Lark's Tongue - Peoria Psychedelia

Sometimes a band comes around and causes issues in your life. Existential quandaries begin to surface.
"Just how truly in touch with reality am I?"
"Why does music like this slip past me?"

Lark's Tongue come from Peoria, Illinois. Made up of members of Minsk & Men Of Fortune (among others), they appear to be stealthily putting out music for a number of years. They can be classified in the "stoner rock" section, but really have little in common with the genre. It's a spacey affair. Slow, beautifully menacing, and swirling with neon psychedelia. Within the dark aeon they inhabit, concessions are made to hang up a sludge-y backdrop and allow the musicians to systematically beat the dust from it with their respective instruments.


 Their first EP came in the form of a 7" called "The Rope/Tucson, Arizona"


This was followed by a split with Men Of Fortune. Within the first ten seconds from the first Lark's Tongue track, you start asking those questions from before. It becomes obvious that this is a band you have not heard the likes of.



If you were not struck blind by the time you get to listen to their next split LP with Across Tundras (who are another story altogether), you will be. Songs like "Aluminum" ease you in to the Lark's Tongue sound, with its beauty-in-darkness feel. Reverb-drenched guitars cascade like stark white snow into a world of monochromatic blue. Sharing the journey are two heavy tunes from T.G. Olson & crew in Across Tundras. This really couldn't be a better fit considering both bands are equally incorporeal.


"Narrow" comes in, a gorgeous, crystalline glacier magnifying idyllic ages past. A slow-creeping monolith, reading bygone days like an ancient, immortal scribe. Progressive and layered, jagged and dense, this album is a culmination of what had gone before, but now wears of cloak of wisdom. Synths lope along doggedly while heavy funereal guitars fill the path with a soft morass. Laminations of voices loom over the album like monastic stewards. The album can be quite a bucolic trip when used in the right ways and allowed to utter its incantations within the proper surroundings.

All fancy stuff aside, there is talk of Lark's Tongue releasing new material in 2018. During this time, it might be wise to familiarize yourself with the rest of their albums. I'm finding that this prog/psych/drone band from Peoria, Illinois are a band that I should have discovered some time ago. Don't get yourself into the same bind when they put out a new album. Let Lark's Tongue cause some issues in your life.

Find Their Faces In A Book

Camping With The Band