Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
Formed in 1995 by Makoto Kawabata at the same time as the Acid Mothers Temple Soul Collective. The group released its debut album in 1997 on PSF Records (Japan), and it was selected as one of the year’s best albums in the The Wire magazine (UK). In 1998 the group played their first tours of the US and Europe. Since then the group has released a huge number of albums on labels from many different countries. As of 2017, the group has released around 80 albums. Every year since 1998, they have toured extensively in the US and Europe, and more recently have started performing around Asia and in Japan too. The group has performed in collaboration with many musicians including psychedelic originators Gong and Guru Guru, Simeon (Silver Apples), Nik Turner (Hawkwind), and the Occitanian trad sinder Rosina de Peira. Japanese collaborators have included Afrirampo, Tatsuya Yoshida (Ruins), Maso Yamazaki (Masonna), Seiichi Yamamoto (Boredoms), Jun Kuriyama (The Ox), and many others.
To begin with the group had a floating line-up with contributions from many members of the AMT Soul Collective. But as tours became more frequent, the group began to coalesce around a core touring line-up. Other bands were created with Acid Mothers Temple as part of their name (AMT & The Cosmic Inferno, AMT SWR, AMT & The Space Paranoid, AMT & Infinity Rising Zero, Acid Mothers Gong, Acid Mothers Guru Guru, Acid Moon Temple, etc.), but AMT & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. has continued to function as the mothership and main lineage for all our activities.
In 2016, 21 years since the group’s founding, there was a major shift in the line-up and “Next Generation” was added to the name. We now view the first 20 years as chapter one in our story, and we are now turning the page to start chapter two.
The group played more than 100 shows in each year, toured in Europe, North America, South America, Oceania and Asia, also Japan. They also played many festivals (Glastonbury Festival in UK, Levitation in US and France, Rock In Opposition in France, Standon Calling in UK, Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film, Video & Music Festival in Malaysia, LUC fest 貴人散步音樂節 in Taiwan, etc).
During the pandemic, they launched their official Bandcamp, have released more than 60 albums (including many unreleased materials), and have toured in Japan in each year. And they played the streaming festival “Levitation Sessions”. They organized “Acid Mothers Olympic 2021” against “Tokyo Olympics 2021”, they originated and played a new style of “music sports”.
Finally the group restarted to the first European tour in Autumn 2022, also the first North American tour in Spring 2023, after the pandemic.
The current touring line-up is: Kawabata Makoto (the founder member), Higashi Hiroshi (the founder member), Satoshima Nani, Jyonson Tsu and Sawano Shozo.
Acid Mothers Temple & The Melting Paraiso U.F.O. :
Kawabata Makoto : guitar, speed guru
Higashi Hiroshi : synthesizer, fishin’god
Jyonson Tsu : voice, guitar, bouzouki, midnight whislter
Satoshima Nani : drums, another dimension
Sawano Shozo : bass, hex man
The Stargazer Lilies
“Field and Cep channel the reverb-washed slo-mo of Slowdive and the sparkling ambiance of Air into a lush, guitar-swollen whole”. “Psych- Fuzz Epic”
-Spin Magazine
“What your so-called shoegaze is supposed to sound like. Indelible melodies and singing plus great guitar work”.
-Brad Laner of Medicine
“The Stargazer Lilies possess a truly widescreen, cinematic sound with crescendoes that build cascading waves of sound enveloping your whole body. The music is a bit darker than standard dream pop fare but that only makes it that much more mesmerizing.” “If you’re in the need of some serious new dream pop -and who isn’t- you can scarcely do better than The Stargazer Lilies.”
-Pop Matters
“Modern shoegaze often falls flat because it seems more occupied with getting the sound right and foregoing everything else; The Stargazer Lilies get the sound and the feel right and that makes their album much, much more than just revisiting the past”.
-Tim Sendra/All Music
Genres: Psychedelic, Dream Pop, Ambient Rock, Shoegaze
Band Members: Kim Field, John Cep, Carissa Giard, Jake Stuart
Discography:
‘We are the Dreamers’ (Graveface Records 2013)
‘Door to the Sun’ (Graveface Records 2016)
‘Lost’ (Graveface Records 2017)
‘Part Time Punks Live Session’ (Casa Del Puente Discos 2017)
‘Occabot’ (Rad Cult 2019)
‘Cosmic Tidal Wave’ (Floravinyl Records October 14, 2022)
Wet Pet
Some people describe Wet Pet as a pyramid scheme, but that is an unsubstantiated nasty rumor. Due to our out of court settlement we are in no way obligated to admit any wrong doing. Here at Wet Pet headquarters, we abhor terms like “pyramid scheme” to describe our band. We prefer the term “triangle opportunity”.
In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non-collinear, determine a unique triangle and simultaneously, a unique plane. What does that mean? We have no fucking clue. What we do know is that the 3 vertices that make the Wet Pet triangle are Steve on drums and keys, Hyrum on bass and vocals, and Phil on guitar and vocals.
Those fortunate enough to invest in Wet Pet in the beginning have seen a 10x return on their investment. Shareholders describe Wet Pet’s music as consistent with the tradition of DIY music scene that has emerged from the Pacific Northwest. Overdriven melodies paired with spacious guitar and backed by driving rhythms are balanced out with thoughtful wordplay.
At first listen, Merrell’s sardonic vocal delivery might be interpreted as nihilistic, and at times, you’d be right. “When I go walking through the graveyard at midnight I see a lot of people I’d probably dislike.” However, at other times Wet Pet reflects on love and the absurdity of life that can range from literal to dada-esque.
Plus, you become a platinum member if you bring three friends to our shows that bring three friends.