Music I Liked – CHRCH, Zarraza, Tentacle Wizard

Last week I had to scramble to come up with music to share, and that made me feel lame. So this week I spent a lot of time digging through the music blogs. I found a lot of stuff that made my ears bleed – in a good way. Stuff like CHRCH, Zarraza, and Tentacle Wizard.

CHRCH

Oh hello Sacramento-based band with “doom” in your URL. Your newest album has a delightfully lengthy post-rock name – Light Will Consume Us All. Your music is slow and knuckle-dragging enough to allow me to concentrate on my work but it is not so monotonous as to become soporific. I think we will be friends.

Plus, your name, CHRCH, reminds me of another, completely different band with a similarly cvlt name. I wrote about Chvrches a couple weeks ago. I still like them.

ZaRaZZa

Yes, I buy wine if I like the label design. I buy books when I like the cover. And I check out bands with cool names. ZaRaZZa reminds me of the pirate name Edmond Dantes takes in the movie version of the Count of Monte Cristo. There is no real connection, but the name was enough to catch my eye.

I am also a sucker for backstory. Zarazza has that, too. They are from Kazakhstan. As far as I’m concerned, being from someplace interesting is as good as being interesting. I’ve only known one person from Kazakhstan, and she was awesome, in a holy terror sort of way.

Ok, evocative name and backstory, but is the music any good? Yeah. It’s good. The album Necroshiva is hella fun.

Tentacle Wizard

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. With a name like Tentacle Wizard, you have certain expectations. They probably involve bongwater. And you wouldn’t be wrong. But on Bringer of False Light these Serbians do jam band right. You can’t actually listen to Mountain Jam all summer long (I’ve tried), so when I’m done with the Allman Brothers, this is what I’ll listen to on hot summer afternoons.