Texan nomad fellas on a dark, lonesome, reverb-soaked high — think the Stones’ “Wild Horses” in super-slow-mo and you’re getting there. - ARTHUR MAGAZINE
A hazy brand of desert night blues caked in clay and baked by the setting sun. These are lonesome moon odes to desperate spaces; murky dreams full of easy venom and soft elixirs. Occupying the slim window where Brightblack Morning Light stop and Wooden Wand begins, the band carry themselves like troubadours of the last caravan West. - RAVEN SINGS THE BLUES
Full of hauntingly psychedelic songs the whole album is a magical listening experience rich with wonder and mystery. Opening song “Skydye” has some snaking west coast guitar lines and dream-laden ambience, that pulls you straight in, only to be left breathless with joy 40 minutes later, as the last strains of the eight minute “Arizona” lower you gently back to earth. The last two minutes consisting of birdsong, giving you time to re-adjust to your re-entry. In-between, you will have been treated to some of the mellowest guitar you have heard for a long time, as ethereal as a twist of incense smoke, as heady as the first blooms of spring. - TERRASCOPE
At times recalling the pastoral roaming and freak folk of contemporaries like Brightblack Morning Light, MV + EE, and Wooden Wand & the Vanishing Voice, the album more closely resembles the dark side of Neil Young’s Harvest, a somber and stripped-down meditation on the roots of Americana and blues. Call it hill country psych, born under a bad sign. - AUSTIN SOUND
The most fitting description of Headdress may be that the band sounds like folk, blues, and country that’s all been left to bleach and fade in the southwestern desert. All of the original components are still in place, they’ve just been warped by the dust, sun, and heat. This aesthetic has a lot to do with the primitive sound of the recording. Every ringing note and echo takes on a more primal, ethereal feel than it ever would have otherwise. There is a profound sense of space in every song on the disc as Headdress lets each instrument speak for itself without a lot of background clutter. In the end, it’s the sustained feeling of sitting out in the desert night that solidifies “Turquoise.” -FOXY DIGITALIS
Beautifully lo-fi, Headdress’ “Turquoise” is more of an experience than a flat out album. Ariel Pink meets Desperado, the album plays up echoes and evokes a desertscape, giving off a distinct vibe of stationary solitude. Nothing that I’ve heard this year comes close to the vivid, almost photographic imagery that results from listening to Headdress. - CULTURE WARRIOR
Spare guitar, spare drums and percussion, breathy, reverbed vocals; elsewhere it might sound too precious, but on Turquoise (Totem Songs), it makes for a minimalist blues meditation that never gets long-winded. - AUSTIN CHRONICLE
Thick with echo, space and traditional elements. Fans of Dirty Three will like the band's latest album, Turquoise, a dark, brooding jaunt into a dimly lit motel room on the edge of some southwestern town. Each note and every carefully chosen guitar lick fall carefully into place, purposefully, amidst the ominous compositions. - AUSTINIST
Rain drop guitar plucking, windy vocals and distant claps of thunderous tambourine combine to paint the deserted backdrop of Turquoise. Once in full downpour, the rivers of the album run full and wolves come out to stretch their legs. The climax is the day after with the formerly crackled and dry desert now green and full of life; crickets and birds sing out, and lazy rays of sun dance through the guitar, shimmering as they strike the mountains of vocals. - NATURALISMO
Headdress is a new mysterious duo of native Texans who have spent the last two years wandering throughout the American West. Their first EP entitled Silence is the Golden Mountain was written and recorded in the woods along the south fork of the Yuba River in the Nation of Northern California where they lived in tents during the Summer of 02006. They only released 100 hand numbered and handsewn copies throughout the Bay Area. After buying a van called Cloud, they headed south and spent time in Big Sur as well as Joshua Tree before finding their way into the Great American Southwest. This was the birthplace and muse of their first full-length under the new moniker of Headdress and entitled Turquoise. The album was recorded 02007 in a hollow hill in the grasslands of the Sonoran Desert under the Moon of Shedding Ponies (May) while living in a RV called The Golden Horse aka Goldie. After the release of Turquoise they headed home to the hills of Texas and caught the attention of NYC's Kemado Records who are set to re-release the album this September on their new vinyl-only offshoot, Mexican Summer. The boys are rumored to be recording their eagerly anticipated follow up to Turquoise in a cabin near Woodstock this winter.
HEADDRESS :: Turquoise Vinyl LP out on Mexican Summer (Kemado) 09/02/08 (only 500 pressed) Pre-order @ mexicansummer.com
HEADDRESS "Spirit of the Skull" T-Shirt Design by Caleb Coy. Available in Men's & Women's sizes. Vintage 65/35 Poly/Cotton Sheer S/S Tee. $15 postage paid. Don't have a myspace? Email: totemsongs@gmail.com
HEADDRESS::Turquoise (CD-R)
Formerly known as Worship (they released a small cd-r pressing under that moniker), the elusive group who now answer to the name Headdress continue their dusk lit creep through the enchanted wilderness. On Turquoise they craft a beautiful loosely woven tapestry of ivy-like guitar tendrils, lichen-encrusted percussion, solemn mossy male vocals that reside somewhere between Jandek and M. Ward. The album's fifth song "Babylon" sounds strangely like a deconstructed folk rendition of America's "Horse With No Name". Whether intentional or not, the glinting familiarity of the latter's central melody adds to the existing subtle hallucinatory atmosphere of the proceedings. The crowning jewel of rough hewn Turquoise though is the sixth track titled "Moon Of Shedding Ponies". It's a frayed, meditative instrumental populated with generous turns of a rainstick and what sounds like howling wolves or banshees.
If you dig the rustic, abstracted psych-folk sounds of Wooden Wand & The Vanishing Voice and the many bewitching branches of the Jewelled Antler Collective, don't miss this! - AQUARIUS RECORDS
Original artwork by Tracy Conti, tracyconti@yahoo.com. Only 250 copies, each individually numbered and printed on recycled craft paper. $10 postage paid. OUT OF PRINT
HEADDRESS::Turquoise (cassette)
ORR-007 Headdress - Turquoise c54 $7ppdUS/$9ppdWorld
Headdress glide and coast off the wings of a night-owl onto the ribbons of magnetic tape. A cool mellow breeze through the quiet desert air full of acoustic guitars and tambourines. Sometimes there's even keys (plugged into a Cactus I'm sure) all melting together into a sandy quilt of minimal psychedelic songs. Like WWVV in the Texas deserts. Haunting vocals and steady simple rhythms. A re-release of the Turquoise CDR but now with an extra nine minute jam! In an edition of 50 with 3-panel fold-out art available @ Open Range Records
worship : silence is the golden mountain(cd-r) Worship (not to be confused with the infamous doom outfit) are a new mysterious group who've just released their debut cd-r. Definitely for fans of Wooden Wand And The Vanishing Voice and the Jewelled Antler folks. At times, their shape-shifting, ultra minimal swamp twang is so barely there, it's phantom-like. You feel a presence, more than hear one. Note: this first pressing is limited to 100 hand numbered cd-rs. - AQUARIUS RECORDS (Recorded in the woods on the South Fork of the Yuba River during the Summer of 02006) OUT OF PRINT
HEADDRESS Vinyl LP out Sept. 2nd's Friend Space (Top 20)
HEADDRESS Vinyl LP out Sept. 2nd has 1411 friends.
So here it is in EPIC proportions - "The Dusty Tales". The first main release on Dust Wind Tales. It features 25 bands/artists from the UK, USA & Europe. From finger picking beauty to wild drone. From tales captured in the moment to crafted vocals that carry you to a new place. This is music that will inspire you...
The compilation features on 2 white faced CDs held in a yellow & brown spray painted half size super clear dvd case. There are 2 inserts (featuring an exclusive or famous quote by each band) & a Dust Wind Tales badge (made especially for this release) to accompany the CDs . This comes wrapped in a brown paper bag & be held together by some "old bali twine"...
hi there... congrats on your upcoming sxsw shows: wish i could make it but i'm too poor to travel at the moment... also, please call me sometime to talk to chris: if & when you have a chance ;)
