BEST NEW MUSIC: THE ESSEX GREEN - DON'T LEAVE IT IN OUR HANDS

Essex Green are freak folk power pop at its finest.

Oh boy are we lucky to get some new music from the Brooklyn based masterminds who've been hammering this sound down since 1996. That’s like 37 years!

Of course the trio, like their Elephant 6 mates Neutral Milk Hotel and The Minders, took ten years off in the middle for some rest, relaxation and early retirement. But now they’ve returned to us only to find a reinvigorated sense of glory. I’ll say it for everybody: we need this friendly, familiar sound more than ever, so now that they’re back please please give this band some goddamn love so they don’t disappear for another decade.

THE ESSEX GREEN - DON'T LEAVE IT IN OUR HANDS

Essex Green are back, baby, with their first full release since 2006 and I think that's something to be really, super-duper, ecstatically happy about. If this unique brand of indie-pop neo-psychedelia is on the rise once again then I predict a fundamental uptick in universal happiness. Feeling down? Listen to the Essex Green. It’s just what the doctor ordered. If your doctor is a weird dude and hipper than you. But if that’s the case, may I suggest a new doctor who focuses on fixing people instead of fresh tunes.

If this sound speaks directly to your soul may I suggest you check out Olivia Tremor Control, The Sunshine Fix, The Apples in Stereo or maybe just the homies who pushed themselves into mainstream subconscious-- of Montreal. ELEPHANT SIX IS ONE OF MUSIC’S GREAT COLLECTIVES AND TO BE ABLE TO WRITE THEM IS A JOY UNPARALLELED IN 2018, A TIME OF OTHERWISE PURE TERROR AND PAIN. Go on a deep dive and maybe you’ll fall in love with the label-collective-sound like I did between the years of 2000 and 2007. Maybe you’ll even get their logo tattooed like I almost did myself. But at the very least you'll be able to share a head nod with dudes in beards in the Elephant 6 t-shirt. It’s a cool club, promise you that.

“Don’t Leave it In Our Hands” is an insta-jam, catchy and weird and kitschy, instantly ingrained in your brain with the alternating off vocals of Jeff Baron and Sasha Bell. This is not only a throwback to the nineties, but also the sixties-- two of the best times for our nation. Maybe this music now means the end of the teens or the twenties are a new come up. That we’re going to love each other once again and respect our own happiness. One can only hope.

Hardly Electronic is out now on Merge Records, possibly the last bastion of Indie Rock. I mean, other than We Are: The Guard. Obviously.

From deep within the murky depths of the Los Angeles River emerged a creature: 50% raver, 50% comedian, 10% Robotcop. Kurt Kroeber doesn’t own a dog, operates Soundbleed (the world’s only dance party comedy talk show rave), and is down to party with you. Come up some time and say “Hey dude!” But definitely make sure to casually drop the secret Illuminati password.