Few bands have withstood the crash-test knockings of the music industy like the British rockers from Thee Hypnotics. After a stormy period of over three years since their last big tour, the five-member psychadelic blues group hits the stage this Tuesday night at Salt Lake's Zephyr Club.
Thanks to the release of their new album The Very Crystal Speed Machine, Thee Hypnotics are still swinging hard musically with a hard and rhythmic sound that boosted them to a strong emergence in the late '80s. The delivery of their genuine style was only strengtened by The Black Crowes' Chris Robinson who fulfilled his promises to the band to produce the disc.Robinson was one of the band's biggest fans from the start with their brash release Soul, Glitter and Sin: Tales From the Sonic Underground. The result was a chance to tour with the Crowes in the U.K. in 1991.
The last chance to tour the U.S. went dry unexpectedly when a car accident landed drummer Phil Smith in the hospital for six months with two broken legs. Another tragedy followed when bassist Will Pepper left the group and was replaced by Craig Pike. After only a few months of recording work, Pike died in London of a drug overdose, leaving the band hurting once again. "We were hanging on by the skin of our teeth for a certain period of time," guitarist Ray Hanson said.
Pepper returned to play bass and with Robinson's help, the release of Speed Machine has breathed new life into a band hungry to play. With a deep growling vibrance in tracks like "If The Good Lord Loves Ya" and "Keep Rollin' On", Thee Hypnotics strike back strong in energetic fashion resembling their original younger style.
"We exorcised a lot of demons on `Soul, Glitter and Sin', and now we've got back to that rootsy rock that was our first motivation and learned much more on the way," Hanson said. "We took the view on this album that it was a clean slate, to look at it as a debut all over again."