Armed with barbed riffs, tantalizing hooks and a pugnacious attitude, Chicago’s Free Moontime Band is a group that every acid rock fan could get behind.
FTMB, which was released over Black Friday, is overflowing with gnarly garage scuzz, passages of spaced-out jamming and pure, raw nerve. Tracks like “Weekend Freakin” or “Rat” begin with primal riffage and in-your-face Iggy Pop-esque vocals, before launching into improvisations that explode with iridescent guitar solos and napalm drumming. I can only imagine how wild these songs must be on stage. (Any live footage/audio that anybody could send would be much appreciated).
While shades of Mountain Movers, The Sonics and Sunwatchers can be felt across the album, the band has cut a path of their own to follow. This is especially evident on the stomping opening track, “Synthetic Sun.” You’ll be hard pressed to find another band that can funnel fuzz, astral blues and walls of overdriven effects into a ripping boogie quite like this. It’s a hell of an intro to the record that tells you everything that you need to know about Free Moontime Band.
Ferocious, electrifying and blindingly frenetic, this is a group that you’ll want to keep an eye on in 2020—and FTMB is an album that you need in your life now. Grab it right here.
-KH
Record Crates United 