’ latest, and yet another fine taste of Philly Psych
When: Saturday, May 17, at 9 p.m. Free
Where: The Green Rock Tavern, Lehigh and Livingston.