Aural Fixations

THE COFFEE SERGEANTS
El Ariesh
(Monkey's Paw)
Austin's Coffee Sergeants is a cult band even its own hometown, which is a shame, as the quartet is quite simply one of the best contemporary psychedelic pop bands in the world, right up there with the Green Pajamas and the Bevis Frond. El-Ariesh, the Sergeants' fourth album, is as fine an album of dreamy acid pop as you're likely to hear this year. (more)

THE DREAM SYNDICATE
The Complete Live at Raji's
Ghost Stories
(Restless/Rykodisc)
The Dream Syndicate is one of the countless bands littering the rock & roll landscape whose influence outstrips its commercial standing. The L.A. quartet will forever be associated with the so-called Paisley Underground (a loose confederation of friends in bands like Green On Red, the Long Ryders, the Rain Parade and the Bangles who had more in common in their love for GOR singer Dan Stuart's barbecue than they did in stylistic affiliation) and the decade from which it gestated (the 80s).. (more)

LIQUID VISIONS
From the Cube
(Fünfundvierzig)
Psychedelic rock has always functioned as an underground movement; music that deliberately pushes the envelope of convention (however one defines that) is willfully uncommercial, so the masses remain oblivious. Occasionally, though, a worthy band escapes even the attention of the cognescenti—such seems to be the case for Liquid Visions. (more)

PLEASURE CLUB
The Fugitive Kind
(Brash/Purified)
Every time I hear a new album from James Hall and/or his band Pleasure Club, I ask myself: why isn't this guy massively famous? He's got a great voice, he writes amazing songs that genrefuck in the most organic way possible, he works with perfectly simpatico musicians and he's a magnificent live performer. It's one of the great mysteries of the musical universe. (more)