That scumbag Jack Frost finally turned tail and fled Indianapolis, leaving us with sunny skies and sixty-degree days. Naturally, the second the temperature was agreeable enough, I ran to my favorite field, where I resumed my usual activities of plucking away at my mandolin and hotboxing the glades. Thursday was no exception to this. As soon as I finished my morning walk, I grabbed my Gretsch, my stash, and my copy of “The Bonfire of the Vanities” and took to the tree line. Long after dusk, I pulled myself away from the budding silver maples to seal myself back inside the neon-drenched crypt that is my apartment. I returned to find I had been called to bat to cover a new psych-funk single from North Carolina jam-fiends JULIA.. I’m not one to pass up a new psychedelic track, so let’s see what JULIA. has got.
I didn’t even need to hear the song to know that “Give Me Your Time” was going to be a knockout; I just had to see the artwork. Something that can be hard to explain to those on the outside of the psychedelic world is that our niche has a happening poster scene. If you go to a psych show, you’re going to find some wild artwork at the merch table; this is something that dates way back to the psychedelic revolution of the ‘60s and would require an article all its own to explain. The short answer to what I’m trying to say here is that you can tell if a band is with it or not by their cover art. Based on the day-glo goat adorned with a cheetah print shawl surrounded by sphinxes, roosters, and stunning mountain ranges, I could tell JULIA. is hip. And what do you know, I was right.
“Give Me Your Time” is a stunning display of the modern psych-funk sound. You’ve got that meaty slap bass, the twinkling keys, the weeping guitars, and the rolling vocals that take you for a ride around the cosmos. Top all that off with an acoustic reprise at the end of the song, and you have yourself a hit. No, better than a hit. You have a career starter. This is the kind of tune that gets you radio play, gets you chart positions, and definitely gets you coverage from hippie journalists. Two minutes into the song, I was already stalking the band's Instagram looking for tour dates; bad news, guys, no shows in Indy.
This is the sort of thing I would expect to hear at my local Deadhead dive bar. That’s the Mousetrap if you’re interested in some great food, cheap drinks, and shady fun. It’s got that groovy bounce that smacks you upside the head and tells you to pay attention. Something that stuck out to me about this one is the play between the keys and the guitar. There’s such a smoothness to it, the kind you would only expect to hear from the inseparable pairing of bass and drums. One flows into the other, then back out to independence seamlessly. I also have to throw some praise at the vocals. They’re delivered with that funkadelic tone that sounds so personal, like the song is a story being told to each individual listener. It’s heavy, hypnotic poetry that doesn’t take itself too seriously. Case in point, about two minutes into the song, we get the lyrical genius “Spend some time out in Cabo, shrimp in your taco,” which made me burst out in laughter and forced me to dig through the press release to find out if I was hearing that right. Which I was, as apparently this song was fueled by the sea bug-filled treats.
“Give Me Your Time” is everything you want from a psych-funk song. JULIA. totally knocked it out of the park with this one. It has left me watering at the mouth for a shrimp taco and the album this tune is meant to tease, “Fish in the Percolator,” out March 13th. It’s tight enough to convince me to forgive the band for not coming to my city any time soon, and it may just be good enough to get me to hop on an Amtrak to catch a show out on the East Coast. You can find it streaming wherever you get your music. You go check it out now while I go track down my favorite taco truck; I need a shrimp taco and some elote, STAT.
