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Take a Roll in The Golden Grass

May 9, 2014 by A.S. Van Dorston

The Golden Grass - The Golden Grass (Svart, 2014)Today is the release day of the debut by Brooklyn psych prog rockers The Golden Grass. Tuesday is normally new release day, but European releases sometimes like to shoot their loads before the weekend. While digital distribution has not made it to iTunes, Spotify or Amazon yet, you can order the CD domestically or buy a download at Bandcamp. I had to harrass Finnish label Svart Records on their FB page to find out that the U.S. distributor is The End Records, and you can buy the album for a much more reasonable $11.99 at related webstore The Omega Order.

It’s easy to mistake The Golden Grass for a European band, but they’re actually from Brooklyn! I can see why they would sign with Svart, as they have a great roster of bands, including Beastmilk, Goatess, Jess and the Ancient Ones, Tombstoned, Brutus, Seremonia, Hexvessel, High Priest of Saturn, Bedemon, Paavoharju, Sammal and many more. Unfortunately the label has had bad luck with U.S. distribution, having been dropped by both Relapse and CM Distro. Hopefully The End Records will be better.

There was some interesting pre-release hype about this band, dropping drool-worthy references to obscure psych prog like Mighty Baby and The Move, and proto-metal like Dust and Josefus. Those influences are buried deep and the reality is actually a sunny jam record closer to The Allman Brothers than anything. However, the band is really great, and it’s always a pleasure when their long cuts come up in my playlist. If ever there were a band you should see outdoors, reclined on a lawn with a nice buzz, it’s The Golden Grass.

Read more in the excellent interview in The Obelisk.  Here’s one quote from the interview that got me excited to listen to them:

“I think we originally wanted to do something that was not quite as hard rock…we wanted to do something that was much more like shorter songs, psychedelic pop kind of music, but it ended up being stretched out. It got a lot funkier, it got a lot heavier, even some proto-metal things thrown into the mix, and I began to just go with it.”

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