psychedelic rock

Saturday Night Music Interlude — The Marcus King Band performing “Rita is Gone”

The lead singer and guitarist that provides the Marcus King Band’s moniker hails from Greenville, South Carolina, and plays what he calls “soul-influenced psychedelic southern rock,” which is an apt description.  Only 20 years old, Marcus King’s father, Marvin King, was a regionally popular blues and gospel singer, and his grandfather was a regional musician as well.  Growing up as a boy, young Marcus told eastof8th blog “I was listening to George Jones, Chet Atkins, and Merle Haggard with my granddad.  Later on, I was heavily influenced by jazz cats like Coltrane, Miles Davis, and Jimmy Smith.”

The legendary Warren Haynes has promoted Marcus and his band as a true believer, performing with them at concerts and inviting Marcus King to perform with him in the band Gov’t Mule.  The band has two albums to its credit: Soul Insight, a gritty blues, southern rock and prog rock-inflected debut, and the self-titled double disc Marcus King Band on the Fantasy label.

Touring in anticipation of their new album, they impressed at SXSW, jamming out with George Clinton, performed at Mountain Jam that included electric sets and extended jams with Warren Haynes, and–a last minute substitute booking–took the XPoNential Music Festival in Philadelphia by storm, becoming WXPN’s August Artist to Watch.

You can hear the musical influences that informed Marcus’ sound blend together in the mix of horns, drums, keyboards, and guitar, the band’s eclectic mix of blues, soul, prog rock, and southern rock producing a gumbo reminiscent of Tower of Power at their peak mixed in with a bit of Allman Brothers, a slice of John McLaughlin, a dash of Gov’t Mule, and a pinch of Hendrix psychedelia.  While still a bit raw and unfocused at times, this is one talent to watch as he matures and develops his sound.

Here is the band at WFUV performing “Rita is Gone.”

 

Saturday Night Music Interlude — The Arcs performing “Put a Flower in Your Pocket,” “Outta My Mind,” and “Stay In My Corner.”

The Arcs are comprised of Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys), Leon Michels, Richard Swift, Homer Steinweiss, and Nick Movshon, which is a side project of Auerbach while Black Keys drummer Patrick Carney recovers from an injury.  They released an album of bluesy soul, rock, rhythm & blues, and psychedelic rock on the 5th of this month entitled “Yours, Dreamily.”  Also on the album are guitarist Kenny Vaughan and Mariachi Flor de Toloache, a female Mariachi band.

 

Saturday Music Interlude — Fly Golden Eagle performing “Stepping Stone”

Fly Golden Eagle

Fly Golden Eagle consists of vocalist/guitarist Ben Trimble, keyboardist Mitch Jones, bass guitarist Matt Shaw, and drummer Richard Harper.  They are out Nashville and are part of a scene from Nashville’s Andrija Tokic’s Bomb Shelter which includes alumni Alabama Shakes, Hurray for the Riff Raff, among others.  Despite the Nashville moniker they are an eclectic group with Trimble coming to Nashville via Detroit, Shaw out of Celeste, Texas, Jones from Knoxville, and Harper from Huntsville, Alabama.  They are in the tradition of the American garage band, playing what the critics are calling psych-funk, though their latest sound seems to transcend that pigeonhole to include rock-and-roll, psychedelic rock, blues, glam–you name it.  Their latest album, their second, just came out in October titled Quartz Bijou, comprises that musical mix.  Here they are performing “Stepping Stone.”