Sunburned Hand of the Man – Headdress

If Sunburned Hand of the Man are known for anything, its unpredictability. Sunburned shows are seance, ritual, divination, call it what you will. They will into existence a set that will never be seen again and can only be heard if the tapers in attendance are tuned to the cloud of chaos hanging in the air. Records often follow suit, more often than not culled from the live lightning, but some are more restrained than others. This is not one of those records. As the band would progress, the albums would scrape sense, wrangle rhythm, and sometimes touch moments of song forms that were less amorphous, but here, in 2002, the band launched out of the CD-r cycle to land on LP for the first time. They were fully enmeshed in their free-psych trance, recorded over three dates in late 2001.

For many, this was the first official introduction to the band, a psych-slotted journey that came on like Träd, Gräs och Beefheart. Like all Sunburned releases, the record is a bas relief rub of a time long since passed and never to return. The record captures the tenure of Marc Orleans, whose guitar snakes through the ether and out of the speakers in neon streaks. Moloney anchors the storm as he always has and the band is ballooned by a rogues gallery of Mass shakers and assorted heads all drawn into the oracle and burned by the sun. The band has amassed more releases than any good-natured listener can grub up these days but thanks to Three Lobed, this essential piece of the creosote puzzle has now been restored to the turntable. This record is a spark in the psychedelic renewal of the early aughts, and its vital that this is back in print. Now, do Jaybird!

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