Though psych quartet the GRIS GRIS are from the Bay Area, a region known for producing bands with hypnotizing licks and epic space jams, their sound is rooted elsewhere. Their second long player, For the Season (Birdman), tokes heavily upon the sounds of the late-60s south, especially the 13th Floor Elevators and the gurgling swamp haze of early Dr. John (from whose classic 1968 album the group takes its name). The album was written and recorded over three months in a cabin on some wooded acreage in Kosse, Texas, about 45 miles southeast of Waco. Side one is a song suite, a gloriously damaged collage of jammy jangle held together with megadoses of tremolo. Throbbing B3 organ drones and slow midnight boogie ramble together in weird ditties about doin’ it, contentious relationships with “the pigs,” and end-time blooze. Singer and songwriter Greg Ashley seems preoccupied with apocalyptic visions, judging from the biblical prophecy of “Down With Jesus” and the dark chorale of “Big Engine Nazi Kid Daydream,” which contains one of the weirdest analogies put to tape in some time: “Lead the pilgrim to the slaughter / Like a circumcision doctor.” Ewww. –Jessica Hopper
