The Mallard - Yes On Blood

I think that what we have with The Mallard's debut album, Yes On Blood, is the-next-big-thing in the psychedelic-garage-tripping world of rock and roll. Bold statement – yes, I'm aware, but much bolder have been said about bands that suck, so just take my word for it for now. But as far as I'm concerned, I'm pretty much ready to order/DIY a band-tee with a sweet image of duck on the front, because apparently that's what a mallard is and I should've known that before I Google-image-trolled the crap out of some duckies. I feel like now is as good of a time as any to explain why The Mallard floats my boat so hard, and also why I think they'll float yours, too (that is, if we're working under the assumption that you're a rational human being and for sake of time we'll all assume you are).

Obsessions are healthy.

This is when I explain that they're on a killer label and that means they're guaranteed to be at least half decent-sounding (though Sub Pop has managed to somehow make that statement at least partly untrue). The Mallard's first release is on Castle Face, alongside other jangly-fuzz gods including the-man-the-myth-the-legend, Ty Segall, for his 2010 self-titled release, Thee Oh Sees, Bare Wires, and The Fresh & Onlys, also for their 2010 self-titled release. Now you must be more inclined to give The Mallard a fighting chance. Take flight, you weird winged-creature, into the hearts of garage-scuzz, 40 oz guzzling basement dwellers everywhere.



Exhibit A: 

This is your childhooustd on drugs.

Yes On Blood is modern day psychedelia (if there is such a thing) meets garage rock meets screeching monkeys and startling weasels. Perhaps this trio took some candy from a stranger in their hometown of San Fran and crafted this album after falling down a rabbit hole near Danny Tanner's house, or maybe they just did what everyone else does and smoked pot in a basement for a couple months and pumped out 11 tracks of artificially flavored heaven. Either way, the psych-injections are not too overwhelming and not too underwhelming – in fact, they sit right in the middle, the green of Roy G. Biv if you will, and that's just the kind of porridge everyone wants to be snacking on if you ask me (how many irrelevant references does a poor boy make in one post? as many as possible. and there's another one).

Exhibit B:



This is where I don't go into too much detail about the stand-out tracks on the album, but note and/or comment on a few of the more catchy ones so you know which tracks to listen to first instead of just starting from the beginning because that makes too much sense. "Shallows" is a climactic and hauntingly mesmerizing track that resides somewhere off the beat and path in a lose-yourself in the disillusionment sense (could I be any more vague?). "Lying In The East" is the album's resident slow jam, cuz every album has to have one. "Iggypop!" gets bonus points right off the bat for having such a great name, and I would share some lyrics that reference the holy one, but the vocals are so distorted and muffled that I can't make out a word anyone's saying. Alas, you must go listen for yourself and decipher the cryptic Iggy-messages and relay them to me! Get decoding.