When Headdress first wandered into Austin two years ago, they appeared on the scene like a dusty desert mirage, a pair of nomadic shamans droning delicate and mesmerizing tones. With a guitar and organ combo, Caleb Coy and Ethan Cook delivered shimmering psych-folk pulsing in waves of reverb upon a hypnotically contorted bed of blues. 2007’s impressive sophomore disk, Turquoise, and Headdress’ recently released Lunes on No Quarter, captured the duo’s tuned-in and dropped-out interplay, but Coy has since opened the group to take on various players during the live shows, expanding the band’s sound while making the intricate psychedelic improvisation all the more intriguing. Catch Coy and company live this Friday, August 21, as Headdress opens for Woods and Sweden’s Dungen at the Mohawk.
Profile: Headdress
Year Formed:
2006ish
Members/Instruments played:
that’s a loaded question
Former Bands/Side Projects:
worship & hymns of bedlam aka caleb coy
Albums:
silence is the golden mountain ep 2006 (totem songs),
turquoise 2007 (totem songs/mexican summer),
lunes 2009 (no quarter)
Influences:
the desert, minimalism and the blues
Strangest comment or comparison ever made about your music:
n/a
Favorite local bands:
silver pines
Favorite local venue:
mohawk
Upcoming shows scheduled:
aug. 21st @ mohawk w/ dungen,
sept. 1st @ mohawk w/ sleepy sun
sept. 15th @ 1808 w/ silver pines, lord jeff and prince rama of ayodhya
Shows over the next month that you’re excited to see:
i don’t get out much
Some of your favorite albums from the past year:
i don’t listen to much new shit, but the last wooden shjips and blues control records were pretty jam. psychic ills, magic lantern and barn owl always bring it.
Ideal band (past or present) to open for on a national tour:
german oak
Austin Sound questions:
Given your name, we wondered which Native American tribe y’all would most associate yourselves with, and why?
i am cherokee
Y’all have pretty much explored the full geography of psychedelia across the country, so how does place affect your songwriting?
it’s the backdrop man. i mean the blues is in my blood. i grew up with it. my dad played the blues my whole life. so it’s engrained in my physical makeup. but the desert is another kind of blues. it’s free and wild. brooklyn was cold and harsh. a very dark part of my life and lunes reflects that. your environment can play a very vital role in your art, but you can never shake your roots. the blues is my roots.
Song Introduction:
the lost white brother is a desert ballad. in hopi mythology, the elders believe that the pahana or lost white brother will return one day and his arrival will see the wicked destroyed and a new age of peace will be ushered into the world. it’s a song about hope.
Sound Off:
i think julian cope said it best, “headdress play blues the way a collared dove sings blues, i.e.:
it’s in their breathing patterns, as innate as living itself.” i’m not trying to reheat anything in the microwave or do anything that hasn’t been done already. i’m simply just trying to make music from the soul. if you dig it, you dig it. if you don’t, you don’t. that’s out of my hands.
Mp3 from Lunes:
The Lost White Brother
Websites:
Myspace
