Lecherous Gaze with Dirty Ghosts
Rising from the ashes of the late, lamented Oakland outfit Annihilation Time, Lecherous Gaze mixes '60s garage-psych and '70s riff rock and blasts it out of a hardcore-punk cannon. Initially, the band featured Annihilation Time guitar hero Graham Clise, bassist Chris Grande and drummer Noel Sullivan working with singer Lakis Panagiotopulos, who fronted the group on it's debut EP for Tee Pee Records.
By the time Lecherous Gaze recorded its bracing first full-length album in 2012, new singer Zarayan Zaidi had brought his gruff Wolfman-Jack style growl to the proceedings. Opening track "Scorpion" simultaneously echoes Hendrix's "Stepping Stone," Love's "Seven and Seven Is" and Devo's "Gut Feeling," while "Babagazo" delivers the over-the-top bombast of a lost Dictators track.
Regular performances at Bay Area clubs and house parties anchored by the inventive, blues-flavored six-string pyrotechnics dealt out by guitarist Clise have made the group a local favorite. Last year Lecherous Gaze issued Zeta Reticuli Blues, it's second acclaimed album for Tee Pee. It garnered another round of glowing reviews for the psychedelic punk savagery and fractured Chuck Berry riffs of "End Rising," "Animal Brain" and a ripping version of the oft-covered rock chestnut "Baby Please Don't Go." The band headlines this show at the SF Eagle Thursday with another rising SF act, Dirty Ghosts.
Led by guitarist and singer Allyson Baker (formerly of Toronto punk band Teen Crud Combo and SF rockers Parchman Farm), Dirty Ghosts explored a collision of guitar crunch and modern, mechanistic grooves and post-punk dub atmospheres that echoes such influential acts as Gary Numan, Chrome and Killing Joke on the band's debut full-length Metal Moon on Last Gang Records in 2012.
Baker and the live band line-up featuring longtime bassist Erin McDermott would make regular appearances at festivals here (Noise Pop, Treasure Island Music Festival, Burger Boogaloo) and abroad (Fun Fun Fun, South By Southwest) and tour extensively to promote the album. In 2013, the band brought drummer Tony Sevener on board, who would prove to be an important collaborator as Baker wrote material for a follow-up effort.
The band's long awaited sophomore album Let It Pretend was recorded with Phil Manley (The F--king Champs, Trans Am) at Lucky Cat Studios last year and is set to come out this fall following the release of the teaser Cataract EP which comes out last month on Burger Records. Oakland glam punk band Slick and DJ Ghost Dad also appear.
Lecherous Gaze with Dirty Ghosts
Thursday, Aug. 27, 9 p.m. $8
SF Eagle