The Black

David Longoria, Matt Simon and Jason Chronis could have rested on their laurels as former members of ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Voxtrot, respectively, and waxed into the familiar. Instead, the trio teamed up with Alan Schaefer, son of famous Austin guitar maker Ed...

By Tom Murphy

August 26, 2010

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David Longoria, Matt Simon and Jason Chronis could have rested on their laurels as former members of ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Voxtrot, respectively, and waxed into the familiar. Instead, the trio teamed up with Alan Schaefer, son of famous Austin guitar maker Ed Schaefer, and dove further back into retro territory than most of the current crop of '60s psychedelia-harvesters. Sounding something like the Velvet Underground shedding the avant-garde in favor of Elvis and the Delta blues, the Black's songs are raw and steeped in countrified psych garage, with no pretentious affectations. Imagine the unvarnished charm of folk innovator Michael Hurley if he had gone the route of Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival in 1965 and then hung out at the Factory for the rest of the decade, and you'll come pretty close.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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