Next Wave #675: Night Beats

Deeply atmospheric psych with a soulful touch...

Hailing from Dallas via Seattle, rough-edged psychedelic three-piece Night Beats’ unique, reverb-drowned sound is made in the great Texan musical tradition of acid-drenched outlaw music.

One of the most exciting bands to come out of America in recent times, the band, comprised of singer Danny Lee Blackwell, bassist Jakob Bowden, and drummer James Traeger, Night Beats have merged early R&B, dusky desert psychedelia and well-worn garage to create their unique, underground sound.

Their third album, ‘Who Sold My Generation’, picks up where the likes of The Elevators, Butthole Surfers and The Black Angels – whose record label Reverb Appreciation Society released the band’s second album – left off.

Influenced by “a lot of soul records, R&B, stuff like Spacemen 3, Parliament, Funkadelic,” Blackwell spent years honing his craft, trying to “find that middle ground between drony, repetitive, mind-altering sounds and R&B and soul music.”

The move from Dallas to Seattle was the final step in the formation of the band, with Blackwell’s old friends Traeger and Bowden joining him for the final line-up, and discovering the city’s thriving underground DIY scene – something unlike Dallas.

“I was seeing more of an underground scene in Seattle,” Blackwell said, “and there’s a lot more younger kids putting on their own shows and doing their own thing – I think that’s really cool, the DIY scene, and I gravitated towards that.”

Signing to Heavenly Recordings marks a new chapter for the band. The label approached the band, with Blackwell finding that “they were the ones who genuinely loved the record, and they wanted to do everything they could to help it. Bigger labels were giving us some pretty cool stuff, but Heavenly were the most adamant with a good energy about the whole thing.”

For ‘Who Sold My Generation’, the trio recorded in LA for the first time, collaborating with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Robert Levon Been, the “honorary Night Beat” who played bass on the record. The band took a new approach to the album making process by recording over five consecutive days. “Normally we’d fit recording time in between tours,” Traeger said, “and so it’d be a seven month process making the album. On this one, we just went in for five days with all the songs ready to go.” Blackwell added “it was definitely better, with all that energy going towards it in one go.”

Alongside on their latest album, Blackwell is also busy with his other band, UFO Club, a psychedelic supergroup featuring Christian Bland of The Black Angels and Bob Mustachio of The Warlocks, as well as collaborating with close friend and soul singer Curtis Harding and The Black Lips under the moniker Night Sun. The band are already working on the third record, and with a busy touring schedule ahead of them including yet another whistlestop UK tour, a full US tour and a host of festival dates, 2016 is set to be the year Night Beats break the big time.

WHAT: Texan psychedelic garage rock
WHERE: Seattle
GET 3 SONGS: 'No Cops', 'Sunday Mourning', 'Bad Love'

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Words: Megan White

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