Spirit Mother release their new 7″ Locust/Dead Cells on Aug. 1, timed to coincide with their first European touring. The Cali-born outfit presently residing in Oregon will be on the road starting Aug. 1 — hey, that’s when the 7″ is out! — and play 11 shows in 12 days spread between Metal Days in Sweden and SonicBlast in Portugal, the festivals bookending club dates and an appearance at PALP Fest in Switzerland before the band return home to launch a September US tour (plus some Canada) in the company of Hippie Death Cult, built around stops at Lose Yr Mind in Portland and RippleFest Texas in Austin.

All that’s great, don’t get me wrong. I am unsarcastically, unironically and almost universally in favor of a band like Spirit Mother — relatively young, heading toward a follow-up to an impressive debut album in 2020’s Cadets (review here), cool, varied sound that has the potential to grow into something even more their own; I could go on — touring hard and often. But when you have a minute or seven to spare, take a listen to Locust/Dead Cells — also stylized with two slashes: Locust//Dead Cells — and catch a glimpse of where Spirit Mother are actually headed.

Especially if you were introduced to the band through their 2021 ‘Live in the Mojave Desert’ stream (review here) and live album (review here), the heft they proffer in “Locust” and “Dead Cells” might not be such a shocker, but set next to their last studio work — i.e. Cadets — it’s a striking turn Spirit Mother make toward heavier tones and impact. Still texturally influenced by psychedelic rock, they’ve mined immediacy out of meander and are fast finding their place in and around the style, with flourish of heavy Americana and grunge to make their sound all the more three-dimensional.

“Locust” feels like the catchiest track they’ve had on out yet until “Dead Cells” comes on with its All Them Witches-via-the-West-Coast slither and the shared vocals of bassist/principal songwriter Armand Lance and violinist SJ, but “Locust” also stands out for its urgency and for what comes across as a decisive focus on atmosphere. In discussing the tracks below, Lance notes that these songs were played live and workshopped on the road before being put to tape in a manner more representative of Spirit Mother‘s live sound than perhaps the debut, righteous as it was, turned out to be. Both offer palpable mood and the kind of atmosphere you feel like you can reach out and touch in front of you, but they move in a way that’s accessible and reaching out toward perhaps a broader audience than (only) genre heads.

Their having now fostered this approach in such a context, one can only hope they’re able to take the lessons from this two-songer, from all the touring at home and on foreign soil, and indeed from Cadets and use it to move forward with a new LP next year. Guess we’ll find out when we get there.

Until then, if you thought you had some idea of what Spirit Mother were about, feel free to delight in the correction:

Armand Lance on Locust/Dead Cells:

If you’ve seen us live, you know that we don’t play our songs “exactly” as they were recorded on Cadets. Part of that is because in our case, the record came before the band. But also, we believe that the live show should be a unique experience and we take pride in our doctored-up live arrangements. We still fuck with them to this day.

With these recordings, we did the opposite. We wrote it, and then they lived with us, grew with us, toured with us, partied with us, argued with us, crashed on floors, broke down, experienced straight up miracles, and everything in between that comes with being on the road. We recorded THAT version.

And we did it at the same studio we recorded Cadets – Jazzcats in Long Beach, CA. Our good friend and producer for this project, Jonny Bell, used his studio like an instrument and we were able to capture exactly what we wanted to, and then some. Working with someone you know, trust, and knows your music makes it easy to do that.

We decided to put this 7″ together to coincide our first European Tour. We set up a preorder for our fans in the states to reserve one before we leave, and our physical release date is 8/1 at Metal Days Festival in Slovenia. We’ll be taking them across Europe as we make our way to PALP Fest in Switzerland, and cap off our run at Sonic Blast Fest in Portugal. After that we have a couple weeks til we hit the road with Hippie Death Cult for a US/Canada tour.

LOCUST // DEAD CELLS 7″ Preorder: https://www.spiritmotherofficial.com

Originally formed by lead singer, songwriter, and bassist Armand Lance and violinist, SJ; their line-up solidified with guitarist Sean McCormick and drummer Landon Cisneros. This quartet often performs as a quintet with the use of two violins. Violinist, Camille Getz, has become integral to their live performances. Initially from Long Beach, CA, the band relocated due to the pandemic and is now headquartered in the high-desert of Eastern Oregon.

Shows:

07/26 Bamboo Club – Long Beach, CA (kickoff show)

Europe
01/08 Metal Days Fest – Velenje, SE
02/08 Kulturbahnhof – Lollar, DE
03/08 P8 – Karlsruhe, DE
04/08 Supersonic – Paris, FR
05/08 Terminus – Saarbrucken, DE
06/08 Cafe The Jack – Eindhoven, NL
07/08 Mcp-Apache – Fontaine L Évêque, BE
09/08 Brin De Zinc – Barberaz, FR
10/08 Cascina Bellaria – Sezzadio, IT
11/08 PALP Fest – Val De Bagnes, CH
12/08 Sonic Blast Fest – Àncora, PT

US/Canada w/Hippie Death Cult
9/8 Lose Yr Mind Fest – Portland, OR
9/9 El Corazón – Seattle, WA
9/10 The Wise – Vancouver, BC
9/12 Palomino Smokehouse – Calgary, AB
9/15 Pyramid Cabaret – Winnipeg, MB
9/16 Turf Club – St. Paul, MN
9/17 High Noon Saloon – Madison, WI
9/18 Reggies – Chicago, IL
9/19 Growlers – Memphis, TN
9/20 Freetown Boom Boom Boom – Lafayette, LA
9/21 Division Brewing – Arlington, TX
9/23 Black Magic Social Club – Houston, TX
9/24 Ripple Fest – Austin, TX
9/26 Sister Bar – Albuquerque, NM*
9/27 Yucca Taproom – Tempe, AZ*
9/28 The Usual Place – Las Vegas, NV*
9/29 Permanent Records – Los Angeles, CA
9/30 Ivy Room – Albany, CA
10/1 Kilowatt – San Francisco, CA
*w/ Brant Bjork

Spirit Mother are:
Armand Lance
SJ
Sean Mccormick
Landon Cisneros
Camille Getz

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Spirit Mother website

Giant Rock Records website

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Tags: Locust/Dead Cells, Oregon, Spirit Mother, Spirit Mother Locust/Dead Cells, Unsigned bands

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 20th, 2023 at 10:41 am and is filed under audiObelisk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.