Phosphene Dream, the third album from MAGNET faves the Black Angels, marks a big step forward for the Austin, Texas, psych quintet. The band signed to the Blue Horizon label (run by industry bigwigs Richard Gottehrer and Seymour Stein) and worked in L.A. with veteran producer Dave Sardy (Oasis, Rolling Stones), marking the first time the group recorded an LP outside of its home base. The Black Angels also recently upped their profile with a collaborative appearance with UNKLE on the soundtrack to The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. (We hear the track, “With You In My Head,” is played at a pivotal scene in the film, but when it comes to movies, we are more Black Swan than Bella Swan.) The band also backed Austin legend Roky Erickson (though the fruit of that labor is still up in the air, release-wise) and is still working hard on its annual Austin Psych Fest. And if that wasn’t enough, the Black Angels will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Alex Maas.
Maas: “When you only got a thousand years to live.” OK, so I kinda stole the lyric from Five For Fighting and multiplied by 10 and mixed it with “Venus In Furs” from the Velvets. Wow, the advances keep on coming. In just the last few years, scientists at some of the tiny biotech companies have been looking like they may be changing the world. These guys are doing stuff that was so impossible just a decade ago that everyone thought it was just science fiction. There are researchers on the verge of curing herpes, HIV, the common cold, flue, any viral disease. Another group is on track to end cancer. End it. Another looks like they have a handle on curing Alzheimer’s—not treating—curing! Another will some day be able to regrow any damaged tissue in your body. Torn ligament, bad heart, bad liver, wrinkles—no problem. If you are 30 and live to 80, that is 50 years for this research to advance. In that time, your life span will possibly increase by 200 years. But during that next 120 years, it will increase to 1,000 years. Then, who knows? This changes everything. Want to retire? How much money do you need for 30 years? How about 930 years? Want to plant a long living tree? How many choices do you have now that 1,000 years that could effect your life? I’m going to plant a giant redwood? Bristlecone pine?
This changes everything. You only got a thousand years to live. “A thousand dreams that would awake me/Different colors made of tears.”
Video after the jump.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdVRmhaDd6I
