Black Angels to Collaborate With Dum Dum Girls, Celebrate Austin Psych Fest 4

In the wake of SXSW last month, news of musical collaborations have started to trickle out, with fans discovering which acts were able to see past the endless BBQ and beers in order to talk shop. The latest project to come from Austin's epic meeting of the minds is a proposed collaboration between the Black Angels and Dum Dum Girls.

"[Dum Dum Girls' producer] Richard Gottehrer wants us to do some collaboration work with the Dum Dum Girls," Black Angels band leader Alex Maas tells Spinner. "Basically, he introduced me to [frontwoman] Dee Dee over SXSW. He was like, 'Oh, you guys should do a song together,' and so we might have a couple songs or a Black Angels/Dum Dum Girls split. We haven't even figured out if it'll be a cover or what, but we're picturing something sort of Shangri-Las-like."

With the Black Angels' stoner-friendly psych jams and Dum Dum Girls' retro girl-group vibe, the pairing should excite fans. What won't, however, is waiting for the bands' schedules to align. Black Angels, for one, don't exactly have loads of free time, what with touring their latest record, 'Phosphene Dream,' and coordinating their annual Austin Psych Fest, which runs April 29-May 1 in their hometown and features performances by Roky Erikson and Prefuse 73.

"This is our fourth year to do it," says Maas of the festival. "It started just basically because we meet a lot of these guys on the road that were making cool music and we wanted to bring them to Austin."

"It's a bunch of artists that we enjoy that we think should be the biggest bands in the world," adds guitarist Christian Bland.

Watch Black Angels' Video for 'Haunting at 1300 McKinley'
"This psychedelic genre is really growing," says Maas. "The word just means so much. In the past I think we focused more on '60s psychedelic-type bands, but now it's all-encompassing. There are 52 bands this year."

"This year it's become larger than life," he continues.

"The first year it was just one day at a big abandoned barn in north Austin, and we had visions of that being the new psychedelic venue in Austin, but pretty much the next day the fest the owner was like, 'No way, I'm not working with you again,' because we lost like $5,000 on the bar. This time, it's where Jay-Z played during SXSW, that old power plant. It looks like Gotham City or something."

Could this be a new home for the roving festival?

"If we could do it there every year, we would," says Bland, "But the city is going to break ground. They're renovating it for a shopping center or something."

That's all the more reason for people with a predilection for trippy, far-out sounds to check out this year's Austin Psych Fest. Who doesn't like the thought of standing in a Walmart a year down the line proudly proclaiming, "This is where I saw Roky Erikson perform his classic 'Starry Eyes'!"

Watch Spinner's Video Interview With the Black Angels