The Black Angels are a neo-Psychedelic Rock band formed in Austin, Texas, in 2004. Their music is dark, haunting, and... well... psychedelic.
Although lacking much name recognition, the band is apparently beloved by music directors, because their singles feature rather disproportionately on film and TV soundtracks. Odds are, even if you've never heard of them, you've probably heard them.
To date, they have released five albums and one compilation album.
Tropes
- Changing Chorus: The song "Young Men Dead" features three stanzas that all begin in a similar but slightly different way, which is as close to a chorus as it gets.First stanza: "Fire for the hills, pick up your feet and let's go"Second stanza: "Fire from the hills, pick up speed and let's go"Third stanza: "Run for the hills, pick up your feet and let's go"
- Gratuitous Spanish: "Jardin" (Spanish for "garden") features a few refrains in Spanish.
- Green Aesop: The band's single "Jardin" has a theme of environmental destruction, though it seems to be used as a metaphor for a dissolving relationship. The video is set in an After the End apocalypse.
- Hidden Track: The final listed song on Passover ends with over three minutes of silence before launching into a cover of Jimmy Cliff's "Vietnam."
- Injun Country: "Comanche Moon" features the point of view of Native Americans who are seething with rage over the broken promises and incursions of the American government.
- Mushroom Samba: "I Hear Colors (Chromaesthesia)" is clearly from the perspective of someone tripping balls, with lyrics like: "I feel colors rushing through my veins / Making me invincible to pain / I can hear them everywhere / Screaming by and glowing bright"
- Never Bareheaded: The lead singer Alex Maas is always seen wearing a hat.
- Non-Appearing Title: A fair number of their songs do not feature the title in the lyrics. Their most popular song, "Young Men Dead," is an example.
- Protest Song: "The First Vietnamese War" is a retraux song against the Vietnam War, though its name and release in 2006 gives it obvious overtones of the War on Terror. On the same album, the Hidden Track is a cover of Jimmy Cliff's "Vietnam" with lyrics updated to reference Iraq.
- Psychedelic Rock: The band is one of the vanguards of the neo-psychedelic rock, mixing classic psychedelic influences and subject matter with a more modern and rocking sound.
- Retraux: Apparently bummed that they didn't get a chance to write a Vietnam War Protest Song alongside their psychedelic inspirations in The '60s, they decided to write their own anyway, "The First Vietnamese War," in 2006.
- Shout-Out: "Ronettes" begins with a drum beat lifted straight from The Ronnettes' hit single "Be My Baby."
- Song Style Shift: "Yellow Elevator #2" becomes much slower and spacier at the halfway mark.
- Titled After the Song: Their name is inspired by The Velvet Underground's song "The Black Angel's Death Song." Fittingly, their fifth album is titled Death Song.
