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To Come To Now
Psychedelic sounds are for those of us consumed with the search for the freakish subtext of existence; skewing in all too boring reality … something Friends of Dennis Wilson (looking forward to a late winter tour and the release of their second album) know much about.
Grand, reverberated bliss and surf-flared hallucino-drone guitar crunches are just par for the course for an FODW set (also featuring Tim Donesia, California Chris, Charlie Monsoon and Adam T).
They really set a trance, wafting a dark energy and coaxing a soothing feedback roar from their amps, with wavering tones and disorienting delay pedals. All the while, this lanky dude with a mic grasped like a scepter floats around with his knees flexed out, ready to pounce, as the song whirs on.
“We’re all together into the game,” says ultra sincere, ball-o-energy, mustached lead singer, Tony Thrush, “it’s a completely different picture now.”
He’s riffing on (re)adding original guitar player Adam and how “we’ve never worked this hard and long on a record, so it was kind of like our first real record.” And then he briefly bemoans the delayed creation process, slowed by equipment breakage, equipment theft and lineup resettling.
“The only appropriate title to this record would be self-titled, man! This record is who we are! No other name could suit it. Just Friends of Dennis Wilson.”
Their previous works were “more heavy garagey-psych-stuff," says Thrush. "This album definitely has its heavy moments, using powerful choruses and swirling guitars with delayed vocals, but we change it up a lot. Audra Kubat has inspired me; we use an acoustic guitar with a 12-string on some stuff, which we’ve never done."
Tony says it may invoke a jangly "Eight Miles High" Byrds feel, but that “it’s not, like, total folk or anything.” Then he paints a picture inviting prominent players from the FODW mythology of ‘60s surf-culture, quasi-cult-intrigue and motorcycle camaraderie.
“You could picture us and Dennis [Wilson — Beach Boy], Charlie [Manson — Dennis’ kooky friend] and Audra on a beach with the Hell’s Angels chanting 'To Come To Now' which is one of the tracks on the album that I would consider a bit more mellow.”
The album will feature themes of water, space, drugs, depression, riding motorcycles and love ...
But back to motorcycles, on the horizon are plans for the FODW and allies, the power rock trio the BirdDogs, to do a split-LP imagined as the soundtrack to a momentarily nonexistent, but still stylized motorcycle gang movie. Think Grindhouse-esque, in a dual auteur approach as both bands are more than capable of capturing that haunted-tone reverie and hard drudging urgency characteristic of the moto-gang-mystique. “If I wasn’t in a band, I’d for sure want to be in a motorcycle gang,” admits Tony.
This Saturday at the Belmont is the 18-date American tour kickoff with The BirdDogs, The Questions and Coronados. “It’s an all-out mission to get as many people to hear our music as possible,” says Tony. “For the past two years, we’ve been trying to put as much energy, emotion and danger into our performances as possible.”
Look out for their proper album release show this spring! | RDW
Friends of Dennis Wilson • 2/8 • The Belmont
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