[Text by Luke Z. Fenchel] Just because New York City’s Blues Control began as a joke doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be taken seriously. The duo, comprised of Russ Waterhouse and Lea Cho, started as a side project for the couple’s unconventional New Age outfit Watersports, but quickly developed a life of its own.
A few impromptu live shows spawned Blues Control’s debut Puff, an extended tone poem to stoner rock which weaved together sampled riffs and spacey guitars. Puff was followed by an eponymous release with the critically acclaimed Portland, Ore. label Holy Mountain. Blues Control is now working on two projects simultaneously: a full-length release on Siltbreeze and an EP as part of Sub Pop’s recently revived “Singles Club” series.
An appearance this Tuesday, Sep. 16, at No Radio Records is shaping up to what might be the most underrated show of the fall.
“We’re not a funny band like say, Ween,” Waterhouse explained by phone from his home on the border of Queens and Brooklyn. “The music we play grows out of a deep appreciation and a love of the stuff we draw from.” In an age of psychedelic appropriation, when joke-rock groups like Wolfmother and the Darkness pass for authentic rock ‘n’ roll despite — or because of — their ironic posturing, lesser-known bands like Blues Control earnestly incorporate elements of acid rock without succumbing to self-parody.
These bands, which include Bay area duo Sic Alps and the Finnish trio Avarus — both of whom have visited Ithaca in the last year, hone in on psychedelic rock’s constitutive parts, while bringing something new to the aural landscape. Blues Control’s first two records simultaneously channeled the proto-metal group Blue Cheer, the sonic experimentation of Pink Floyd and the minimalist compositions of Terry Riley.
Waterhouse layers grungy guitars and tape loops over Cho’s keyboards, which provide drum iterations, piano lines, and synth riffs. Often, as on “Boiled Peanuts,” the keyboard and drum line repeat over and over again, approaching the drone of Kraut rock or the fusion jazz of ‘70s Miles Davis. Shorter tracks, like the minute and a half “Double Chin” isolate with surgical precision the guitar fuzz of an epic solo, as if extracting a slice of a Jimi Hendrix jam.
“Blues Control evolved out of Watersports in that there has always been an element of collage,” Waterhouse said. “We’re interested in repetition and tape loops and building songs vertically.” He added: “It was obvious from the outset that we wouldn’t be writing traditional songs.”
Though few of Blues Control’s songs feature vocals, they are as dynamic and textured as any of what passes for psychedelic. The self-titled record sounds multi-tracked, but was the result of live studio layering. Waterhouse ditched a four-track in favor of recording samples, and then performed over those loops. “Our computer use is fairly limited,” Waterhouse explained. “Almost everything we’ve done we’ve recorded live.”
“You could say that we are deconstructing the elements of psychedelic songs,” Waterhouse noted. “We started as a joke but not as an ironic joke, you know. With Watersports we tried to resurrect New Age while deflating any pretension right off the back. Then we thought that maybe that was obnoxious too. With Blues Control, we just wanted to engage on a base level. We just wanted to see what it would be like to be in a rock band. And it’s worked out pretty well. People seem to like it.”
Blues Control appears at No Radio Records on Tuesday, Sep. 16. The show will also feature Aura, American Sphinx, and Tyler Rodkey. The show begins at 7pm.