A DAYDREAM DARK

Coming from Indianapolis in the heart of the US Midwest, MOON GOONS is an interesting modern garage psych band that features the members of Corey Standifer (guitar, vocals), Brooke Rice (keyboard, vocals), Jacob Kozlowski (drums), Owen Welch (guitar, keyboard) and Devin Kearns (bass). A fairly new ensemble of freakery, MOON GOONS released its debut "Space Trash" in 2018, the EP "Slimy Clump" in 2019 and now in 2021 returns with its second offering of A DAYDREAM DARK.

Featuring ten acid fueled tracks, A DAYDREAM DARK starts off with the giddy title track that immediately reels you in to the band's unique stylistic approach of using various vocal styles as the primary coloring of their psychedelic stew. Both male and female vocals are used and they are all wickedly wild and freaky as hell! The short intro diddy is more of a folk based conception but once the eerie effects of "Voodoo Medicine" jump in, it's a guitar driven heavy psych marathon. The secret to the band's unique sound comes from the spooky vocal harmonies. In fact it all kind of sounds like a Halloween edition of The Beatles! Haha

Despite being included in some prog circles, MOON GOONS is primarily a psychedelic pop band that engages in noisy garage rock styled guitar distortion, energetic 60s sounding organ runs (in the vein of bands like Shocking Blue or The Doors) a bouncy celebratory delivery of their product. The crossover prog attributes comes from some interesting time signature changes and slightly unusual chord progressions but for the most part A DAYDREAM DARK is an instantly infectious brand of psychedelic space garage rock. One could almost say this is the garage rock version of Hail Spirit Noir. Just de-emphasize the metal and replace the raspy vocals with processed "normal" vocals and voila!

With a running time of just under 42 minutes, MOON GOONS delivers a delectable slice of retro heavy psych only with a beautifully mastered and mixed production. The careful attention to the tones, timbres and dynamics take the rather indie rock approach of the playing style into much more sophisticated arenas. As i've already stated, the vocal harmonies really ground this one. While the vocalists sound as if they were recruited from a soundtrack for spooky Halloween music, the harmonies sound mined from classic 60s acts such as Jefferson Airplane, the Mamas & Papas and others.

While the term garage rock can sound a bit one-dimensional, MOON GOONS is actually really great at mixing the simplicity of straight forward guitar grunge with creepy atmospheres, spaced out intros and otherworldly keyboard sounds. The band utilizes droning effects, subtle background contrapuntal cyclical loops and all instrumental moments such as on "Alien Sewage" capture a much larger spectrum than one may realize with the garage rock terminology thrown around. Sticking to the 60s psych pop rock playbook, tracks are fairly short with only the psych-drenched "Brain Mist" spiraling off to the seven minute zone. Tracks are generally succinct and to the point with the psychedelic touches providing supplementation to the 60s psychedelic rock songwriting standards.

While not completely mind-blowing, MOON GOONS surprises in how well it has modernized a style of music that has pretty much been jettisoned in favor of crafting more complex modern methodologies however like other bands ranging form Hail Spirit Noir and Blood Ceremony, MOON GOONS has adopted the classic template of classic 60s psychedelic pop rock and found a way to adapt it to the modern world. The result is a cleverly crafted roster of tunes that may not blow you away technically speaking but are ridiculously fun to stomp your feet to! As colorful as the trippy cover art, MOON GOONS has done a brilliant job on A DAYDREAM DARK bridging the psychedelic 60s with the skies-the-limit production approach of the modern era. This one is a rip roarin' good time! Now i gotta check out the first album!