The Black Angels (band)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
The Black Angels
Origin Austin, Texas, U.S.
Genres Psychedelic rock, Neo-psychedelia, Alternative rock
Years active 2004 - Present
Labels Light In The Attic Records
Website Official Website
Members
Christian Bland
Alex Maas
Stephanie Bailey
Nate Ryan
Kyle Hunt
Former members
Jennifer Raines
Notable instruments
"Drone Machine"

The Black Angels are a psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas,[1] formed in May 2004. Their name derives from the Velvet Underground song "The Black Angel's Death Song".

In 2005, the Black Angels were featured on dual disc compilation album of psychedelic music called "Psychedelica Vol.1" from Northern Star Records. This, along with the growing popularity of their MySpace page, gave the band a big jump in popularity in the underground scene.

Friday, August 5 2007, they played at Lollapalooza in Chicago. Among other venues, they have played at SXSW 2006 & 2008 and All Tomorrow's Parties 2008. Touring partners have included the blues rock band The Black Keys, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Warlocks, Roky Erickson, and The Raveonettes.

The group's debut LP Passover was generally well received in the underground independent rock community and was noted for its dark tones and lyrical content. A review Passover described them as "Walking in the shadows cast by Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized mastermind Jason Pierce" and compared them to The Warlocks and Black Mountain, also invoking "dirges" reminiscent of both The Velvet Underground and the 13th Floor Elevators.[1] The band's icon is a stylized/high-contrast negative image of Nico.

Passover included a quote in the liner notes from Edvard Munch; "Illness, insanity, and death are the black angels that kept watch over my cradle and accompanied me all my life."

In December 2007, the group announced on their blog [2] that their second album will be released in Spring 2008. On May 13 their second album, Directions to See a Ghost was released. The album reached #23 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.[3]

The band was featured on the soundtrack of the 2007 Kevin Bacon movie, Death Sentence and on the second episode of FOX's "Fringe".

Songs from the bands second album, "Directions to See a Ghost" were featured in The History Channels documentary, 'Manson'. The show commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Manson murders and aired Labor Day, 2009.

October 28, 2008 - November 2, 2008 the band performed as Roky Erickson's backing band down the West Coast. Future plans between Roky and The Black Angels are in the works.

Contents

[edit]

Logo

Besides the band's name, the Velvet Underground are also referenced by the band's logo, which incorporates a high-contrast negative image of Velvets vocalist Nico.[4]

[edit] Band members

[edit] Current

  • Stephanie Bailey — drums, percussion, bass
  • Christian Bland — guitar, bass, drums
  • Kyle Hunt — keyboards, percussion, bass, and guitar
  • Alex Maas — vocals, bass, guitar, keyboards, sitar
  • Nate Ryan — bass, guitar, occasional drums

[edit] Former

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] EPs

[edit] Singles

  • "The First Vietnamese War" b/w "Nine Years" (released August 21, 2006)
  • "Better Off Alone" b/w "Yesterday Always Knows" (released May 28, 2007)
  • "Doves" b/w "Drone in G# Major" (released May 20, 2008)

[edit] TV Appearances

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Hannah Levin, Review of Passover, The Stranger, Apr 13 - Apr 19, 2006. Accessed 7 October 2006.
  2. ^ "Happy Holidays". The Black Angels. 2007-12-11. http://www.theblackangels.com/2007/12/happy-holidays.html. Retrieved 2008-09-12. 
  3. ^ Billboard, Allmusic
  4. ^ Dom Alessio, The Black Angels – Directions To See A Ghost (Light In The Attic/Inertia), Cyclic Defrost, October 21, 2008. Accessed online 2009-12-08.

[edit] External links

Stub icon This article on a United States indie rock band is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Black_Angels_(band)"