Friday, October 18, 2024

It Starts With a Birthstone - 200 Albums for 2024 # 68 The Mystery Lights - Purgatory

 


Hot on the heels of Black Ends wonderful debut, here are New Yorks's finest The Mystery Lights. Walking a similar walk. These guys should share a bill. The Mystery Lights are back at the Home Plate swinging freely and embarked on a gruelling European tour as we speak.

Formed in California but reared and unleashed on the unsuspecting wider world from Brooklyn in recent years. I've had something of  a history with this wonderful combo. A few years back I witnessed them in full tidal flow at The Cluny just down the road from me in Newcastle's Ouseburne Valley in support of 2019's Too Much Tension. Here's a spoiler. They were wonderful. 

That was a fasconatimg, gnarled and fiercesome record and I went down that night in excitement Ousebourne in   the Marquee Moon t shirt that coincidentally I'm wearing now as I write. Before, during and after the show I got involved in a fascinating discussion with the band's utterly charming  head honcho Mike Brandon about Television largely, still one of the most fascinating Rock & Roll outlaws ever to tread the boards.

Mystery Lights clearly haven't lost either their spark nor their wide eyed sense of wonder in the five tears since. New record Purgatory explores Televisions' Garage and Nugget roots. Punk in its Mid Sixtues incarnation.. 13th Floor Elevators, The Standells, The Electric Puines, The Sonics. Count Five. Those guys. 

Once more The Mystery Lights find themselves stalking the graveyards in their shrouds in the midnight hours. Clanking their chains and howling at the full moon with deranged abandon,. They're truly an awesome combo. Catch them if you can.In the meantime, track down their records. 

   

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