San Francisco doom band Brume plays new music at the Kilowatt
Acclaimed San Francisco doom quartet Brume headlines a high-powered bill featuring SoCal heavy psych band Spirit Mother and locals Older Sun at the Kilowatt Friday night.
Formed in 2014 by relocated British expatriate guitarist Jamie McCathie (formerly of the London-based sludge band Gurt), bassist/vocalist Susie McMullan and drummer Jordan Perkins-Lewis, the SF band quickly made a mark with the release of their debut EP Donkey. Using the monolithic sound of Sabbath as a jumping off point, the trio still managed to put a unique stamp on doom thanks to McCathie's creative riffs and McMullan's soaring melodic vocals. The band also proved it drew on a wide range of influences than the typical doom crew with a sledgehammer cover of Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's plaintive folk ballad "Even If Love."
The EP was subsequently picked up for a limited CD release by British label When Planets Collide, leading to a deal with Dutch metal imprint DHU Records. On its 2017 follow-up effort Rooster -- recorded with noted sludge/doom engineer and producer Billy Anderson (Melvins, Sleep, Buzzov*en, High On Fire) -- the band's sound made a quantum leap forward with longer, more dynamic songs full of soulful crescendos that took listeners through an emotional arc few of Brume's contemporaries could match.
Greater acclaim followed the album's release, earning Brume comparisons to such established acts as Oregon doom spiritualists YOB and like-minded, female fronted bands Windhand and local stoner doom legends Acid King. The trio was invited to play high-profile shows across the Atlantic, appearing at Desertfest London in 2018 and opening for High On Fire during a string of European dates.
The band stayed in productive mode in 2019, releasing the MMXIX split with Seattle outfit Witch Ripper on DHU last spring (featuring another remarkable cover, an ultra-heavy recasting of the Leadbelly song "In the Pines" that most people know from the Nirvana version on the band's MTVU Unplugged in New York album) prior to issuing it's second full-length Rabbits. Its first recording with new label Magnetic Eye Records, the album delves further into moody atmospherics that evoke the cathartic sounds of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Portishead as much as Sabbath.
The band also expands its sonic palette on the gorgeous new effort, incorporating more layered vocal harmonies and new instrumentation including piano and cello courtesy of Grayceon's Jackie Perez Gratz on the somber "Blue Jay." Live appearances with Perez Gratz (including at the album-release party for Rabbit) and the developing chemistry between the musicians led the cellist to be invited to become an official member of the group. Armed with a new batch of songs, Brume entered Oakland's Tiny Telephone Studio to record its new album last year.
Last week, the band released "Jimmy," the menacing, beautiful lead track from their third album Marten that is set for release on Magnetic Eye in early May. Expect the band to preview that song and more from the forthcoming effort when they play the Kilowatt on Friday night with support from like-minded psychedelic rockers Spirit Mother. The moody Long Beach-based outfit echoes the headliner's sometimes languid and experimental approach to heavy sounds. The power trio of bassist/singer Armand Lance, drummer Landon Cisneros and guitarist Sean McCormick are joined by classically trained violinist and vocalist Sarah Jane "SJ" Long.
While the band has only put out one full-length studio album so far -- Space Cadets, issued in 2020 right before the pandemic hit -- Spirit Mother's compelling combination of ominous atmospherics, punchy riffs and tandem melodic vocals by Long and Lance has made a name for the foursome as one of the more unique groups on the SoCal stoner/psych scene. They were one of the younger acts to be included as part of the Giant Rock Records' pandemic concert recording series Live in the Mojave Desert that included such established greats as Earthless, Nebula and all-star trio Stoner releasing live albums and blu-rays of their performances among the Mojave's majestic rock formations after their sets were livestreamed for quarantined fans.
More recently, the group experimented with an expanded line-up, adding second violinist/vocalist Camille Getz for some shows (though this appearance will be as a quartet). Spirit Mother has paid regular visits to the Bay Area in the last couple of years, sharing stages with notable heavy acts like Blackwater Holylight and King Buffalo and appearing at the afterparty for last year's Heavy Psych Sounds festival. They also put out a 7-inch single featuring a pair of new tunes and have finished work on the band's forthcoming full-length effort, Trails. Opening the show will be SF hard-rock heavyweights Older Sun. Making riff-driven monolithic tunes indebted to the classic '60s and '70s sounds of Cream, Free, Mountain and Montrose for over a decade, the band released their debut album in 2018 on Anchorite Recordings after issuing a pair of singles for Valley King Records.
Spotlighting the creative riffs of guitarists Chris Mulhauser and Mike Baptista (bassist Bryan Coons and drummer Patrick Crawford round out the band), the album also marked the end of a chapter for the band, presenting its last songs recorded with departing lead singer Chris Wagner.
The group would expand to a quintet with the addition of powerhouse new vocalist and lyricist Kelsey Guntharp. Since she joined, the band has continued to explore its style of blues-tinged riff workouts while broadening its palette to embrace a more concise and metallic attack as on the hook-laden track "Raised By Wolves" and the occult rock of "Summon the Demons" drawn from Older Sun's forthcoming sophomore album, Dawn of Darkness.
Brume with Spirit Mother and Older Sun
Friday, Feb. 16, 8 p.m. $12-$15
The Kilowatt