Lumerians

Last updated
Lumerians
OriginSan Francisco, California, USA
Genres
Years active2006–present
Labels
MembersTyler Green; guitar, keys, synth
Marc Melzer; bass, vocals
Jason Miller; keyboard, synth, guitar, vocals
Chris Musgrave; drums
Past membersLuis Vasquez; percussion, synth, vocals
Tony Peluso; percussion
Website knittingfactoryrecords.com/artists/lumerians

Lumerians is a San Francisco Bay Area-based quartet [1] which has a psychedelic [3] [8] "mindbender" [9] space rock [1] sound. The group is notable for performances characterized by "transcendent live video projections" and having "incredible visuals", according to one music critic. [1] One critic described the band as "Oakland's prize pony in the Bay Area gloom-folk horse race". [8] The sound has been compared to Krautrock with overtones of 1960s music. [1]

Contents

History

The band was founded by Tyler Green, Marc Melzer, Jason Miller and Chris Musgrave in 2006. [1] Multi-instrumentalist Luis Vasquez joined in 2008. [10] Early rehearsals and recordings were produced in San Francisco, but the group has since relocated to Oakland. [1] They have their own recording studio in a converted church in Oakland, California. [1] The band's sound was influenced by groups such as Sonic Youth, Krautrock groups such as Can and Neu!, and African and South American Psych music from the 1960s and 1970s. [1] In mid-2011 Vasquez left the group to focus on his project The Soft Moon [11] The Lumerians have worked with vocalist Rebecca Coseboom. [12] Coseboom and the Lumerians did the track Separate Half on the EP entitled The Answer EP by Unkle. [13] They performed in 2010 in Brooklyn with the Butthole Surfers. [14] Lumerians released their first full length LP, Transmalinnia in March 2011. In July 2012, Lumerians released their second LP, a collection of instrumental spontaneous compositions titled "Transmissions from Telos Vol. IV." "Transmissions" was released as a limited 300 edition transparent vinyl by French label Hands in the Dark in Europe and an edition of 500 (150 transparent sea blue and 350 Bone) on Permanent Records in the US. In late November and early December 2012, Lumerians completed their first European tour, ending the year with the release of the Horizon Structures EP on Knitting Factory Records. A limited 500 edition vinyl of Horizon Structures is packaged with "4D Transdimensional portal viewing glasses" for viewing the video for "The Bloom," shot in ChromaDepth.

Lumerians released LP The High Frontier in May 2013 in the UK and Europe, supported by performances in UK, France, Netherlands and Belgium. The album was released August 2013 in the US, coinciding with a series of dates supporting My Bloody Valentine on the second half of their US tour, followed by a series of UK and European dates in 2014, culminating with them closing out the Roadburn Festival's Afterburner in Tilburg, Netherlands. Lumerians ended 2014 with the release of Transmissions from Telos Vol. III, in December. In 2015, Lumerians supported Vol. III with select shows across North America, UK, and Europe, including Levitation Chicago, Levitation France and Liverpool Psych Fest.

Lumerians played few live dates in 2016 or 2017, taking time to focus on writing and recording, but closed out the last night of the 2016 Desert Daze festival in Joshua Tree, Calif.

Psychedelic performances

The band received positive critical attention not only for its "psychedelic sound" but for achieving "intense psychedelic projections" using a vast array of synchronized equipment during its public performances. [1] Marc Melzer explained:

Something that we thought about from the beginning was just making the live experience a real happening or event, and trying to, when we go into a space to play, just making that space our own and trying to create a real atmosphere there. – Marc Melzer, in San Francisco Weekly, 2011 [1]

A report in SFGate described the band as "masked and draped in monastic cassocks" with performances that were "hypnotic" using "spirarling psych drones", according to music critic Michelle Broder Van Dyke, who elaborated that their "keyboard-driven rhythms" evoked "lost relics, like the mythic underseas continent its band name references." [4] A music reporter described one performance:

The area around the stage was packed with people swaying back and forth on their feet as if hypnotized by the music. The band had a projector set up that contributed to the tripped out atmosphere by displaying floor to ceiling shots of spinning spirals and moving patterns. Their set was tantamount to listening to the soundtrack from an epic science fiction movie about a jungle on another planet. – Carla Selvin in SF Weekly, 2010 [15]

When asked in an interview how the group chose their name, Miller said:

We tattooed several Fortean concepts on individual snakes, threw them in the hollowed-out chest cavity of a bull carcass and plunged in our hands. The snake that bit us the most times chose our name. – Jason Miller, 2009 [4]

Some music critics have described the music as space rock. [16] When asked whether the group was described as a "space-rock" genre, Melzer elaborated that the group loves 1960s psych bands, revivalism music, and Krautrock but that they were not trying to be one of those types of groups; rather, the aim was to create "trancelike music or ecstatic music" that "takes the listener to another place." [1]


Knitting Factory records

In 2010, the band was approached by Knitting Factory Records after listening to their music on MySpace. [1] [2] Their debut album Transmalinnia was released in 2011 on the Knitting Factory Records label and featured nine tracks. [1] [17] According to Marc Melzer, the band took many years to record their first full-length because they wanted to have a coherent album sound. [1] The cover art of the album Transmalinnia was done by the outsider artist Eugene Von Bruenchenhein. [1] The group released the new song Atlanta Brook in 2011. [18]

Reviews

Reviews have been positive for their albums [19] and live performances. [8] [17]

Discography

Singles:

EPs:

LPs

Related Research Articles

Psychedelic folk is a loosely defined form of psychedelia that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of folk, but adds musical elements common to psychedelic music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Lovemakers (band)</span> American electropop/new wave band

The Lovemakers is an electropop/new wave band from Oakland, California. The band was formed in the spring of 2002 by Scott Blonde and Lisa Light who are the two core members. Light and Blonde met in 2002 via Blonde's manager, whom Light was dating at the time. Shortly afterward Light left her boyfriend, and she began dating Blonde and joined his band Applesaucer. They were forced out of the band, reportedly for making out during practice. Afterward they formed their own band naming themselves The Lovemakers after the Japanese sexploitation film The Weird Lovemakers. They joined with Jason Proctor on keyboards to form the initial lineup.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Phenomenauts</span> Science band from Oakland, California, US

The Phenomenauts are a musical band from Oakland, California, that combine several styles of music with a futuristic science fiction theme. Their sound uses elements from rock and roll, punk, glam, garage rock and new wave styles of music. They call their style "rocket roll".

<i>S. F. Sorrow</i> 1968 studio album by Pretty Things

S. F. Sorrow is the fourth album by the English rock band Pretty Things. Released in 1968, it is known as one of the first rock operas ever released.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Black Angels (band)</span> American psychedelic rock band

The Black Angels are an American psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas. Formed in May 2004, they took their name from the Velvet Underground's "The Black Angel's Death Song." They have released six studio albums and one compilation album.

Matthew Hollywood is an American indie rock guitarist and singer. He was a founding member and leader of the Portland-based indie rock band The Out Crowd, as well as a founding member of the psychedelic rock band The Brian Jonestown Massacre. He currently fronts the drone rock band The Rebel Drones.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knitting Factory Records</span> American record label

Knitting Factory Records is an independent American music label that is notable for promoting a variety of artists, including the music of deceased Nigerian political activist Fela Kuti. The label promotes a variety of music artists including Ages and Ages, Ash Black Bufflo, Cuong Vu, Graham Haynes, Femi Kuti, Gary Lucas, Lumerians, Thomas Chapin, Patrolled By Radar, Joe Morris, Rachid Taha, Seun Kuti, and Shilpa Ray and her Happy Hookers.

Rosin Coven is an American theatrical music ensemble, and part of the dark cabaret genre. They are based in San Francisco, California and are known for their participation in the annual Edwardian Ball dedicated to both the Edwardian time period and the illustrator Edward Gorey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LoveLikeFire</span> American indie rock band

LoveLikeFire is a San Francisco-based indie rock band. The group was formed in 2006 and whilst an unsigned artist they independently released two EPs, Bed of Gold (2006) and An Ocean in the Air (2007), as well as mounted a self-organized national tour to promote the latter release. The band then signed to Heist Or Hit Records and a full-length album was released in the UK in Autumn 2009. This album Tear Ourselves Away was released in the US in early 2010. LoveLikeFire has received significant media and critical coverage in San Francisco Bay Area publications as well as in the national and out-of-town media, and has stylistically been identified as exhibiting Britpop, dream pop, indie pop, and shoegazing influences.

Andre Lamond Adams, better known by his stage name Andre Nickatina, is an American rapper from San Francisco, California. He previously performed under the stage name Dre Dog.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sleepy Sun</span> American rock band

Sleepy Sun was an American psychedelic rock band, formed in Santa Cruz, California and now based in San Francisco. The band was composed of vocalist Bret Constantino, guitarists Matt Holliman and Evan Reiss, and drummer Brian Tice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mushroom (band)</span>

Mushroom is a musicians' collective based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The group's sound has been described as a "diverse and eclectic blend of jazz, space rock, R&B, electronic, ambient, Krautrock and folk music".

The Phantom Family Halo is an American indie rock band from Louisville in Kentucky notable for music described as having a "post-metal state of ungodly loudness" while managing to achieve a "neat creepy B-movie horror feel." The six-member band, currently based in Brooklyn, has performed with bands such as Black Angels, Black Mountain, Dead Meadow, USAisamonster, Hawkwind, Slint, Damo Suzuki, Acid Mothers Guru Guru, Stormtrippers, Russian Circles, Young Widows, Sapat, The For Carnation, and Bonnie "Prince" Billy. The band signed a recording contract with Knitting Factory Records in 2011.

Tim Cohen is a San Francisco based musician and visual artist. He has played in a variety of acts including The Fresh & Onlys, Black Fiction, 3 Leafs, Amocoma, Sonny & The Sunsets, Hattattak, The Latter, and The Forest Fires Collective. He also releases solo albums, first as Feller Quentin, then under his own name and, more recently, Magic Trick. He has been recognized as a figurehead in San Francisco's independent garage and psychedelic rock music scenes.

Wallpaper is an American hip hop and pop music project, fronted by producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Eric Frederic based in Oakland, California. Wallpaper is signed to Boardwalk Records/Epic Records and has played at SXSW. The band is known for their lyrics, which Frederic has characterized as satire of pop music and consumer culture, as well as for their early use of exaggerated auto-tune.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Fannan</span> American singer-songwriter

Rachel Fannan is an American singer, songwriter, musician and poet from Los Angeles, California. She made her musical debut in 2008, with the release of a solo album entitled Deeper Lurking, under the moniker Birds Fled from Me. She is best known as the lead vocalist of the band Only You, and formerly as co-lead vocalist of San Francisco psych-rockers Sleepy Sun, as well as for collaborations with UNKLE and progressive rock band Anywhere. She has also recorded and toured with the Canadian rock band, Black Mountain, and spent 2019 drumming for the Russian group Pussy Riot.

Robbie Kowal, also known by his professional names Motion Potion or MoPo, is an American DJ, record producer, and concert promoter. Known for blending electronic music with the genres of funk, hip hop, and psychedelic rock, he first started mixing live in 1995.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Thomas (musician)</span> American musician

Pat Thomas is a San Francisco-based musician, music journalist and compiler of music reissues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elizabeth le Fey</span> American song artist Elizabeth Gomez AKA Globelamp

Elizabeth Gomez, known as Elizabeth Le Fey also known by the stage name Globelamp is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and producer from California, United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hotel Utah (San Francisco, California)</span> Historic building in San Francisco

The Hotel Utah, is a historic mixed-use building known as a saloon bar, live music venue, and residential hotel, built in 1908 and located in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco, California. It is known for its diverse open mic nights, which have historically attracted some people who have later become famous. It is also known as TheUtah Inn, TheHotel Utah Saloon, and simply The Utah.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Ian S. Port (Apr 22, 2011). "Lumerians Talk Video Projections, Recording in a Church, and "Space-Rock"". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  2. 1 2 3 "Unpredictable Punks Bring New Songs To Slim's". KTVU.com. April 17, 2011. Archived from the original on January 27, 2013. Retrieved 2011-05-15. ... with rising local psych-drone favorites Lumerians, who recently issued their debut for Knitting Factory Records 'Transmalinnia.'
  3. 1 2 Kimberly Chun (October 8, 2009). "Frisco Freakout: Nascent psychedelic scene?". SFGate.com. Retrieved 2011-05-15. ... the show's lineup include Heavy Hills, Lumerians...
  4. 1 2 3 Michelle Broder Van Dyke (October 15, 2009). "Lumerians". SFGate.com. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  5. 1 2 3 Ian S. Port (Apr 4, 2011). "Oakland's Lumerians Give Pensive Psych-Rock a Good Name in "Atlanta Brook"". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  6. 1 2 Ian S. Port (Mar 4, 2011). "Bay Music Links: New Young L Mixtape, S.F. Garage-Rockers Invade a Cruise Ship, and More". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2011-05-15. We highly recommend Lumerians' trippy, drone-y Transmalinnia....
  7. ↑ "Lumerians – Lumerians | Allmusic". Allmusic.com.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Daniel Levin Becker (Mar 15, 2011). "New Lumerians Video Puts the Psychedelic in Psychedelic Rock". San Francisco Weekly. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  9. ↑ Ian S. Port (Oct 19, 2010). "Best Coast Announced as Surprise Headliner for Aquarius Records' 40th Birthday Party". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2011-05-15. ... electro-pscyh mindbenders Lumerians...
  10. ↑ Medina, Oscar. "Retro No Retro". East Bay Express. Retrieved 24 May 2011.
  11. ↑ Johnny Ray Huston (2011-02-15). "Noise Pop 2011 short takes – Page 2". San Francisco Bay Guardian. Archived from the original on 2012-09-10. Retrieved 2011-05-15. Luis Vasquez is a busy guy — in addition to his band the Soft Moon, he also plays with the Lumerians, who'll be putting out an album this spring.
  12. ↑ "Rebecca Coseboom, Stripmall Architecture (formerly from Halou as well)". NPR. 2011-05-15. Retrieved 2011-05-15. Rebecca will be on the new UNKLE album. She sang a track with them for the Lumerians (yet another great SF band)
  13. ↑ "The Answer EP Out Now". unkle.com. September 14, 2010. Archived from the original on July 17, 2011. Retrieved September 15, 2010.
  14. ↑ "Pop and Rock Listings for Dec. 24–30". The New York Times. December 23, 2010. Retrieved 2011-05-15. The band hasn't released an album of new material since 2001, but the songs are practically incidental to the spectacle. With Lumerians
  15. 1 2 Carla Selvin (Mar 26, 2010). "Last Night: Garotas Suecas, Greg Ashley, & Lumerians at Rickshaw Stop". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2011-05-15.
  16. ↑ Kimberly Chun (May 12, 2011). "Lots to see at First Thursday at 49 Geary, S.F." SFGate.com. Retrieved 2011-05-15. ... space jams by Oakland's Lumerians ...
  17. 1 2 SF Weekly Staff (Mar 9, 2011). "Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2011-05-15. Oakland psych-drone outfit Lumerians released new album Transmalinnia last week on Knitting Factory records. After seeing the band's eerie live show a bunch of times — and loving it — we can finally hold our own extended space-jams at home.
  18. 1 2 Ian S. Port (Jan 14, 2011). "Music Links: Lumerians' Trip, Artists to Watch, Trackademicks' Latest, and Jerry Garcia's Kitchen". SF Weekly. Retrieved 2011-05-15. Hear "Atlanta Brook," a new track from stunning Oakland psych-rockers Lumerians. [The Bay Bridged]
  19. ↑ Guardian Staff Writers (March 10, 2011). "5 Things". San Francisco Bay Guardian. Retrieved 2011-05-15. 5. ... the stellar Kosmische album by Bay Area rockers Lumerians...
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.