Sunburned Hand of the Man – “The Illness”

Like many, I’ve been revisiting the golden era of psychedelic scorch that’s come out of the early aughts over the past few years. Something in the air seems ripe for a revival of the kind of psych-folk free-linked collective period of that strange heyday between the turnover of the millennium and 2006 or ’07 when the collective consciousness turned towards garage and other grit rather than the free rock ripple that had been so prevalent just a few years earlier. This year Three Lobed is giving a proper reissue to one such gem, the first real crack into the collective consciousness for Sunburned Hand of the Man. Just the mention of the name is synonymous with Northeastern autumns and strange Eastern summers, and for many Headdress was the first peek into an underground ripple that would spread up to through the country — capturing Tower Recordings, stretching north to net MV & EE, scooping up The Vanishing Voice and then slithering out West to grab Jewelled Antler vibes. “The Illness” captures the free spirit of the album’s core, a rhythm-stung rumble that’s lost in a haze of guitar swirl. The band would only continue to amass a reputation and impressively dense catalog, but this is one of the key inroads into the American underground and beyond and the group’s first proper vinyl release. The new edition is out October 14th from Three Lobed.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.