Awesome Color

9 p.m. Tuesday, September 30. Billiken Club, in the Busch Student Center on the campus of Saint Louis University, 20 North Grand Boulevard

Sep 24, 2008 at 4:00 am

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The psychedelic-rock checklist results for the Michigan power trio Awesome Color read like this: tie-dye reminiscent name, check; wicked guitar solos over simple, fuzzed-out rhythmic figures, check; bluesy, howling frontman, check. Yet an empty box lies next to the "nostalgia for the '70s" category. Awesome Color is psychedelic in concept, but its 2008 release Electric Aborigines (which was released on Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace imprint) proves that the band pummels its instruments with a noise-rock intensity that negates any possibility of it being seen as borderline hippies. That Moore champions the band should also come as no surprise: The accessible riffage on standout track "Already Down" is reminiscent of Sonic Youth's propensity for matching instrumental skronk with inspired vocal hooks.