SXSW Six Pack: Mirror Travel (2016)
By Paul Stinson
Skilled wall-of-sound architects Mirror Travel are as swirling, fuzzy and hypnotic as ever, exiting their New Mexico adobe dwellings just long enough to remind Austin SXSW-goers they can swoop in and prove themselves among the nation’s best spell-casters whenever they damn well please.
More than a year removed from regular appearances on the local scene, the band that claims Taos, New Mexico and Austin as home is playing a week of shows in support of their just-released Cruise Deal EP –building off the warm dissonant hypnotics that made the band’s Mexico debut one of the best national releases of 2013.
Sound like hyperbole? It’s not.
After being wowed during a 2014 Austin Psych Fest (now called Levitation) performance, Brian Jonestown Massacre’s Anton Newcombe got in touch with the band and will put out a 10-inch version of Mexico May 27 of this year.
Do not doubt the power of the Mirror Travelers, they will send you into an alternate universe without your luggage.
Sharing Spin’s ‘7 favorite songs of the week’ honors with Rihanna, Mirror Travel’s ‘Yesca’ spins off the magic and warmth achieved in their first album, producing a whirling vortex of big drums, pulsing bass and shredded melody punctuated by vocalist Lauren Green’s incantation to lure or banish, “stay, go, stay, go, stay, go.”
The decision is easy.
The warm psychedelia and hypnotic vocals captivate throughout Cruise Deal and show a band –now with Meredith Stoner on bass joining Tiffanie Lanmon in the rhythm section– getting stronger and more confident with their big ideas.
‘Aasim’ is nothing short of a mystical tractor beam, many of the songs are. ‘I Need the Sun’ is a fuzzed-out Spacemen 3 groove that never happened, but somehow decades later magically has –brandishing a next-generation dreamweapon only otherwise seen by the likes of Austin’s mighty Holy Wave.
You want to see an amazing band among the SXSW chaos? This is what it looks like.
3.15 – 4pm @ HOTEL VEGAS
w/ THEE OH SEES, CHARLES BRADLEY, TOTAL ABUSE, SHEER MAG, NIGHT BEATS + more
3.16 – 4pm @ HOTEL VEGAS
w/ CHERRY GLAZERR, L.A. WITCH, LA LUZ, UME, BLEACHED, DANIEL FRANCIS DOYLE, TELE NOVELLA, BOYTOY + more
3.16 – 9pm @ SCRATCH HOUSE
w/ BRASS BED, JESS WILLIAMSON, HARD PROOF, PWR BTTM, ASTRONAUTS ETC, THE CROOKES + more
3.17 – 3pm @ HOTEL VEGAS
w/ SEPTEMBER GIRLS, LUST FOR YOUTH, CREEPOIDS, COSMONAUTS, SUNFLOWER BEAN + more
3.17 – 4pm @ SHADY GROVE for KLBJ
w/ PURPLE, THE HALFWAYS + FOOOOOOD + DRIIIIIIIIIINKS
More SXSW Six Pack 2016
SXSW Six Pack 2015
SXSW Six Pack 2014
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