The new Weird Owl full-length, Wet Telepathy, has been given a Sept. 20 release date through Little Cloud Records — preorders are up now, if you’re the think-ahead type — and I can hardly think of a better time than the end of summer for its shimmering orange psychedelic haze. As the nights begin to turn cool in respite from the humidity of the Northeast, to have Weird Owl belting out live-in-the-moment jams like “Phantom Physician,” “Death Necklace” and the garagedelic “Diamond Mist” — the video for which is premiering at the bottom of this post — will be nothing but welcome, as the Brooklynite outfit follow 2017’s Bubblegum Brainwaves (review here) with a likewise expanded-mind melodic wash, all “far out, man” and not a bummer in the bunch, even the 90-second organ stretch “Headless Horsemen” and the closer “Let Each Man Decompose (At His Own Speed),” which takes Help!-era Beatles — that tambourine is a tell — to dreamier places only after the more fully-fuzzed “Nailed to the Ceiling” has run your grunge childhood through a lysergic spin cycle. You put in white sheets. They came out tie-dye. So it goes.

That’s how these cats do, and they do it well and they’ve been doing it long enough at this point that their sense of space is immediate. Returning once again to the studio with Jeff Berner at Galuminum Foil means their adventure happens in familiar climes, and in some ways, Wet Telepathy feels like a strong, more song-minded sequel to Bubblegum Brainwaves, but as the maybe-sitar and definitely-keyboards of “P.U.M.P.” roll out crumbling mountain landscapes, it’s as much a fresh vibe as it is a classic one, and Weird Owl invite the listener to their wavelength at the same time they make a compelling case to undertake the journey. All I’m saying is that if you feel like maybe your blood just got awesome, it’s probably working.

Wet Telepathy is out Sept. 20. You’ll find the video for “Diamond Mist” below, but here’s art and info first, courtesy of the PR wire:

Weird Owl – Wet Telepathy

New album out 9/20/19 on Little Cloud Records.

NYC psych rock veterans Weird Owl are set to release Wet Telepathy, their seventh studio album, on September 20, 2019 on Little Cloud Records. Taking off from the psychedelic yet concise songwriting established on 2017’s Bubblegum Brainwaves, this new album showcases the unpredictable and idiosyncratic nature of the band’s musical output. Songs about phantoms, psychic demons, bad trips and time travel all find a home in the off-kilter and slightly wobbly sci-fi universe created by Weird Owl. Wet Telepathy marks the fourth consecutive record on which the band has partnered with Jeffrey Berner (Psychic TV) in the role of engineer, mixer and producer. Together they have achieved a vision that is totally unlike any other band in the contemporary psych rock scene.

Preorder here: https://littlecloudrec.com/collections/frontpage/products/weird-owl-wet-telepathy-pre-order

Recorded, mixed and produced by Jeffrey Berner at Galuminum Foil, Brooklyn, NY.
Mastered by Scott Craggs at Old Colony Mastering.
Artwork by Killer Acid.

Since releasing their debut album in 2007, Weird Owl have firmly cemented their place in the international psychedelic underground. Championed by none other than legendary Brian Jonestown Massacre frontman Anton Newcombe (who released two of the band’s albums on his personal label). One of the band’s tunes, “White Hidden Fire”, has been viewed on YouTube over 2.6 million times at the time of writing. Weird Owl have performed at such renowned festivals as Austin Psych Fest, Eindhoven Psych Fest (Netherlands) and The Liverpool International Festival of Psychedelia (UK).

https://weirdowl.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/Weird.owl.ny/
http://www.weirdowl.net/
https://soundcloud.com/weird-owl
https://www.facebook.com/littlecloudrecords
https://www.instagram.com/littlecloudrecords
https://littlecloudrec.com/

Weird Owl, “Diamond Mist” official video premiere