A Look At Warm Sun, Another Devin Ocampo Band Ahead Of The Group's Tuesday Gig With Super! Silver! Haze! (Brendan Canty From Fugazi)

Devin Ocampo just don't quit, do he? The dude has been in a string of superb Dischord bands (Smart Went Crazy, Faraquet, Beauty Pill, Deathfix, Medications), and he was in The Effects, and now he's got another excellent project going. Called Warm Sun, this new band makes the sort of near-psychedelic rock that one heard emanating from the West Coast in the Eighties. Comparisons here should include Opal, The Dream Syndicate, and even Rain Parade in spots. The band is playing a show with Super! Silver! Haze! (a new gig from Fugazi's Brendan Canty) this Tuesday at the Black Cat and I'm here to mainly talk about the tunes of Warm Sun this time out.

There are about 6 cuts up on Bandcamp from Warm Sun as of now. Those numbers include the fairly recent release "In A Moment" and "Seven Sisters", and both of those bop along in a nice sort of mix of Jefferson Airplane and X riffs. The other tracks are also uniformly interesting, notably the pounding "Damaged" and the sinister "Pikes Peak Is Gone". The cut that gave the band its name, "Warm Sun", is a near-epic rumination that recalls early Jayhawks and Wilco numbers as much as it does the fine neo-psych rockers on the first, less wispy Mazzy Star record. Overall, favorable comparisons to the louder, more adventurous moments on early Yo La Tengo albums would not be out of place when describing any of these 3 double-cut releases.

Warm Sun -- Devin Ocampo (guitar, vocals), Basla Andolsun (bass), Jason Hutto (keyboards), and Renata Ocampo (drums) -- are making music that surprises and reaches far beyond even the bold AOR-hooks Devin worked up with Brendan Canty in the exceptional Deathfix.

Speaking of Brendan Canty, the Fugazi legend's new project is called Super! Silver! Haze! and while I've yet to see the band live I'm pretty sure that the act is going to be a far cry from any of the Dischord acts he was in. There's not much out at the moment to link to but the video clip below from a recent NYC gig ought to get you intrigued.

Warm Sun and Super! Silver! Haze! play Black Cat on Tuesday.

More details on Warm Sun via the band's official Facebook page. Similarly, more details on Super! Silver! Haze! available on that band's official Facebook page.