When you make a habit of going to shows, talking to bands, reading local music blogs, and scanning the schedule of every half-decent club in town, it’s always surprising—even a little disconcerting—when a record by a local band you’ve never even heard of before ends up in your lap. Doubly so when it’s really good.
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Aside from Stach, at 23 a veteran of suburban power-pop outfits Surround Sound and Bachelor Party Weekend, no one in Secret Colours has previously played in anything more serious than a high school pickup band. Stach is the oldest member, and Evans and Olson are just 20. Only now are they starting to find their place in the Chicago scene and make connections with other local bands—some of which, like the Great Society Mind Destroyers, make music similar to Secret Colours’ dark, droning psychedelic rock, and some of which, like Gold Motel and Apteka, do not.
“It’s more that we just wanted a girl to play tambourine onstage,” says Stach, apparently mostly joking. “‘Cause it just looks fuckin’ sweet.”
The album is pleasingly dense, with chiming acoustic guitars, swirling vocals, jet-fighter electric fuzz, and tom-heavy drumming. Secret Colours wear their influences on their sleeves—not just the Black Angels and the Brian Jonestown Massacre but also the Velvet Underground, Spacemen 3, and Stone Roses. Psych-rock bands are usually less concerned with blazing trails than with developing a customized combination of the basic building blocks—drone, noise, pop hooks—that similar groups have been using since at least the mid-60s.
Sat 8/14, 10:30 PM, Beat Kitchen, 2100 W. Belmont, 773-281-4444 or 866-468-3401, $10, 17+.
