The Phantom Family Halo
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The Phantom Family Halo is an American indie rock band from Louisville in Kentucky[3][4] notable for music described as having a "post-metal state of ungodly loudness"[5] while managing to achieve a "neat creepy B-movie horror feel."[6] The six-member band,[5] currently based in Brooklyn,[1] has performed with bands such as Black Angels, Black Mountain, Dead Meadow, USAisamonster, Hawkwind, Slint, Damo Suzuki,[7] Acid Mothers Guru Guru,[7] Stormtrippers,[8] Russian Circles,[9][10] Young Widows,[9][10] Sapat,[10] The For Carnation,[11] and Bonnie "Prince" Billy.[12] The band signed a recording contract with Knitting Factory Records in 2011.[2]
The Phantom Family Halo | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Louisville, KY, USA |
| Genres | Experimental,[1] Psychedelic,[1] Indie music[1] |
| Years active | 2007–present |
| Label | Knitting Factory Records[2] |
| Members | Dominic Cipolla, David Lackner, Ben Lord, Christian Lee |
| Past members | Michael McMahan, Corey Smith, Tony Bailey, Axel Cooper, Neal Arghabright, Alan the Egyptian, Stephen Shoemaker, William Benton |
| Website | knittingfactoryrecords |
Louisville beginnings
Band members include Michael McMahan, who also plays with the Louisville band Slint, and Dominic Cipolla of Sapat.[3] They frequently collaborated with other musicians active in the Louisville music scene. In 2009, the group released a double LP entitled Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die on Karate Body Records.[13][14] In 2010, the band performed in Louisville's Cropped Out Festival.[15] A report in Twin Cities Music in Minneapolis described one of the band's live performances:
They opened with a fade-in chant, and oscillated between hippie-with-a-knife and palms-up rock, their sound amalgamated from Clinic and/or Suicide and/or the "lovely" lo-fi four-tracked trend sweeping the nation and/or psych bands with modern gear.[16]
Band member Cipolla described his relation to music:
Music is therapy for everything in my life, so I only hope to achieve a even closer relationship with it. It's like a book of potions, learning how to conjure up all kinds of different spells.
— Dominic Cipolla, November 2009 in The Courier-Journal[10]
In 2011 the band recorded songs with Bonnie Prince Billy and included them on their album The Mindeater.[12][6][17] The release date for Mindeater was set for September 27, 2011.
Music reviews
A review in The Guardian described the band as a "new heavy psych band" which "dwells in a post-metal state of ungodly loudness," and compared their music to Tonys McPhee and Iommi.[5] Prefix Magazine described the upcoming Mindeater album as "spooked-out country" similar to the Palace Brothers using a "downcast slide guitar motif" with singing described as a "cracked vocal delivery" which was "mired in murky lo-fi production values."[6] Reviewer Nick Neyland added that one song has a "neat creepy B-movie horror feel."[6] A review by John Zeiss in Prefix Magazine described the band's sound as psychedelic rock and compared it to bands such as Scott Walker and 13th Floor Elevators.[3] Reviewer Joel Hunt described the band as "inventive."[18] A review in Brooklyn Rocks described the 2LP Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die as a "brain-melting slab of acid rock" similar to Hawkwind and Spacemen 3.[9]
Discography
- "Raven Town Witch" (Sophomore Lounge Records) 2014
- "Francis Jewel Don't Be Afraid Of The Jungle" (Galtta Media) 2013
- "When I Fall Out" Knitting Factory Records 2011
- The Mindeater (with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy)(vinyl on Sophomore Lounge Records, CD and digital on Knitting Factory Records) 2011[17]
- Music From Italian TV (Sophomore Lounge Records) 2010
- Hurricane Fighter Plane split 7inch /Meah (Sophomore Lounge Records) 2009
- Monoliths & These Flowers Never Die, 2009, Karate Body Records[13]
- The Legend Of Black Six (blackvelvetfuckeree records) 2006