MT. OSSA

The storyline in director Joey Sinko’s video for “Love Jam” is pretty compelling — ambitious waitress solicits audition from club owner, hijinks ensue — but it’s not quite as dramatic as this question: Who are those fellows in the dark glasses? They are twins Jordan and Adam Sabolick, Richard Thiessen, Johnny Wilson and Tony Tancredi, now doing business as MT. OSSA. Yes, it’s the same guys who, known as the Union Line, enjoyed a moment of next-big-thing status in 2009 before lousy luck sabotaged their record deal and left them in limbo. The Orange County-bred quintet went back to the drawing board, digging deep into crates of old vinyl for inspiration and equipping themselves with vintage gear to equate that sound. MT. OSSA’s just-finished album almost feels like opening a time capsule — hazy psych-pop that melts into lazy surf-rock that fades into fuzzy soul. As reinventions go, it’s drastic. But as myriad young artists have found, sometimes stepping into the future means walking through the past - Buzzbands LA

This slow-brewing jam from SoCal quintet MT. OSSA showed up in my inbox the other day and had me instantly intrigued. It’s a colorful slice of warbled psych-pop with a disco groove. Yeah, if that sounds pretty cool, it’s because it is. Take a listen - Turntable Kitchen

This slow-brewing jam from SoCal quintet MT. OSSA showed up in my inbox the other day and had me instantly intrigued. It’s a colorful slice of warbled psych-pop with a disco groove. Yeah, if that sounds pretty cool, it’s because it is. Take a listen - Turntable Kitchen

MT. OSSA had their first residency at the Echo on Wednesday night and although I had never heard of them, a good-sized crowd had come to plunge into their surfing-dancing psychedelia. They had turned the lights down really down and the quintet was playing in front of kaleidoscopic and colorful images, of course, reinforcing the psychedelic ambiance.

Their first number, ‘Pocket full of kids’, an instrumental opening their debut record ‘Homework Machine’, was some strange and slow dancefloor buried in loudness and distortion, a long jam with a synth line piercing the fuzz. Many of the following songs made me think about Australian psy-rockers ‘Tame Impala’, with druggy-dreamy-monotonous vocals drowning in walls of fuzzy guitars, as Kurt Vile also does. The whole thing had some acid-trip-experience potential, and during the entire set, it was difficult to distinguish anything or even their silhouettes marbled with rainbow of colors, Technicolor waves and this effect was totally fitting their musical style. May be all this was allowing us to fully experience the songs, may be it was there to hypnotize us even more. I was wondering whether some people in the crowd had started to smoke weed, but it was actually not necessary, the trip was really there on stage, and totally drug-free. Fluid synth pop ‘Love Jam’ was borrowing to 80s dance pop, while ‘Solar Skate’ started with lots of drumming, sidereal distortion and a gliding effect; everything sounded layered, distant and lost behind a foggy wall of sound, not even afraid to explore dissonance… ‘Khella’ has even a happy surf-theme going on and the last one, ‘Worst Weather’ was far less fuzzy with almost-African guitars and a close-to-jazz vibe, before ending into a massive jam psy-fest. All I can say is that the band was adventurous with the sound and very far away from the indie-rock clichés. They put their entire album on Soundcloud, but honestly listening to it online only reproduced a tamed-down version of the spacey live experience. They got to open for rock legend Todd Rundgren on July 8th, which is quite an accomplishment for a barely-known local band (they are from Orange County), but Mt. OSSA’s Tony Tancredi explained to the OC weekly how they got the gig: ‘All I did was email his people about the gig, and they got back to us saying Todd was into it and loved the sound’. Since Rundgren loves Tame Impala – he has called their sound ‘neo-psychedelia’ and has remixed one of their songs ‘Elephant’ – may be I was into something when I thought about Tame Impala! - Rock NYC

Since their big coming out party last spring, tripped-out indie pop outfit MT. OSSA's journey out of obscurity is coming at a much quicker pace now that their summery sound can flourish in its natural climate. Last night, the Mission Viejo quintet gained major ground as the opening act for classic rock polymath Todd Rundgren at the Coach House. And since we interviewed the band a couple months back, they've finished their debut record Homework Machine, a surf-toned, psychedelic voyage through doo-wop and 80s dance pop territories, just in time for their July residency at the Echo.

But before they hit the stage tomorrow in LA, they want you to get as familiar with songs like "Love Jam," "Whistling Season," and "Solar Skate" as you possibly can. Naturally, they've offered up a full stream of their new album for free. We suggest that you take a listen. After all, knowing the lyrics will come in handy as you're senses get bombarded by the crazy, homespun projections these guys cook up for their live show, something they'll likely be known for by the time this residency is over.

"We've always been into a lot of colors and the brightness of everything," says drummer Tony Tancredi. "We want people to feel that when they see us. We want them to see the whole picture when we're playing live." - OC Weekly/Nate Jackson

In front of a full crowd at the Echo in LA, the South OC natives actually seemed to disappear in a flickering flurry of homespun images. Blizzards of sparkling silver shards on a white screen melted seamlessly into crashing, Technicolor waves and psychotropic cartoon footage from the '70s. Each frame is edited by the band and scored to fit their layers of woozy, surf-toned R&B and rippling pools of vocal delay. In short--these guys know what the hell they're doing. - OC Weekly