Saturday, April 11, 2009

Portland's Got to Be Good for Something: Valet Covers Boris


Valet's Naked Acid was one of my favorite records last year and for good reason. Few records combined all the disparate strains of 21st century psychedelic music, from drone to space rock to slightly out of tune backwoods weirdness, as well as it did. Now Valet (AKA Honey Owens) is back with a new 12" record called False Face Society on Mexican Summer, a cool, bizarrely subscription based (because lord knows the subscription based model has been a winner for the music industry!) record label.

One of the songs on False Face Society is a cover of "Rainbow" by Boris and Ghost guitar god Michio Kurihara, and it's as great as you'd imagine it to be. Starting out as a Windy and Carl drone (with some cheesy cool heavy breathing stereo pans), the song alternates between heavily treated wah-wah guitar solos and Owens's whispery vocals. Listening to the original side by side with Valet's treatment, it's clear that, while Owens can't touch Kurihara in the guitar heroics department (dude's solos sound like they could cut metal), her version is arguably "trippier" and sexier with its lower-fi, soft-focus sound.