El Goodo "Coyote" (2009)

When was the last time a psychedelic rock band from Wales knocked your socks off? Oh yeah, the Super Furry Animals. Well now SFA's young-buck buddies El Goodo are here to prove you know of at least two Welsh bands who can kick ass, and in the hearts of some of our worlds, save rock-n-roll.

El Goodo's sophomore release kicks off with 'Feel So Fine'. A track that, while less vintage sounding than the rest of the record, is a ginormous stomper that mangles fuzzy guitars, bobs heads, and makes me pray for California sunshine. This track has more of a BMRC revival-sound, which works, because it hits you in the balls well enough to keep you listening.

Then enter a time machine into the rest of the record - a series of songs built around chilled-out harmonies, psychedelic sounds, and multi-instrumental guitar rock-n-roll that make you feel like "it's all happening" right around you. The Kinks, Love, The Byrds, The Beach Boys - it's right here. Sometimes subtly, sometimes not - but it's all done really well.

In fact, you could file 'Coyote' under records you could probably trick your burnt-out rocker uncle into believing are a collection of lost b-sides from The Kinks & The Byrds. Or at the very least some obscure could've/should've Brit Invasionist that's only known to the shelves of some psych-record snob. F'real - the songs, the lyrics, the production, the instrumentation, the feel - it's all 1966 as fuck.

Hell, it even takes you back to the Yellow Submarine in "Pete", a quirky psychedelic child's fairy tail song that plays out the problems of a 'crazy' named Pete who's thoughts float out of his brain and hang out with him under an umbrella.

My favorite from the bunch is 'I Saw Her Today', a track that, for lack of a better word(s), has a south-west cowboy movie feel? that gallops under an arrangement of organs and horns to a story about the virginal sighting of a girl who when she speaks 'keeps those blues away'. Each song has a distinction from one another that keep the record moving well enough, but still harbors the same feel, so that you're not left wondering if you're listening to a compilation of different sixties style bands.

Right now I have to believe this will end up on my top ten of the year in music. The only bummer is that Coyote hits with nine songs coming in at under thirty minutes. The hunger pains are already beginning. Up the Welsh. Oh yeah, they don't use last names either - meet Jason (vocals, guitar, keyboard), Pixy (vocals, bass, guitar, keyboard), Lewis (guitar), Elliot (drums, keyboard), and Matty (vocals, keyboard). Do yourself a favor and introduce your 2009 to Coyote.