Download: Crystal Antlers “Dust”

(from Tentacles out now on Touch and Go)

Crystal Antlers claim a creation myth so perfect it seems almost pre-ordained: a dedicated band of psychedelic chimney sweeps soon to be on their way to SXSW when their van and all the select vintage equipment within were swiped from the streets of Long Beach. But in what had to be one of the most clearly deserved acts of karmic compensation, the LBPD recovered their magic Econoline just in time for Crystal Antlers to mess with Texas. Then, the band only had two 45s to its name, including a first 7” that started strong with the Guru Guru guitars of “Parting Song for the Torn Sky” and finished stronger with a nearly Blue Cheer-besting cover of Mose Allison’s “Parchman Farm.” Now Tentacles, the Antlers’ debut full-length as well as the gum-studded end of Touch and Go, falls into familiar grooves—songs that fly by on Comets on Fire-like orbits between heavy breaths from the band’s bottom-end. When a song occasionally drops back to solid ground, it’s fired back up again by a burst of propulsive drums or some well-timed keyboards, bumped up on the likes of synth-stuttering opener “Painless Sleep,” “Glacier” and others. But it’s the burners—”Dust,” “Andrew” and “Tentacles”—that provide the real power, sending the album off onto a crucial course.

—Miles Clements