Santa Cruz space-rock favorites Mammatus play the Chapel in San Francisco
SAN FRANCISCO -- Founded going on two decades ago in the Santa Cruz Mountains, heavy psych band Mammatus has evolved dramatically from its riff-rocking, robe-sporting early days playing house parties and dive bars.
The group's founders -- Emmert brothers Nicky (guitar) and Aaron (drums) -- had played together in earlier projects before teaming with bassist Chris Freels and second guitarist Mike Donofrio. It was the influence of Freels that led Mammatus to start adding elements of Bay Area experimental punk and doom acts like Neurosis and Sleep to their already lumbering Sabbath/Zeppelin riffage.
Quickly embraced as part of an established Santa Cruz neo-psych scene that included such notables as Six Organs of Admittance, Comets on Fire and Residual Echoes, Mammatus recorded a demo that soon had the band signed to deals with San Francisco-based Holy Mountain Records and British imprint the Rocket Record Company.
The band's eponymous debut and follow-up effort The Coast Explodes both showed off a sludgy, bludgeoning approach to epic psychedelia that was augmented live by the band's wizard costumes, incense burning and an auxiliary staff-wielding member/mascot. The band toured the states with like-minded groups such as the aforementioned Residual Echoes and Japan's exploratory psych legends Acid Mothers Temple. But before long, Mammatus would go on an extended hiatus as band members settled into having jobs and families.
Finally returning as a trio with the departure of Donofrio, in 2013 Mammatus released Heady Mental through the Spiritual Pajamas label. The experimental album introduced new aspects to their sound, building songs around Emmert's extended finger-tapped arpeggios (think Eddie Van Halen guitar pyrotechnics meets minimalist composers Terry Riley and Phillip Glass) and adding Tangerine Dream style drone to the mix.
The band's new ambient/prog approach was hailed by critics and the band would be invited to perform at festivals like 2015's stoner/doom celebration Psycho California. Mammatus would issue its third record, Sparkling Waters, that year. Recorded with noted guitarist/producer Phil Manley (Golden, Trans Am, Life Coach, Terry Gross), the album continues the group's exploration of shimmering drones and extended progressive psych on its four 15-20 minute plus tracks, this time echoing Brian Eno's ambient work while still delivering plenty of head-nodding rock grooves.
While the group went through another period of inactivity, they eventually returned to the stage and the studio. In 2018, guitarist Emmert released Eminent Blade, a collection of languid solo guitar recordings that mirrored the ambient approach of the band's latter era. More recently, Mammatus issued a number of archival demos and other unreleased material from throughout its career leading up to their latest effort, the epic 69-minute double album Expanding Majesty. Put out on Silver Current Records, the artist-focused imprint run by renowned Bay Area musician Ethan Miller (Comets on Fire, Howlin Rain, Feral Ohms and psych supergroup Heron Oblivion), the expansive effort further refines the band's combination of blissed-out ambient synth drones and hypnotic guitar figures with crushing riffs on four 15+ minute tracks.
Also appearing at at this show at the Chapel in San Francisco will be revived local favorites Fantasy. A San Francisco club scene fixture during the '90s, the band anchored by the falsetto vocals of singer/guitarist Kirk Markopoulos developed a solid following during its early heyday. Known as much for their outlandish costumes as their hooky power-pop anthems, Markopoulos would reconfigured Fantasy into the group Little Fuzzy during the early 2000s, issuing one self-released album in 2007. Fantasy would resurface a few years ago with Markopoulous and original drummer Ragi Dindal (who has played with Kelley Stoltz and Americana band Macerator) and has been regularly playing many of its old haunts like the Make-Out Room to enthusiastic crowds. SF psychedelic pop/post-punk trio Twin Dimension opens the show.
Mammatus with Fantasy and Twin Dimension
Saturday, August 12, 8 p.m. $12-$15
The Chapel