Dimentia 13 - Mesmerized (1987)

It is perhaps an understatement to say that Brad Warner is a man of many and varied talents. Student and teacher of Zen Buddhism, author of two books including 'Hardcore Zen: Punk Rock, Monster Movies and the Truth About Reality', documentary maker, employee at Tokyo-based low-budget monster movie merchants Tsuburaya Productions, blogger for the goth/punk/weird softcore porn site 'Suicide Girls', and, of course, musician and songwriter. Perhaps he is yet to reveal that he is also a lifeguard, an expert on the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet, a renowned cordon bleu chef, and a cross-dressing lap-dancer at a high class gentleman's club. Hmmm, we shall see...

The name 'Dimentia 13' was taken from the 1963 Francis Ford Coppola/Roger Corman low budget horror film 'Dementia 13' (notice the vowel change....very important when googling the band...or the film!), and between 1985 and 1991, Brad released five great albums of melodic garage punk and psych-pop, all on Midnight Records.

Dimentia 13's music started out as extremely lo-fi garage punk on the eponymous debut album and finished up as relatively polished psychedelic pop on the final album 'Flat Earth Society'. 'Mirror Mind', released in 1987, belongs to the earlier efforts, dripping with blatant lysergic references, barely a care for the sound production, but containing a set of great and very endearing songs that I dare anyone not to like. It's my favourite Dimentia 13 album. Brad's voice has something in common with the Wayne Coyne school of 'brave' vocals ie if he had to sing to save his life, he'd almost certainly die, but not before he'd belted out his bum notes with confidence and verve.

Highlights? 'Mushroom Season' is a beautiful, fragile and very haunting evocation of an early morning/late evening walk into the valley on the hunt for magic mushrooms, eventually drifting off into dreamy lysergic observations. 'Bug Soup' is all groovy rhythms and acid guitar, kinda reminds me of 'Electric Music' era Country Joe and the Fish. The wall of noise garage punk of 'Mirror Mind'. 'Naked Truth', slow and beatiful, full of backwards guitar and tabla, has a melancholic acid casualty vibe. It's a fine album, and a classic of 80s psych.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• dimentia
• 13
• acid
• rock
• psychedelic
• 80's

[JoyinElizabeth]

Thank you.