The more it changes the more it remains the same. Sometimes that can be a good thing and Baltimore band Bad Liquor Pond seem to have set out to prove just that with their new album “Blue Smoke Orange Sky” and, once more, they have set off on a time travelling journey to the birth of psychedelic rock.
So, with that in mid, you will not be surprised to read that this is the kind of easy going album that runs deep and ends up exerting a near hypnotic control over you and, as you peer through the metaphorical sweet smelling smoke that surrounds every note, you feel the containment of the flesh being released. Off you go instead on a journey through all the best of psych rock influences. Cascading guitar solos punctuate the songs with a leisurely contempt for what was then yet to come and has now already been. As “New Reality” crumbles away into the inky blackness and is replaced by the spaced out retro of “Apocalyptic Love Jam”, it’s like Vietnam replacing Iraq as a topic of conversation for men of conscience. Bad Liquor Pond are more than just retro. In fact, they are evidence that retro can be a good thing.
As my grandmother Mary Jane once told me – you had to be there. Now, with the help of Bad Liquor Pond, you can.