Seattle-based outfit, Night Beats, will kick of the last leg of a North American tour – bookended by appearances in Austin – on March 14. The band’s first performance at this year’s SXSW will be a homecoming of sorts. Its two founding members, lead singer Danny Lee Blackwell and drummer James Traeger (from Dallas and Austin, respectively) will be returning to their home state for the event. The progressive R&B act, a trio since the addition of bassist Tarek Wegner, have been furnishing the Seattle scene with their perplexing brand of garage-soul since 2009. Their self-titled, full-length debut is characterized by undulating bass lines, underscored by scratching, squealing guitar and alternately trembling and deafening vocals. Released last June, the album features textured and psychedelically informed instrumentation, interspersed by Blackwell’s yelps and howls, and his single, twangy guitar is reminiscent of Trouble in Mind label-mate Ty Segall’s lo-fi surf rock. The result is a resurrection of the ghosts of psyche bands past that transcends the decades since the ‘60s as effectively as any other contemporary revivalists. Night Beats will wrap up a 40-date stretch at the Austin Psych Festival on April 27.
– Kate Shepherd