21ST CENTURY PSYCH

The members of Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound come on like bombs and laser beams—so they named their second album, Ekranoplan, for a hulking Soviet marine assault hovercraft. The band’s sound is heavy and brooding, cut with tooth-tugging guitar tones and keyboards designed to fuzz your head out. This is the sound of psychedelic America in the 21st century—deeply rooted in the San Francisco hard-psych tradition, the guitars reminiscent of Quicksilver Messenger Service’s John Cipollina and Big Brother’s Sam Andrew—yet translated through all the punk and metal that’s happened since 1968. They cite Sonic Youth and Crazy Horse as influences—as well as The Byrds, Pink Floyd and Jerry Garcia. The sounds and tones of classic psychedelic records are, explain guitarists Charlie Sauffley and Jefferson Marshall, and keyboardist Camilla Saufley, fundamental. Ekranoplan’s cover features disembodied rock star heads attacking a futuristic city, while yetis lurk and snakes writhe in the redwood forest. The lyrics are simultaneously apocalyptic and hopeful—the spirit of this time, in this place. “There’s at least one song on there that’s kind of a fantasy about a female Jimi Hendrix figure returning to some desolate, post-apocalyptic, post-Bush Earth, somewhere that’s post-fascist, to liberate the people,” says Charlie Sauffley. “The first song on the first record is all about the animals running things, almost like a Planet of the Apes scenario, after we’ve all gone mad. Or being on the verge of that, know?” www.myspace.com/theassembleheadinsunburstsound

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