PRESS

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ROCK STATION OVER

Après un ep éponyme plutôt prometteur, voici donc le premier album officiel des Américains originaires d'Austin. A l'écoute du disque, on se rend compte que le Grateful Dead, Black Mountain, les Stone Roses et les Doors ont fortement influencés...

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DISTORSIONI.NET

Ascoltando “Bab(a/y)lon rising”, siamo al nostro personale limite del sentirci metal-psichedelici. Ovvero dark-wave, con propensione a rendere smunti per espansione corporea plastici tatuaggi che effigiano i deltoidi

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SebHache : «Un an après leur fantastique premier ep, les texans nous  reviennent avec un premier album. Toujours sur Tee Pee, toujours ce mélange de Psyche/neo psychedelia et de Post Punk avec en plus, cette fois ci, une chanteuse qui rappelle fortement Hope Sandoval, non pas par le physique mais par la voix plutôt. Enfin bref un morceau qui n’est pas très représentatif de l’album, psyché à fond, répétitif comme il se doit, un bon outsider comme on l’attend pas dans les jeux de course de notre ami Perte et Fracas.

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Forget Francis; Saint James Is In the House

The common thread across most psychedelic metal bands is the presence of long, droning, self-indulgent songs that are best enjoyed live and under the influence. Rarely does a band make an album of short, well-crafted, yet still stoner-friendly tunes, but that’s just what the Austin, Texas five-piece, The Saint James Society, has done on its debut LP, Bab(a/y)lon Rising. Infusing a healthy dose of garage-rock fuzz, this is an album that has the power to introduce newcomers to a muddied and under-appreciated sub-genre of hard rock.

The first song on Rising, “Refractions,” begins with promising feedback, giving way to a steady beat and a supportive sustained guitar riff before bassist/vocalist Brandon Burkart’s smooth and authoritative vocals come in. The percussion is handled by the “the Saint James Rebel Queen Alliance” of Elza Berkart and Candice Bertalan, and sounds just a hair out of sync, but deliberately so, as does their twin-backing vocals, as heard on the title track and “Blood & Sand.” Brandon’s voice has a touch of ’80s hair metal, and the band describes their sound as “Pentecostal desert glam.” That description is a bit of a disservice: the sound is way dirtier than anything that could be mistaken for glam. There are elements of Mudhoney, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Souxsie and the Banshees in The Saint James Society, and it all fits together nicely.

Not every song is a masterpiece. Some of the songs start off on a mid-level dynamic and don’t go up or down in any noticeable way. “The Book of the Jaguar Priest” is one such number, but it ends before it’s too bothersome. And if you needsome pointless psychedelic droning, you will find it in “Celestial Symbols Interpreted.” The last song, “House of Snakes,” features Elza Berkart on lead vocals, orating in her native French above the trippiest music on Rising. Her voice is reminiscent of Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, and as strong as Brandon’s voice is, the album could have benefited from more of Elza.Rising is a step forward from their 2012 EP, Pray for Us, which was enough to garner buzz at last year’s SXSW. Expect to hear more about The Saint James Society as reviewers list their favorites from this year’s festival; this band is one to watch.

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The Saint James Society

Bab(a/y)lon Rising (Tee Pee)

Standing tall in glitter-painted cowboy boots, one hand spinning a Fuzztones LP and the other clutching the Necronomicon, the Saint James Society storms the church of Lone Star psych. Bab(a/y)lon Rising, full-length follow-up to last year's defiantly odd eponymous EP, ebbs and flows like the ocean at night, the moonlight undulating waves of pollen-fried garage rock ("Get Cold"), colored-smoke balladry ("Letters Signed in White," "Ode to the Turquoise Ox"), bonfire epics ("House of Snakes," "Blood & Sand"), bad-dream ambience ("Celestial Symbols Interpreted"), and even classical piano ("Post Tenebras Lux"). The Society succeeds at painting with whatever colors adorn its brushes, but the album takes shape when leader Brandon Burkart spreads his legs, blinks his eyelined peepers, and struts through the black-hearted, swivel-hipped tab & roll of "The Serpentine Highway," "Refractions," and the title ode. It's like Aleister Crowley crashing the acid party with silver stars painted on his cheeks. The locals' organic blend of brown acid and leather 'n' makeup swagger puts a new spin on the Roky Erickson tradition of bad-vibes psychedelia, where angels and devils copulate loudly in the poppy fields of the soul.

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The murky vintage sounds of The Saint James Society will grab the ears of stoner doom fans, but the rest of ours will love that the “Pentecostal Desert Glam” unit is more interesting than their generic genre mates. Vocalist/bassist Brandon Burkart’s detached Josh Homme croon plays nicely off the whispy, no-fux-given backing vokillz of the group’s two absolutely essential “percussion” ladies, Candice Bertalen and Elza Burkart. The darker alternative feel of many of the songs on Bab(a/y)lon Rising also makes the SJS feel a little more relevant that average fuzz abusers.

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Brace yourself, folks: psychedelic Texan rockers known as The Saint James Society are coming again into the music world with their first full length album, Bab(a/y)lon Rising set to drop on March 12. Read on for more details.The band is composed of bassist and vocalist Brandon Burkart, guitar player David DuBois, Elza Burkart and Candice Bertalan both on vocals and percussion, and drummer Jeremy Hayes. Together they produce what can be described as a brilliant connection of the “dark ’60s blues-based garage rock and early ’80s post punk” and have put forth eleven incredible tracks serving as a followup to their self-titled EP released last year.

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ustin, TX psychedelic rock gang THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY will release its full length debut Bab(a/y)lon Rising on March 12 via Tee Pee Records. Put to tape at East Austin’s Cacophony Recorders with award winning producer Erik Wofford (The Black Angels, Roky Erickson, White Denim), the LP showcases eleven tracks of the band’s unique “desert glam” and is the full length follow up to the group’s self-titled EP which landed at the #1 position in the Austin Chronicle‘s year-end critic’s poll and was called “A black-lit amalgam of glam swagger, leather-jacketed hard rock, and occult psychedelia” by the award winning paper.

THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY plays electrifying rock music that brilliantly connects the dots between dark 60′s blues-based garage rock and early ’80s post punk resulting in a hypnotically powerful sound the fabulous four-piece calls “Pentecostal Desert Glam“. TSJS‘s full length debut — the mystically-titled Bab(a/y)lon Rising — pulses through the speakers like punk rock gypsies on a rampage, perfectly capturing the band’s apocalyptic nomad-rock as it drips with dark fuzz and acid drone that will surely find favor with restless sinners everywhere.

“Whereas our EP defined what we like to call ‘Desert Glam’, ‘Bab(a/y)lon Rising’ has refined that sound,” says TSJS frontman Brandon Burkart. “This record is filled with songs of sex and death, of sleepless nights, serpentine highways and mystic road chants for the eternal wanderer.”

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Eight Austin EPs

1) The Saint James Society (Tee Pee)

2) The League of Extraordinary G'z, The Plug

3) Gary Clark Jr., HWUL Raw Cuts Vol. 1 (Warner Bros.)

4) East Cameron Folkcore, The Sun Also Rises

5) Burgess Meredith, Banana Moon

6) Grace London, Rocketship Girl

7) Junior Brown, Volume 10

8) Prey for Sleep

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Austin, TX psychedelic garage rockers The Saint James Society have signed with NYC’s Tee Pee Records and will release their self-titled debut The Saint James Society on February 7, 2012.

watch their video here!

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Spinning on Harris Radio: The Saint James Society

The Ballad of The White Horse, from Austin's The Saint James Society, taken from their self-title EP.  It's on Harris Radio'spodcast #22.

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"Like a switchblade hypnotist with an Edgar Allen Poe mind, The Saint James Society taunt you with their beat. A tell-tale rhythm that drives the entire EP so that the acid drone and dark fuzz of its pulsing quartet trip, equal parts style and sound will surely find favour with fans of Black Mountain, Quest for Fire, The Black Angels, and The Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, as well as restless sinners and the terminally cool."

Broken Beard

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Pentecostal Desert Glam is a genre I don’t recall having come across, but then nowadays many band invent new labels to make themselves seem interesting. A fact is that The Saint James Society from Austin, Texas is a mightily rocking retro band, although fortunately are not one of those countless clones of Airbourne, The Darkness or Kings Of Leon. The Seventies must have come and gone unnoticed for this quintet which is rooted in the deepest garages of the late Sixties. Consisting of a bassist/vocalist, a guitarist, a drummer and a twin vocal tandem of rebel queens (don’t shoot the messenger, I am only quoting!), the latter of which doesn’t leave much an impact on record though, apart from some backing vocals, and I surmise that they are probably shining live on stage as gorgeous eye candy, as the promo photos let me suggest.

It’s a bit of a shame that this self-titled debut EP contains only four tracks and is already over so soon, as The Saint James Society are doing something quite refreshing to the retro genre. Instead of riff-heavy hard rock, we get a hypnotically pumping bass line, a freewheeling guitar, pounding drums and vocals full of the powers of incantation. This band must surely have come across The Cramps, Velvet Underground and The Doors, but they are more than just a plain old boring copy. There is a highly pleasant psychedelic component to their music, adding some mystery to the sexy groove of their garage sound. The songs, although actually never longer than five minutes, always take their time to build up momentum and suspense. This could have sounded boring with any other band, but the Texans are smart enough to make it work, leaving you after short seventeen minutes only wanting for more. If their hopefully soon upcoming longplayer continues in that high quality vein, I am certainly awarding them an even higher grade.

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Q1: Hey TSJS, introduce yourselves and state your psychedelic aural mission to these unworthy scallywags …

BB: The band is Dahveed Dubois, CandiceBertalan, Elza Burkart, Jeremy Hayes, & Brandon Burkart. We’re all travelers. From NY, CA, Louisiana, & France, we all came together in Austin, TX, started hanging out, and playing acoustic in our living rooms. We decided plug in, book a few shows, record an EP, and keep going. If there’s a mission to be found in there, I’d say the common one is To Use Our Creativity To Create Value. And be compensated accordingly… We want to get gone & stay gone. Road road road. Otherwise, what’s the use of all this leather?

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PHOTO: THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY/Facebook

THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY is a psychedelic garage rock band based in Austin, TX. And they’ve just released a new video for “Ballad Of the White Horse” directed by Katelin Arizmendi. It’s badder than badass. Highly recommend checking out these folks. If you dig dark 60′s British blues-based garage rock mixed with an 80′s post-punk vibe, you’ll love it. The band calls it “Pentecostal Desert Glam.” Their debut self-titled 4-song EP is out now. Reminds me a wee of BLACK REBEL MOTORCYCLE CLUB’s earlier stuff, only a bit more dark and gritty fuzzy vintage. Haven’t heard all of the EP, yet. So we won’t go too far in drawing too many kindred comparisons. But if you dig the trippy, psych-y stuff, you’re likely gonna love THE SAINT JAMES SOCIETY. Check ‘em out.

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Austin's epic psych rockers The Saint James Society just released this outstanding video of their single "Ballad of the White Horse," from their February self-titled release. This majestic, sexy, powerfully evocative song suddenly makes the idea of getting lost in the desert - with guns - more appealing than it's ever been (as long as gorgeous members of the opposite sex will join the party). Kudos to Katelin Arizmendi, who directed the video

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Il est parfois difficile de s'y retrouver parmi les innombrables groupes psyché venus d'Outre-Atlantique ces dernières années, d'autant qu'il y a les franchement garage, les un peu shoegaze, les carrément stoner... Après ce premier EP, The Saint James Society pourrait bien mettre tout le monde d'accord...

Des guitares ultra-lourdes, un chanteur à la voix sombre et puissante, par moment épicée par un choeur féminin,  une rythmique poisseuse... tous les ingrédients sont là pour fait un bon petit disque du genre. Mais le petit truc en plus qui relève la sauce et rend le met particulièrement savoureux, c'est le petit côté post-punk sous stéroïdes. Difficile par exemple de ne pas penser au Cure de 'End' en écoutant 'The Devil, an Angel, and a Broken Window'...

De l'irrésistiblement mélodique 'The Ballad of the White Horse' à l'ultra-planant 'Of Silver & Gold' (qui finit un peu en James Bond halluciné) en passant par le très tribal 'Reflections' d'ouverture, il y en a pour tous les goûts et on attend maintenant le premier long du groupe avec une grande impatience.