Dark Fog release their solid new record this Saturday

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Friday, November 23, 2012

Music Dark Fog release their solid new record this Saturday

Posted By Luca Cimarusti on 11.23.12 at 06:45 AM

Oh look, a psych band!

"Oh great!" I thought to myself as my editor handed me an advance CD-R of the new Dark Fog release the other day, "Another Chicago psych record. This is going to suck!" Over the past few years, this town's music scene has been hit with an overwhelming number of psychedelic acts. If you're going out to a rock show these days, there's a good chance that you're going to see at least one of them. There is a wide array of quality in these bands, from the unfuckwithable classics (like Plastic Crimewave Sound) to the rock-solid new kids (Verma, for example) all the way down to the utter crap (ahem, Great Society Mind Destroyers). To be honest, most bands like this seem to settle into the latter end of the psychedelic spectrum. I was completely expecting this Dark Fog CD, which is getting the self-released treatment this weekend, to fall into the faceless void of its peers, something that tends to happen to bands who wave the psych flag as adamantly as these guys do. I gave the Dark Fog CD a spin, though, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't totally horrible. Hell, it's pretty good.

Dark Fog seem to lean more toward Sabbath than Hawkwind on this record, employing meaty riffs and thick tones to create hard-hitting tracks rather than sprawling jams. Some of the songs, most notably "We Should the Future," are poppy as hell, complete with huge, catchy hooks. The drumming is snappy and tight, the guitarist can shred through all kinds of moods and feelings, and the vocals—although often reverbed-out beyond recognition—carry great melodies. The whole thing is very pleasant, never too dark or brooding or dramatic.

This record is by no means flawless; it's got a lot of pointless noodling and meandering in between the songs, not to mention the printout that came in the jewel case telling some silly account of how the record got its equally silly title (The Seaside Sounds of Dark Fog at Doctor Officer Quimby's House), which honestly elicited more than one eye roll from me. But even I'll admit that these are some pretty trite complaints, and they don't really take too much away from an otherwise solid album.

As seen in this week's Gossip Wolf, the release show for Doctor Officer Quimby's House is on Fri 11/23 at the Burlington with Rabble Rabble and Killer Moon.

Tags: Dark Fog, The Seaside Sounds of Dark Fog at Doctor Officer Quimby's House, psych, psychedelic rock, release show, Burlington, Image