The Mystery Lights: The Mystery Lights 2016 + Too Much Tension! 2019

 

The roots of the Mystery Lights can be traced back to Salinas, California, where guitarists Mike Brandon and Luis "L.A." Solano formed the band while still in high school. Crafting their own

distinctive take on a Nuggets-era '60s sound, they played around their home turf for several years, frequently revising their lineup and eventually releasing their debut LP, Teenage Catgirls & the Mystery Lightshow, in 2009.  Full of guitars simmering in fuzz and reverb, vocals that plead or taunt, melodies that are both driving and trippy, and an abundance of lysergic sound effects, the group made their recording debut with 2009's Teenage Catgirls & the Mystery Lightshow, but they reached a larger audience with 2016's The Mystery Lights, an authentic-sounding effort in retro garage-psych.
              

By 2012, Brandon and Solano had each made the leap to New York, settling in Brooklyn and recruiting new members Alex Amini on bass and Nick Pillot on drums. Further honing their mid-'60s Kinks and

Easybeats-inspired sound and adding spacy psych elements, they began gigging around the city, recording a handful of EPs and singles before getting picked up by Daptone's rock imprint Wick Records in 2015. Their first release for the label was the 7" single Too Many Girls/Too Tough to Bear, followed in 2016 by a self-titled full-length LP. A second album for Wick, Too Much Tension!, was released in May 2019; by this time, Nick Pillot had left the group and Zach Butler had taken his place on drums, with Lily “Lilcifer” Rogers joining on farfisa.
             

Originally from the small town of Salinas, California and now based in NYC, The Mystery Lights' live

shows gradually became the stuff of legend as the quintet won their following one fan at a time in dives from Brooklyn to the Bowery. The Lights’ sound has evolved into a fuzz-fueled hopped-up 21st Century take on 60s garage pebbles, and artful 70s punk, that is all their own.  
       

Founded in California and based in Brooklyn, the Mystery Lights play psychedelia-infused garage rock

with a deep reverence for the sounds of the '60s but with a dash of contemporary cleverness and plenty of spirit. Full of guitars simmering in fuzz and reverb, vocals that plead or taunt, melodies that are both driving and trippy, and an abundance of lysergic sound effects, the group made their recording debut with 2009's Teenage Catgirls & the Mystery Lightshow, but they reached a larger audience with 2016's The Mystery Lights, an authentic-sounding effort in retro garage-psych.
               

 

THE MYSTERY LIGHTS - THE MYSTERY LIGHTS 2016

           

Tonally, the album is a bit of a time capsule as the Lights go whole-hog down the Nuggets-era rabbit hole. The chirping Farfisa organs, the biting reverb-soaked riffs, and Brandon's rasping yelps all feel

unearthed from some mid-'60s vault. After an instrumental fanfare of an intro, they make their opening shot with "Follow Me Home," a gritty, minor-key rocker with some solid group call-and-response backing vocals and enough sweaty menace to mean business. With its snaky organ and stuttering vibrato, the midtempo "Candlelight" dances around another nice minor-key melody before revving up into a frantic freakout in its latter half. The Mystery Lights definitely give off the feeling of a wild and even dangerous live band.

               

The Mystery Lights – The Mystery Lights 2016
Label: Wick Records – Wick-001
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: Jun 24, 2016
Genre: Rock
Style: Garage Rock, Psychedelic Rock

TRACKS

01. Intro    1:05
02. Follow Me Home    3:19
03. Flowers In My Hair, Demons In My Head    3:19
04. Too Many Girls    1:49
05. Without Me    3:14
06. Melt (Vocals [Additional] – Dani Miller)   2:38
07. Candlelight    3:15
08. 21 & Counting    3:05
09. Too Tough To Bear    3:26
10. Before My Own    2:40
11. What Happens When You Turn The Devil Down    4:11

Flac Size: 212 MB

THE MYSTERY LIGHTS - TOO MUCH TENSION! 2019

           

The Mystery Lights are a band who live in the the year 2019 by fate, not by choice. Their music suggests that they arrived in the present day after passing through some wrinkle in time adorned with

paisley; they are obsessed with '60s garage rock and psychedelia, and their songs and their approach make it clear they've done their homework when it comes to re-creating the nuts and bolts of this stuff. The Mystery Lights' third album, 2019's Too Much Tension!, captures the sound of that halcyon era when America's youth stopped playing "Louie Louie" and started abusing recreational drugs with a truly impressive accuracy, as if someone discovered a long-lost collaborative project with the Strawberry Alarm Clock, the Chocolate Watch Band, and the Seeds joining forces in the studio.

The Mystery Lights – Too Much Tension!
Label: Wick Records – WCK-004
Format: CD, Album
Country: US
Released: May 10, 2019
Genre: Rock
Style: Garage Rock, Psychedelic Rock

TRACKS

                 

01. Synthtro    0:46
02. I'm So Tired (Of Living In The City)    2:32
03. Can't Get Through To My Head    2:43
04. Someone Else Is In Control    1:53
05. Goin' Down    2:37
60. Wish That She'd Come Back    4:17
07. Thick Skin    4:08
08. Too Much Tension    2:16
09. Watching The News Gives Me The Blues    3:37
10. It's Alright    2:51
11. Traces    3:29

Flac Size: 219 MB