"welcome to the Kingdom Illusion"
As I listened to (and marveled really at) Whiskerman's second single Fuck Yeah from their upcoming album "Kingdom Illusion" (with visions of Whiskerman videos in my head) I thought of The Tubes ("White Punks On Dope", "What Do You Want"). In their heyday (circa mid 70's to mid 80's) The Tubes were probably one of the most provocative bands with live performances full of gleeful proto punk / glam rock debauchery and their front man Fee Waybill (and his rock counterpart Quay Lude) would seemingly do anything to entertain. I guess to some degree, I get that same sense from Whiskerman and the focused insanity (and brilliance) of front man Graham Patzner. There is (to me) an over reaching artifice to the sounds and visions they create. I don't mean this derisively. It is aggressive in it's stance, a compulsion to entertain even the most lackluster of souls, to drink Whiskerman's psyche Kool-aid. At least that is the sense I get.
Fuck Yeah is a grand, just incredibly dense piece of art rock theater. It shape shifts too becoming more theatrical and dreamy or nightmarish (depending on your desires) the deeper it gets. It is like stepping into an unknown pond only to fall into the deepest drop off that momentarily might scare you but makes you feel so alive at the same time. It is a rock juggernaut pushing blues and psyche rock buttons but quickly dives into spurts of art rock / baroque pop operatic tones (I thought of Queen actually) and appropriately Patzner sings about acting or maybe the duality in all of us as angels striving not to be devils.
Acting should be bigger than life. Scripts should be bigger than life. It should all be bigger than life.
- Bette Davis
-Robb Donker Curtius
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Whiskerman is a rock-and-roll overture to the great unraveling. Over the last 7 years the Oakland band has developed an underground reputation for tackling the sublime with their ambitious songwriting, thunderous stage show, and acute lyricism. They have since emerged as an engine of the Bay Area’s revitalized psychedelic and festival scenes. Frontman Graham Patzner, who will crow like a medicine show preacher and then coo you into the arms of his lovesick eternity, might be a spitfire protege of the underworld himself, though, through and through he will remind you that there is no rapture without artistry. On the surface this is splendid rock-and-roll, rooted in the classic, psych and glam rock tradition, but the pageantry and chaos of Whiskerman’s performances will leave you describing an experience more than a sound.
Whiskerman is preparing to release their fourth studio album, Kingdom Illusion—a rock and roll vision quest that ushers the band’s elegiac psychedelia toward a louder, pushier, more colorful sound. Their past albums have been described as “ecstatic psychedelia, sturdily constructed pop-rock, pick-and-grin folk all together as a single picture.” (Flood Magazine)
Whiskerman, Fuck Yeah, art rock, Oakland, blues rock, acting, daring do's, psyche rock, glam rock,
Whiskerman, Fuck Yeah, art rock, Oakland, blues rock, acting, daring do's, psyche rock, glam rock,
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