Alex Maas, Mello Meddo, Up Around the Sun, Little Mazarn

Alex Maas solo is a different trip – similarly hypnotic to the spiraling sonics of his flagship psych band, but comparatively stark and gentle. A Black Angels show hits you, but a Maas show sits with you. His 2020 debut Luca was described by the Chronicle as a variety pack of “ancient folk, bass-heavy antigravity bops, and vintage pop” showcasing his sweet and eerie voice. His appearance at the Angels-affiliated Red River enclave stacks a captivating lineup. The bucolic outsider folk of Little Mazarn, with Lindsey Verrill singing and Jeff Johnston on the bowed saw, captured the calm eccentricities of small town life with recent EP Honey Island General Store. Up Around the Sun conjoins the rhythmic clawhammer banjo of Jerry Haggins with the resonant six-string voicings of Tim Kerr for instrumentals hearkening to both Appalachia and Ireland. Meanwhile, heady alternative noise quartet Heavy Meddo intrigues as alter ego Mello Meddo. —1292031