DIANDRA REVIEWS EXCLUSIVE: Acid Tongue Drip Through Arboretum
Acid Tongue gives you the type of cool psychedelia that makes you feel exposed. To be honest, an acid trip is a strange experience. It is the most euphoric, anxiety inducing thing to happen to a person, in part, because you are so unabashedly opened to yourself that you will come out changed. It is kind of like removing all the filters from a picture, and seeing so much difference between the original and the edited picture that you cannot unsee the changed.
Out December 3, I got the chance to EXCLUSIVELY STREAM Acid Tongue’s newest LP Arboretum, and I am totally in. A core duo of drummer/vocalist Ian Cunningham and songwriter Guy Kelter, both have been productive over the past 18 months, self-producing the 10 new songs as a “confrontation” on what it means to confront yourself. The Seattle band named the album after the city where Kelter fell into a depression and, ultimately, kicked his alcoholic tendencies the curb. Amongst Parkside and plants and sounds he got in tune with nature, particularly his own, and Cunningham beautifully captures, in his voice, what it is to get “personal” with yourself.
Sometimes, I wonder if, in a world, that can truly take away your peace, the best thing we can do is give it to ourselves, which, in some ways, is what acid trip is like. Yet, make no mistake, becoming your own peace means you have to confront how you have been your own war. Lyrically and sonically, Arboretum see-saws through gut-busting, funky melodies and quiet, pensive verses that speak to a core understanding of making your human experience a batter one; you got to break down to break through.