A laser cutting through the fog and fuzz.

Groovy.

Dead Feathers is one of those bands whose names have floated around the Chicago scene for quite a while. I had an idea of what their music sounded like—their logo, album art, and promo shots scream ‘70s loud guitars with a hint of mysticism—but I hadn’t really listened intently to anything from the group until this year’s All Is Lost. They’re not new to the scene, but they are one of those bands that seems to care very little about promoting themselves and getting their music out there. The link to their Facebook page via their Bandcamp profile is broken, their website address just loops back to that Bandcamp profile, and you can’t even find All Is Lost without a decent search through various links, finally ending up on their label’s website and Bandcamp page. Or at least I assume it’s their label.

So it wasn’t initally easy for me to track All Is Lost down and listen to it. In fact, I can’t even remember why I tracked this down, since a dig through my email shows the band has never sent me anything to promote their music or live appearances. All I can figure at this point is that someone recommended them to me this year and I finally decided to give their music a listen. The power of word-of-mouth!

The fact the band seems largely uninterested in self-promotion parallels their lackadaisical psych-stoner rock sound pretty perfectly. Dead Feathers is a band who likes what they likes, and don’t care if you like it to. I’m a sucker for heavy psych stuff though, and while Dead Feathers’ musical bed is a solid quilt of the scene’s sound, and it’s executed with great confidence, this whole genre admittedly sticks pretty close to a single formula—heavy HEAVY riffs BABY.

But Dead Feathers has a secret weapon.

Vocalist Marissa Allen is a powerhouse. She’s got a circa ’69 Grace Slick delivery, with volume that cuts through the walls of guitar and act as an incantatory element that brings you under a powerful spell. The lyrics don’t matter to me; it’s all in the delivery. And Allen’s voice is a force that helps raise the band to a different level. And that's why you should give this album a spin, even if psych-stoner-metal (though this isn't really metal at all) stuff is not usually your bag.



I’d let you know when the band is playing next—I know I’m curious to know if the powerful effects of the band on record manage to get even better in a live setting—but their Facebook page (the one that works!) has no info in that arena.