J. Roddy Walston is a force of nature. If his hits like Heavy Bells is are a war cry, then the
deep cuts like Boys Can Never Tell are a tac@cal cosmic retreat. For some, his music is a
form of religion, psychedelic in its intensity, transforma@ve in its grip on the body,
shaking loose something primal that’s been buried too long. It’s not about thinking, It’s
about moving, feeling, surrendering. His influences are a riot of contradic@ons: Kurt
Cobain’s fury, Nilsson’s fractured sweetness, Zeppelin’s power, and somewhere in there
a perverted nod to William Onyeabor’s lonely calculator funk. Cri@cs try to box him in,
but Walston can’t be contained—he does chaos, and his live shows do damage, but
fortunately his songs can pay the tab. Catch him and his band before he burns it all
down again.
