To the rest of the world, San Francisco used to be synonymous with psychedelia. Well, some of us are still living in that now. In fact, hundreds of us were witnesses to that nowness when Austin Waz and Big Leap Collective teamed up to present Do You Remember??, a psychedelic indie festival this past April featuring local bands Analog Dog, Mild Universe, Peña, For Your Pleasure, and Grooblen performing at the Golden Gate Park Bandshell. It was certainly a day to remember.
This week one of those bands, Grooblen, arrives with their second full-length album A Wormhole is a Freeway to the Stars. With a release timed right after one of planet Earth’s biggest cosmic moments—the summer solstice—the album sees bandleader Ellie S. (also the founder and creative director at Big Leap Collective) stretching out in her intergalactic brand of cabaret rock. Unlike a lot of the dude-led work in the psych world (no offense, I love a talking, drawling, vocal-stoned bro), Ellie has a voice to make heads turn. Dipping into humming lows and swelling into ecstatic highs, that voice commands the alien spaceship on this goofy ride through the cosmos. For a taste, check out epic rock and roller “Gastropod” or the slow burner “It Costs $0 to Be Kind” (Ellie’s favorite song on the album).
