Frankie and the Witch Fingers

Longtime RSTB faves Frankie and the Witch Fingers let loose another sonic storm into the atmosphere, offering up one of their most scathing and searing records yet. The band has been making a shift from smoke curls of psychedelia to something more tangled and turbulent over the past few years and that seems to be coming to a head on Data Doom. With a hypnotic appreciation for funk-fusionists, an appetite for German progressives, and a bracing backing of rhythm courtesy of new drummer Nick Aguilar, the record feeds off of fertile ground. While it was the last album that name-checked monsters, this time around the inhuman growl of guitars is louder and hungrier than ever, smashing though the speakers from the moment the needle hits the groove on “Empire.”

It’s not only the aural assault that’s gotten an exponential increase, the band’s lyrical bite gets sharper on the new record as well. Sizemore’s invective is focused, with snarling indictments of societal rot, gathering fascist clouds, and capitalism’s all-consuming maw. The band makes their disgust fun, though, with whiplash rhythms, horn stabs, and all the gnarled mud n’ mayhem riffs you can carry. An oil slick ripple of keys adds to the record’s heft, but as usual its Sizemore’s guitar that’s leaving the scorch marks on the speakers. The band continues to grow their status among the psych circuit these days and its great to seem them translating the live beast into a studio scorcher with an acid heart.

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