The Perlich Post: All hail The Lumerians!

Monday, May 3, 2010

All hail The Lumerians!

There might be an initial impulse to write-off The Lumerians, who share their name with an alien race of humanoid empaths that appeared in a sixth season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called Man of the People, as a hopless bunch of Trekkie dweebs but the enigmatic San Francisco drone-psych quartet are actually much flakier than you may suspect. Without delving too deeply into the elaborately concocted mythology of the ancient Leumurians or Mount Shasta's alleged underground city of Telos which you can read about by following the link below, suffice it to say that our musicially-inclined group of Lumerians choose to keep their earthly identities secret for good reason.
While some of the neo-psych cognoscenti raved about the Lumerians five-song 12" debut EP issued by Subterranean Elephants back in 2008, I must admit I was more taken by the swirly sleeve image and the clear vinyl pressing than their lumbering sub-Spacemen 3 bashing.

The good news is that they've evolved significantly in the time since and the buzzing and whirring blitz of their new Burning Mirrors (Rococo) 7" will have some Wooden Shjips fans bowing to a new dolphin overlord. Even better is their inspired cover of the Osmonds' atypically freaky rave-up Crazy Horses (see clip below) on the flipside, although the title is listed on the sleeve as Chevaux Fous to either save themselves some embarrassment or avoid getting bumrushed by an enraged Donny Osmond at their next gig in Provo. But who knows, Donny might've even enjoy the well-twerked homage. There were only 500 copies of the Lumerians single pressed (400 white, 100 black) so even if you're not an Osmonds fan, you'd better get over to the Rococo label site site on the double. While you're there, you might also wanna reserve a copy of Rococo's equally limited Split Brain Experiment 10" from Red Mass.

Dance Party Revival featuring The Lumerians