Haunted Leather Red Road

Evoking dark desert highways better than the Eagles and mystic Car crashes better than the Doors, Haunted Leather is a spooky psychedelic garage band from Grand Rapids, Michigan, a city I lived in that lacked any sort of desert but had lots of churches and nothing to do. “Shapes on the Wall” opens with lurching garage attack like Michael Yonkers band or the Who’s “Boris the Spider”, but stretched out to creep show lengths. “Diamond Sleep” rides a greasy bass groove into a cloud of distortion, like Tracy Pew gone cosmic and kicking out the jams with Les Rallizes Dénudés. “You Shouldn’t Ask” has garage feel closer to Cramps or Safe as Milk Beefheart which maintains a propulsive feel through the drift. The songs travelling farther into the desert night through the next couple of songs before finishing with the majestic Velvet Underground channeling “I Don’t Mind”. Haunted Leather keep some garage grittiness and hooks in their music that keeps the self-indulgence down, every song is a song not a vehicle for a guitar solo. Like their heroes Les Rallizes Dénudés who rode Motown bass lines into feedback storms, there is a hint of pop to the freak-out, with the haunted house or desert séance vibe gives them a mysterious air. They seem to have a healthy Jodorowsky obsession which is always good. Haunted Leather is definitely a band worth noting. being retro and modern in equal measures and having a pretty singular identity for a new band.