After reading Seamus’ article on Blood Feathers, I recalled my first encounter with their drummer Feather Q, aka Quentin Stoltzfus, last summer. It was at Club Congress in Tucson, where I was diligently pounding beers awaiting Rogue Wave to take the stage. But before that would occur, I would have to be subjected to an opening band that I had yet to hear. Q’s band, Mazarin, took the stage and promptly proceeded to kick out the jingly jangles, echoey vocals, and dreamy riffs that sparked fire to my ears. I looked around the club in anticipation to see how the brotherly/sisterly collective was receiving the paisley-colored good vibes. Unfortunately there weren’t too many witnesses to relate to at this point in the night. Just as I was being pulled back into their psychedelic trance, the beers came a knockin’ on bladder’s door.

On my way to the restroom, I ran into Gram LeBron and Evan Farrell of Rogue Wave. They were the first people I ran into, and I was just waiting to blurt out to somebody “Wow, this is really good and psychedelic. I dig it!” They countered matter-of-factly, “Yeah! That’s why we’re out here listening too!” Being one band that is not afraid to play Arizona, I had seen Rogue Wave play several times. Now being the Joe Completest dork that I am, I requested a rare track that I was into at the time that I had yet to hear live, “March”. Right at that moment Mazarin started playing “Another One Goes By”. Evan turned to me and said “You need to check this song out”, and started dancing about. But I had my own agenda, and against my will, the matter at hand had to be dealt with. I could however hear the melodic sounds creeping in from behind me, and there in that restroom, I did find myself swaying (responsibly) at the urinal.

Leave it to Rogue Wave, who recorded one of my favorite psych-tinged pop albums, Out of the Shadow, to nod me in the direction of my favorite one of 2005: Mazarin’s We’re Already There.

Checkin’ it out:

• Dreamy “Another One Goes By”
• Bitter-sweet “Louise”
• Hazy “We’re Already There”

…and for Joe Completest:

• Rogue Wave’s “March”

If you want some more, buy some from Stinkweeds, m’kay?