Ripping Up Old Things and Putting Them Back Together Again

One local band that is dancing in my spotlight right now is Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound. Picture this: a stoned quartet jamming on day dreams and sound waves both shadowy and sun-bleached that twist, bend and sometimes turn themselves inside-out. I have this vision of Assemble Head driving a rocket-fueled pick-up truck down some interstellar highway riddled with space dust, with Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Jefferson Airplane and Pink Floyd all riding in the back, blasting The Notorious Byrd Brothers and smoking weed. It's just too perfect.


(i guffawed when i saw how regular they look too!)

I have undoubtedly contributed about a hundred to the thousands of Myspace plays they've clocked in on their best tune "Two Birds" from their third disc When Sweet Sleep Returns (Tee Pee), which they recorded with fellow SF neo-freaks Sleepy Sun. The song couldn't groove harder: after the seamless, chemistry-laden boy-girl croons of Brett Constantino and Evan Reiss of SS get strung into a dreamy melody, the real fun begins four minutes in. AHISS sinks its claws deep into a skyward groove, turning up the solid bassline, keyboards and sound effects while guitarist Jefferson Marshall lays down a completely head-swirling solo that beats its wings until the song's final seconds.

After catching them live at Hemlock Tavern last night (it was a great show, but a verbatim performance of their recorded material--they probably could have gone on some truly wild jams, but I guess they didn't feel like it), I grabbed the album on vinyl and quickly went home to unwrap it. The disc is a sea-green, marbled thing and, needless to say, it sounds even more exquisite coming out of my pair of 1970s Harman Kardon speakers.