Since the 60s, psychedelic music has opposed pop’s succinct conventionality, trading purpose for vibe. In Daniken’s case, the atmosphere is deep and spooky, burrowing through smoldering drone and rising spires of serrated guitar echoing across a mineshaft of exposed rock. The instrumental sextet culminates eighteen months of feverish activity with a night of psych entitled Psychedelicide.
Psychedelic origins
High school chums, guitarist Pat Peltier and bassist Eric Nedrow, formed Daniken with drummer Sam Noldar in 2008. They cut their teeth at Mickey Finn’s (a popular since-closed Irish pub/music venue on Lagrange) but went on hiatus when Nedrow moved away. They reunited early last year upon his return and doubled in size to accommodate a keyboardist, a second guitarist and an additional drummer.
“We played at Frankie’s a couple weeks ago and the sound guy’s face, when we told him we had two drummers, was priceless,” Peltier reports. “When it meshes, it’s cool. It’s a different sound and an interesting setup.”
All about payback
Peltier thought that having a festival would be a great way to bring everyone together for a night of music. “I wanted an opportunity to trade shows with a few out-of-town bands that have helped us out,” he says.
Peltier approached the owner of the FARM before a gig and found him very receptive.
“I said, ‘We’re going to have 13 bands…’, and he replied, ‘That sounds great, we’ll totally do it,’” said Peltier. “It just kind of rolled together from there.”
For Psychedelicide, bands are coming from Rhode Island (XTUA), Cincinnati (stoner-rockers Go Go Buffalo) and Detroit (Ozone Park and Jura). The rest of the bill’s lined with local sonic adventurers. These range from contraption-driven, experimental noise enthusiast, Dr. Rhomboid Goatcabin, to garage-psych thunderclap Army of Infants and PBR-soaked fuzz-merchants Awesome Job.
Weird, wild and woolly
Daniken takes their name from Swiss author Erich Anton Paul von Däniken, who posited the theory that aliens influenced early human civilization, emblematic of Peltier’s counter-culture curiosity.
“I’ve always kind of enjoyed the weirder side of music,” he says. “Early on I was into a lot of noise stuff. Wolf Eyes was a big influence… My friends and I would go to Detroit to see them and they’d bring up [legendary Lexington, KY noise-rockers] Hair Police.”
Daniken has released more than 18 pieces since last summer and improv new material in their practice space which doubles as a recording studio, accounting for the near monthly releases.
“We’ll end up with [about] an hour-long chunk and I’ll try to pull out 15 minutes of the most concise stuff where we’re not just jamming out,” he says.
Vinyl is dead: Long live the cassette
Daniken releases their music on cassette tapes. Vinyl’s sudden popularity offers a new threat of obsolescence: There’s not enough pressing plants for timely releases.
“The turnaround time is months on [7” singles] now because of the way factories are backed up,” he says. “A few years ago, at every garage sale, I started buying every [cassette duplication machine] I could find. So, I got a stack of tape dupers— doing 50 editions takes me an afternoon.”
Daniken is working on a new cassette and plans a split 7” (vinyl) with another band before the year’s out. Meanwhile, psych rock’s tight-knit cultdom grows. “It has a good following now,” Peltier says.
Psychedelicide featuring Army of Infants, Daniken, XTUA, Jura, KBD(uo), Go Go Buffalo, Dr. Rhomboid Goatcabin, Awesome Job, Ozone Park, Rosebud, Transparency and more.
5pm/doors. $7. Friday, September 25
The FARM (“Fine Art, Recreation and Music,” the continued legacy of Bozarts), 151 S. St. Clair