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Music

Take a Dab of bAd bAd’s Psychedelic Pop Punk

Listen to a sample from the Bay Area band’s debut LP that is out next month on S-S Records.

​St Kitts is some distance from the Oakland music scene, but after a friend hooked him up with a gig managing a beach bar south of the capital Basseterre, Christian Zamora, has spent the last six-months living and working on the Caribbean island.

Though it's meant that he's four thousand miles away from his band bAd bAd​, he's also experienced tropical sunsets for the better half of a year. Besides, it hasn't seemed to have slowed down the psych pop band's momentum as they release their debut LP on S-S records​ later this month and ready to head out on US west coast tour.

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The label sent us through a new a free digital ep that includes "Rope Burn", a track from the LP plus two bonus songs. Take a listen below and read a brief chat we had with Christian.

Noisey: Have you had a chance to checked out much music on St Kitts?
Christian Zamora: There are several 'Spanish bars" that play calypso non stop, and a few discrete rasta bars that still play amazing vintage reggae, but most of the clubs stick to dancehall and Soca. Back home I'm pretty average if not borderline square in a sea of punks and alternative lifestyles. Here I'm the weirdo. There are zero punks in St. Kitts. The most satiating music experience I get these days is watching DJs scream "BUMBACLOT" over their dancehall sets at packed beach bars. It's actually pretty amazing.

It's been said that bAd bAd have Barrett / Floyd interludes/influences. In what way? 
Probably because of our affinities for dissonance, schizophrenic arrangements, walls of sound, and psilocybin? "Rope Burn" is actually about an experience I had with psilocybin while camping in Big Sur that became unexpectedly intense. My friends and I witnessed a strange missile test from a nearby army base which at the time looked like the end of the world.

How has the band changed from when you started out? 
In the beginning we just wanted to play weird, Turkish-psych inspired surf music through punk filters. We were just a three piece and didn't take it too seriously. Then we started caring more about the songs, writing transparent lyrics, pushing ourselves to play better. My brother joined the band and since then we've added more motorik rhythms, expansive guitar layers, and off kilter song structures.

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I'm liking the track "Batter Ram". What's the story behind that? 
It started as a bedroom demo with acoustic guitars and MacGyver'd auxiliary drums (kitchen utensils). We tried to re-record it before I moved to the island, but the demo's magic could not be reproduced.

bAd bAd's debut LIP will be available Nov 4 through S-S Records.

Catch bAd bAd at these gigs:
Nov 17 - San Francisco at the Eagle 
Nov 18 - Portland at American Legion Hall
Nov 19 - Seattle at The Central Saloon
Nov 20 - Vancouver at The Ged Rate
Nov 21 - Seattle at Office Space
Nov 22 - Portland at Twilight Bar

Image: Julie Juarez