Hail to the Kings

DemocratAndChronicle.com
Jeff Spevak
Staff music critic

(September 19, 2007) — Stoned again? On their terrific new album, Psychedelic Sunrise, Rochester's Chesterfield Kings reclaim old turf as though it was theirs all the time.

The Kings' debt to the early Rolling Stones, and their association with Little Steven Van Zandt is paying off. Wicked Cool Records, the garage-rock label run by Tony Soprano's right-hand man, released the band's ninth record on Tuesday. This comes after last week's appearance by the Kings on Late Night With Conan O'Brien, whose house band is led by Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg. One of Van Zandt's other night jobs, of course, is playing guitar with The Boss.

Networking or not, Psychedelic Sunrise is the record the Kings have always had in them, but were unable to pull off until now. It's happened thanks to the superb songwriting of Greg Prevost and Andy Babiuk, inspired playing by the band and some amazing studio work by producer Ed Stasium.

As slick as 2003's The Mindbending Sounds of the Chesterfield Kings was, that album was like a master's degree thesis in psychedelic rock. Rock academics that they are, you could almost feel Prevost and Babiuk sitting in their studio, inserting obscure '60s-rock references into each song as though they were inside jokes. Perhaps the deluxe re-release of Mindbending Sounds will include footnotes.

With Psychedelic Sunrise, the influences are still there, but it's the songs that lead the band to them. The album opens dramatically with a nasty snap of castanets and "Sunrise (Turn On)." Prevost's vocals seem removed and threatening on "Rise and Fall." "Elevator Ride" offers spookily enhanced vocals that could be 13th Floor Elevators or, even more, Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come. Additional musicians add depth with cello, violin and viola, particularly Paul Nunes, whose keyboards include Hammond B3 and a Procol Harum-style organ making the bed for "Streaks and Flashes."

Van Zandt is listed as executive producer, plays a little acoustic guitar and organ, and co-wrote one track with Prevost and Babiuk, the ballad "Gone," featuring just the kind of lyrics that make this thing so rock and roll: "Don't try to trace all the steps that I take ... don't try to say my life's a mistake."

It's not as raw Rolling Stones as the Kings' first albums, where the sound — intentional, incidentally — seems to be blowing out of some mono system for a roomful of kids at a basement dance party. No, Babiuk and Prevost are of the 21st century, and the production is as layered as the rings of Saturn. Prevost plays harmonica, Mellotron, maracas, sax, tambourine. Guitarist and bassist Babiuk, tamboura, autoharp, sitar, Bijou dulcimer. Drummer Mike Boise, tabla and Theremin. Guitarist Paul Morabito, zither, electric mandolin and Rickenbacker 12-string.

Stasium, a Grammy-winning producer, scooped up much of this, and on virtually every song has created an effect that will have listeners scrambling for their dusty old earphones. Check out the backward looping at the end of "Rise and Fall."

Still, the Kings can't help but fall back on Stones influences. "Up and Down," with chunky guitar and tired-of-being-jerked around attitude. "Spanish Sun" and its obvious debt to "Paint It Black." The deeper you get into Psychedelic Sunrise, the more the Stones emerge. Is "Stayed Too Long" anything but?
I hate to even suggest this, because it's a slight to both sides, but if you're fed up with the real Stones (hey, their last album was actually good!), Psychedelic Sunrise is just what you're looking for. They are what they are, and we should be thrilled that ain't Linkin Park.