The Relatives Want to Save Your Psychedelic Soul

Categories: Gospel Music, WFMU

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The Electric Word
A swirl of gritty, psychedelic guitars and screaming fans with their hands raised to the heavens isn't what you typically think of when you hear gospel. But Dallas-bred group the Relatives have no concern about your or anyone else's preconceived notions of the Lord's music. They weren't concerned in the early '70s either when the band crossbred the funk rhythms of the times with psychedelia and injected a heavy dose of soul --as in the biblical type, into their music.

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CMJ Day Two: Cubic Zirconia, Mux Mool, And Teen Daze Plug In At Cake Shop

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Cubic Zirconia.
CMJ Day Two: Gospel Music, Cloud Nothings, Widowspeak, Cubic Zirconia, Mux Mool, Teen Daze

Better than: Walking around in the drizzle-cum-actual rain without an umbrella.

Gospel Music had the best T-shirt of the day at Cake Shop yesterday afternoon—maybe of CMJ, period: "Fuck you, I'm from Florida." Playing third on a daylong showcase for the bicoastal publicity company Terrorbird Media, the quintet sounded far more Olympia (they're on Kill Rock Stars, which was formed in Washington's capital), which means slapdash on purpose, not to mention cute and indie and pop. But there wasn't quite enough charm to stick, not even in the boy-girl duets that didn't dominate the set but are clearly the band's draw.

I missed the beginning of Cloud Nothings' set: only one editor cared that I was covering CMJ, and work is work. So maybe they blasted off and I didn't hear it, but the first two songs I heard inspired the words "squalling rave-up" and "OK, more saddos." Then the singer dedicated a song to his nephew and things picked up considerably, tempo-wise, and by the end he was moaning less and yowling more. Widowspeak, who followed, were shoegazier: guitars pretty enough, mumbled vocals less so.

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