by Colin Vallee (@Colinjbeard)
How do you cope with shitty winter weather? Do you wrap up and hibernate as much as you can outside of your 9-5 work life? Do you try to get out of your house for fear of slowly becoming a permanent part of your bed? Are you the kind of person who puts on a playlist of the most summer-esque songs you can find, hoping to be transported away from the icebox of the city for a little while? If the latter resonates with you then you should chuck Mary Vision's debut album Highway on that playlist for good measure.
Mary Vision make that shimmery, humid, taking-a-break-from-roofing-inside-the-barn kind of psych rock. It's slow burning and crunchy as it mixes it's blues rock tones with the drawn out proselytizing of the psych jams of yore.
A recent twitter thread by @modernistswitch offered some good tips for reviews so I'm gonna lay those out here so I can get back to waxing impressionistic poetic:
Who is the artist? Mary Vision’s current live band is a 7 piece outfit from "New York City" comprised of front man Alex Fippinger, Yukary Morishima on bass, Jack Dawson on keys, Guido Colzani on drums and Aaron Peart, Max Braun and Mark Perro on guitars. That's a lot O' Guitars.
What are they trying to do? These buckos made a psych rock record that feels equal parts Bright Black Morning Light and Ty Segall. The vocals are always a little behind in the mix, with the three guitars really putting in work to keep things sonically wacky. This record builds you a sauna and asks you to bask in its rhythms and tones for a little while. Do they achieve it? Sure do. While nothing on here is changing the genre in any major way, Highway is a solid mix of contemplation and "keep the fire smoldering" energy.
Go stand outside when it's sticky hot and you're emotionally drained from grad school, weird polycules, and your past trauma. Light up a joint, or maybe a cigarette, take a deep breath and press play on this record. Let it carry your mind away from your troubles for a little while. It's a temporary reprieve, but it's all temporary right? We're as pointless or pointful as we choose to be. This music doesn't feel pointless to me, and I sure as hell ain't pointless either.
Their first record, Highway, comes out in February 14th via Zurich’s Taxi Gauche Records. Mary Vision will be touring the West Coast in April in support of the album. The band celebrate the release on February 13th at The Sultan Room in Brooklyn.