Man, some people just get it.

If you’d like to find out if you’re one of them, I heartily recommend this video of Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight performing “Coventry Carol” in honor of the holiday season. I promise, this is as close as I get to any Xmas-themed posting, but given Pete‘s red booties, it’s already closer than I thought I’d be.

Turning your reds and greens to Orange:

If you want to download the song, and obviously, you do, click here to go to the Superhot Records page on Bandcamp.

A discussion earlier today on the Facebook prompted me to revisit the acoustic EP, The Bleak, by UK rockers Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight. I think what I like best about it is that while most bands and/or songwriters, when they do their “acoustic album” or “go unplugged,” they just basically do the same thing they do on an electric guitar with an acoustic. Trippy Wicked, on the other hand, break out the ukulele and take a whole new approach to crafting their material. When you’re done with their reimagining of Sleep‘s classic “Dragonaut” (which seems to have earned a “gh” somewhere along the line) above, check out their video for “Separate Paths” here. It’s also quite good.

It was a crazy kind of week, but good. The homework I was supposed to do tonight I blew off in favor of hitting the bar, so here’s to having your priorities in order and making things harder on yourself. In any case, starting with a Monster Magnet live review and ending with a Weedeater live review seemed a good way to go, and if you missed it because it was tucked way at the end of the post, this photo of “Dixie” Dave Collins might be my favorite thing ever. Seriously. That alone was worth the price of the camera.

I also hope you got to take a look at the Brian Mercer interview, both because I’m a fan of his work and because he has some cool things to say about inspiration and the creative process. I think so, anyway, and hopefully you do too.

On Monday we jump back into it. Over the next week I’ll have reviews of the new Tasha-Yar studio full-length and Grand Magus‘ Hammer of the North, and an interview with Wo Fat guitarist Kent Stump about their awesome new album (reviewed here). We’ll close out the February numbers and take a look at what’s to come for March (lots), and I’ll have an update too about the next release on The Maple Forum, so there’s a lot to stay tuned for.

In the meantime, have a great and safe weekend, and if you’re around, I’ll see you on the forum, where — by request — you can now preview a topic just by scrolling over it with your mouse. Fancy that.

The UK has a long, storied love affair with blues-based rock and roll, and stepping right in line with the tradition are Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight, a passionately independent trio from St. Albans whose latest full-length, Movin’ On, was recently reviewed here. Comprised of Pete “Trippy Pierre” Holland on guitar/vocals, Dicky King on bass and Chris West on drums, Trippy Wicked harnesses a totally live feel on record while balancing it with clarity of sound and a modern production. Similar to the criminally underappreciated Shovelhead, the dynamic between the three players is as much a part of their sound as the guitar tone.

West was kind enough to take time and field some questions via email about the band, their experience recording at Chuckalumba Studios (Electric Wizard), self-releasing albums in the digital age and bringing the blues into a heavy context. Q&A, as ever, is after the jump. Please enjoy.

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Fact: There are more letters in the band moniker Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight than there are letters in all the names of its component musicians; Pete Holland (guitar/vocals/horns), Chris West (drums) and Dicky King (bass). The final tally, as I count it, is 43 to 29. Not necessarily relevant to a discussion of their music — or maybe it is, depending on how you look at it — but certainly something The Melvins or Kyuss never had to deal with.

The maximalist-bannered trio release their first full-length in the form of Movin? On, which takes several of the cuts from the Lowering the Tone demo EP and revitalizes them via re-recording. Holland, West and King holed up at Chuckalumba Studios in Dorset (Electric Wizard) for a week — no small feat for an unsigned band on a budget to book that much studio time — and the output justifies the probable expense. Listening to the new version of ?Sea Shanty,? it?s easy to see why Trippy Wicked and the Cosmic Children of the Knight would want to revisit it in this context.

Their songwriting is memorable if self-contained, and by that I mean I put the record on to listen to it almost immediately when it came in, then left it for a couple days, and having only heard the songs once before when I went back to it, recognized most of them immediately. Catchy tracks like ?Fire? — with what might be a Twin Peaks reference in the chorus — ?Echoes,? ?The Water? and ?Southern? find the UK rockers adopting a range of personalities, from heavy stoner riffers to bluesy groovers, all the while maintaining a solid identity within themselves.

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