Vancouver, WA-based psych band The Shivas harken back to the early garage-rock days of the 1960s, which is great since most of their contemporaries are still listening to Taylor Swift and Kanye West. This is because all but one of their members are under 21. In fact, Jared Wait-Molyneux, lead singer/guitarist, and Kristin Leonard, drummer, just graduated from high school and are only 19. While there are a ton of young bands out there, one of the interesting things about The Shivas is that they have been a band for almost three years and have played over 300 shows. They just returned from doing 38 shows in 40 days, a pretty impressive fete.
The Shivas played several cuts off their last LP, Freezing To Death, including "We Go On", "The Dead Land Man", and ending with rocker "Look So Good Be So Good". They threw a couple of new songs into the mix too, including "Thrill Yr Idols" and "Gun In My Pocket". Their energy and raw ear-splitting distortion fused with pretty melodies and jangly chords, creating a different sort of psychedelia than most of the drone-y psych bands in their scene. Imagine The Stone Roses meeting The Cramps in a dark alley and both bands coming out smiling.
The Shivas playing "Look So Good Be So Good" live at Doug Fir Lounge in Portland, OR on September 16th, 2010:
