LAVENDER FLU - "MOW THE GLASS" LP

LULU'S:

LAVENDER FLU - “MOW THE GLASS” LP

Album begins with a lushly warbling guitar echo which quickly goes from Faust IV to the Beach Boys, before a full blown Rolling Stones explosion. This is like, thirty seconds into the record, and you get the feeling you’re gonna be in good hands. You’re not wrong. This is pure treacle with a hint of tobacco and pot recorded straight to tape and it’s a heck of a tonic. Somehow alternative rock AKA alt rock AKA quiet n loud rock (with little bits of a country tease for good measure) made by deadbeats and dropouts became a dirty word, and I kind of get why, but I also know that it’s the most fitting genrefication for some of the hand down coolest and most memorable tunes (absolute tunes!) this side of the 70’s. If that scares you off, get over yourself and get yourself a drink. Trust me, you’ll love it. Lavender Flu blend the strange side of 60’s music, country almost-ballads, 80’s slacker introspected heart sleeves and the occasional guitar overdose that came with larger amplifiers of the following decades, and armed with the songwriting knowledge handed down by punks of all times and places (you, too, can write a pop song!) Whether you’re a fan of The Replacements, Dinosuar Jr, The Strokes or the silk and leather purveyed by perpetual favez the mighty Mystic 100’s, this is a lemon worth squeezing. And for God’s sake save some for your whisky & soda.

IN THE RED:

The new Lavender Flu album, "Mow the Glass", was recorded in the living room of a small house on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. You can hear it in the music. The Oregon Coast. The dream life of an Axolotl. The open sound of a band playing to an audience of endless water, sun, and sky.  A bald eagle flew by the window every few hours; as if to remind the band where they really were. Still, the laughter was real, the freedom was magic, and the tambo was sprinkled like sugar. 

"Heavy Air", the previous album, was a home recording project. The songs started with Chris on a guitar or a synth or a bowl of cereal and were built up from there. A rotating cast of friends and family helped flesh out the material. It could have been made in deep space or at the bottom of the ocean. Transmissions from a bedroom at the bottom of Pill Hill. 

"Mow The Glass" is a reflection of the live experience. Four people playing together; working within the template of pop classicism. 35 minutes of music. This time, the Flu comes out of the water and spends a little more time on land: pop kicks, psychedelic derangement, beauty, spells cast via hate raga and rocker. The band moves backward, forward and sideways; often within the same piece. The music breathes. It doesn't deal in nostalgic regression or self conscious futurism. It just sounds like the Lavender Flu. 

Or maybe Ursula K. Le Guin whispering to James Tiptree Jr. in heaven:
Follow the Flowers. They lead to a field of knives. Look to the Sewer. It's there where your teacher lies. 

This music will crawl through your mind. Palpitating off the walls of incandescent android phone lights and lonely aching web pages. Streaming through reverse lives, lost in endless coded corridors, hallucinating connections to other humans via bitrate embrace. 

The enemy is everywhere.