Electric Citizen - Electric Citizen (2013)

It was back in August on a Friday evening. I could have just stayed in that night, but I wanted to try something different. And so I did. Stepping out of my usual heavy metal gig grounds, I intended the Sunny Daze Musik Mass pre-fest and caught a few interesting psychedelic-ish bands, such as, Energy Gown, Haunted Leather and Electric Citizen.

Now, let me tell you something. It doesn't happen very often, but once in a great while you'll see a band live and just be completely floored by their performance. I mean, thrilled, man, I was completely stoked after shooting some photos and rocking out to their performance, and I'd just heard them for the very first time on this evening. Immediately, I had to ask about releases, but found out that the band had absolutely nothing out yet. Sure, that button they gave me was cool, but I wanted a release! So, a few months down the road and their first EP, this double 7" incher was in my hands, but more importantly spinning on my turntable.

Although baring a very simple cover, that's just a silver foil stamped logo on black, these two 7" records come housed in a cozy sleeve for safe keeping, but the real treasure is their music.

Electric Citizen comes from Cincinnati, Ohio, and play a sort of vintage psychedelic heavy rock, that recalls the classic vibes from Black Sabbath, Pentagram, The Doors, Coven, Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin (et cetera, et cetera) and could certainly be placed within the occult rock or 60's/70's revival scene that has been going on and gaining clout the past few years.

Thundering bass and heavy guitar riffage greet me soon as Shallow Water begins spinning on my turntable, shortly followed by the stunning, yet delicate and powerful lead vocals of Laura Dolan, and within seconds I'm brought back to that trippy evening at Frank's Power Plant back in August. More importantly, Electric Citizen manages to bring the listeners ears (and minds) back to that vintage psychedelic era with what seems like ease, with an overflowing amount of catchiness, groove, godly guitar work, sparse backing keyboards and the already mentioned vocals. Hawk Nightingale is considerable calmer in its delivery, almost dark in a way, yet spacy and mesmerizing with the further synth input it could be compared to Hawkwind.

Magnetic Man brings back the heavy rockin' grooves of the first song with, at least for me, and overwhelming amount of memorability within the chorus, and the leads and solo in this jam are just jaw dropping, while the final song, Beggar's Need, is probably the fastest among these four and again just completely hits the mark of awesomeness.

After spinning these 7" inches a few times, the only troubling thought is just how great these songs are, and how I long to hear more from them real soon, which I can only hope a full-length is on the rise.

Following that faithful evening back in August, I saw the band perform the following afternoon at the Sunny Daze Musik Mass, and although I drank and absurd amount and may have abused some other substance, I still remember being just as blown away once again. Up in smoke. Man.