Rich with a thickly humid atmosphere, sunburnt melodies and spaced-out beats, Color Green’s debut LP is the very essence of summer.
For the uninitiated, Color Green is Noah Kohll and Corey Madden, with familiar friends like James Matthew VII and Tim Ramsey (Vetiver, Sam Burton, Fruit Bats, etc) joining in on the fun. The LA based group distills everything from Pink Floyd-like psychedelia to the rootsy funk of Little Feat and the Grateful Dead, along with the bloozy jams of The Allman Brothers and JJ Cale into a sunny shot of stoned Americana rock.
Tracks like “Ain’t It Sad” boogie with a sun-baked groove and saunter with a laidback swagger, like an early ’70s Rolling Stones single being reinterpreted by Stephen Stills’ often overlooked supergroup, Manassas.
Meanwhile, tunes like “Verdolaga Dreams,” “Bell of Silence” and “Stretchin’ Thumbs” feature an acid country approach to ’60s sunshine pop, with their warmly crisp vocal harmonies, dreamy waves of pedal steel and spiraling webs of hypnotic banjo and acoustic guitars, that all fed through a variety of cosmic effects. These tracks feel both rustic and sweetly dazed at the same time, especially the phase-heavy “Stretchin’ Thumbs.” This combination of styles and tones gives the the album the vibe of a mushroom-infused privately pressed loner folk record, which is always a good thing.
While the album is filled with nothing but solid numbers that display Color Green’s impressively diverse musical taste and virtuosity, it’s the songs that break out into jams, like “Warbling Sky” and “Blizzed Out,” that might be the LP’s most essential highlights. On these songs, the band shows just how effortlessly they can lift a tune high up into the stratosphere before launching it deep into the stars without getting lost. On the latter of these two cuts, Kohll and Madden charge their snarling Southern riffs into Hawkwindian astral territories. Despite going into space, they never once lose the layer of country dirt that appears to be embedded in the very DNA of their guitar sound. You could only imagine just how wild and far the group could take these jams live on stage.
If you want a record that feels like you’re cruising down an empty freeway under a brightly burning sun, then Color Green’s self-titled LP is for you. Click here to get your copy from Org Music today and choogle on, my friends. Choogle on.
-KH
PS: For more background info on Color Green, click here to check out my recent interview with the band on HeadsLifestyle.com.
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