Asylum Harbour. Tombstones In Their Eyes

When you run a blog for over a decade, it seems unpreventable to forget about previous posts and especially in the singles section. It turns out that 'Sweet As Pie' was not the first entry of Los Angeles' Tombstones In Their Eyes. In 2020 two singles were reviewed, 'Maybe Someday' and 'I Can't See The Light'. Whatever album they are off, it did not make it, so Asylum Harbour is the band's album debut on WoNoBlog.

For Asylum Harbour John Treanor (vocals & guitar), Stephen Striegel (drums), Courtney Davies (vocals), Phil Cobb (guitar) and Paul Boutin (guitar), are joined by two new band members, Joel Wasko (bass) and Clea Cullen (vocals). The band started about a decade ago when Treanor and long-time friend John Cooper started exchanging ideas for songs. This grew into a band that released a string of songs over the years, as you can see on its Bandcamp page.

Asylum Harbour is attractive to fans of psychedelic rock, although the description the band provides is psychgazers. Granted, I can imagine the dark riffs in the darkest songs on the album leading to a lot of gazing at the points of shoes. The band most likely prefers day over night when creating and playing its music. Music for vampires and other denizens of the night.

This qualification does not make Asylum Harbour a less album. If I have to categorise Tombstone In Their Eyes, it would be in the The Black Angels corner of psychrock. From there the band turns even a bit darker at times. The way this album opens is a very consistent level of playing music. A Dandy Warhols pop vibe enters a song like 'In Your Eyes', a combination that really works. The deep bass and rhythm guitars, allow for a totally spacey guitar solo, that flies over the moon and back with ease. 'Sweet As Pie' holds that same deep and dark pop quality. These kind of songs grab a listener by the lapels and pull them straight into the rabbit hole of psychedelic rock.

Photo: Karin Johansson

It is here where the singing between John Treanor, Courtney Davies and Clea Cullen sores through my ears. This is such and asset to the band's music. The whole song is a mud pool of music and yet everything can be heard so distinctly. The great solid drumming by Stephen Striegel and Joel Wasko's bass that just goes on and on but also has these nice little lines between chords. Fuzzed and what not guitars are all over the place.

True, at the end of the album it may become a bit much, but that takes nothing away from the great songs that came before. 'Mirror', is another psychrock gem that graces Asylum Harbour and 'I Like To Feel Good' is even darker. Chrissie Hynde sang a long time ago "All of us are in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars". This is what the songs on Asylum Harbour make me feel like. No matter how dark and/or bleak things may seem, there's always beauty somewhere to be heard or seen. Listening to these dark songs, makes me feel I'm discovering beauty the whole time. That conclusion sums up Asylum Harbour for me.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

You can listen to and order Asylum Harbour here:

https://tombstonesintheireyes.bandcamp.com/album/asylum-harbour