Maybe I shouldn’t have expected it would be easy to pin down Indian Jewelry for an interview. Most bands at their level—popular enough to generate modest word-of-mouth hype and support a national tour of small but respected venues—are eager to do whatever press work is needed to get them to the next one. But Indian Jewelry doesn’t really operate the way most bands do. They cultivate an image of mystery and rebellion, like they’re some sort of quasimystic gang of psych-rock revolutionaries—an art-damaged Baader-Meinhof faction out to thrill those who get it and offend those who don’t. In their press photos they pose in kaffiyehs and capes, holding guns. The press copy of Free Gold! (out May 20 on We are Free) came with two pieces of propaganda: one a manifesto promising a “bloodbath” in the album’s wake, the other a probably made-up historian’s account of another, overlooked Indian Jewelry from 1970s Montauk, New York. And so when one of them told me through a haze of static that they couldn’t follow through on our scheduled interview because their van had broken down in the desert, I think he might have been laughing at me.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Of the range of trips available on Free Gold!, maybe the best is the drone blues of “Hello Africa.” It consists mostly of a loping toms-and-cowbell beat, a two-note riff, and a rambling vocal part that only occasionally resolves itself into a melody. Again, it’s the little touches that push the song beyond the mundane and into the impressively nuts—the unexpected Miami Vice-style electro drum fill, the unnatural effects on the vocals, the occasional squeal of tape echo slashing through the drone. The song is difficult, disorienting, and aggressively unwilling to fade into background music at any volume. I can’t claim that I totally get it, but it’s thrilling nonetheless.v
Sat 5/3, 9 PM, Hideout, 1354 W. Wabansia, 773-227-4433 or 866-468-3401, $8, 21+.
