Amish is pleased to announce the release of Black Taj’s second full-length, Beyonder, which will hit the streets on May 13th, 2008. This second long-player continues to explore the psychedelic and classic rock templates with which they worked on their s/t debut, an incendiary mix of self-aware stoner jams (“Spacewash”) and progressive rock time shifts ("Cold Comfort") that recall some of the musicians’ previous projects.
For most of the 1990s, Dave Brylawski and Steve Popson played in (the recently-reunited) Polvo and in the late 1990s, Grant Tenille joined Brylawski in the primarily folk-inflected Idyll Swords. Rounding out the Taj quartet, Tom Atherton proves himself a formidable drummer. Along with Popson, Atherton provides the center for Black Taj's recorded output and a counterweight to Brylawski and Tenille's guitar virtuosity during their live incarnations.
While many bands in the current hard rock revival mindlessly ape their idols, Black Taj deliver an intelligent updating of these conventions, and proving again that the twin guitar attack of Thin Lizzy and the muscular riffing of early ZZ Top still has legs. If you have been wondering what one-half of Polvo has been up to over the last decade, look no further. Like many of us, Black Taj expands upon the sonic experiments of the 1990s by returning to the records at the center of so many record collections.
You can get a first listen over at our myspace page
Brylawski and Popson will be busy playing the Polvo shows early this summer which include All Tomorrow's Parties and Primavera Fest in Europe and a handful of US dates in May and June and then Taj gears up to bring Beyonder to the masses.
