Performed live at Impact Coffee in Decorah, IA 2/25/23. Written by Ox-Eye and the Heavy Hand.

Joel Fassbinder: Baritone guitar, harmonica, vocals
Brian Brummel: Lead guitar
Ben Dollhausen: Bass
Eva Brummel: Percussion

Hellhounds

“Some songs I write quickly without really thinking at all—and this is one of them,” says Bay Area psych popsmith Luke Sweeney. “There’s no right-brain interference between my stream of consciousness and the page.”

About as unfiltered as it gets, “The Mercy Mile” was written in a single night by lamplight, with passing trains as the only distraction. It’s the latest single from Novel Tea, Sweeney’s fifth full-length, available Friday via Yours Unruly Unlimited. With roots in San Francisco’s garage-rock scene of the 2010s, Sweeney earned high marks for 2022’s Rishi, funneling his grief over the loss of a baby daughter into a mesmerizing panacea of synth washes, jazzy textures and Eastern influences acquired during his travels in India. “The Mercy Mile” leans more toward the nimble, warmly nostalgic ’70s-inspired craftsmanship of previous releases.

“It contains images, observations and feelings from two lives—my dream life and my waking life,” says Sweeney. “They intertwine in a ghost-like dance that hopefully leaves the room with a new light and a little bit of inspiration to live unedited: raw, emotional, honest and free.”

—Hobart Rowland, MAGNET Magazine

Novel Tea

The Mercy Mile

(Check one two, check)

This is
Pop song
Rock song
Hip-Hop song

This is
Break beat
Back beat
Space beat

This is
New scene
Down stream
Spiritual Being

This is
Dubstep
School prep
Political Rep

This is
Strip Club
Dance Club
Ace of Club

This is
New scene
Down stream
Spiritual being

Down Stream

Banger

Al torre - Guitar
Bambii - vocals
samson - guitar
Matteo - bass
Joel - drums
hand drumming - thank you

samfest jam (last 5 mins)

Acoustic country blues and folk musician born and raised in the Driftless.

live dates: https://bnds.us/mlbb5r

The long-awaited arrival of ‘Peace Meal’ [Royal Oakie] in 2019 felt like a rebirth, in that the songs are the fruit of a communicative collaboration between this plane of existence and another; stuff of the cosmos that Sweeney has been personally tasked to deliver. Meanwhile, breezy melodies and buoyant beats showcase what was musically Sweeney’s most pop-oriented album to date: “a smorgasbord of influence: there’s Kinks and T. Rex, there’s Mungo Jerry and the smallest touch of Latin vibes; waltzy beats. Above all, the lyrics are clever, kooky and funny and god bless him, they’re interesting... Sweeney writes songs with a connective energy about them. This Sweeney has soul” (TheBayBridged).

With his notebook handy and his microphone on standby, Sweeney is back on the proverbial horse with a 2021 EP ‘Critique of Nature’ featuring his top-streaming song to date in ‘Natural Force’, which was lauded as a “stylish synthpop success” that “hits it out of the park” (Obscure Sound).  Sweeney's 4th full-length album, a dedication to his late daughter Rishi, is slated for release in November 2022, with another LP already in the can for 2023.

New tracks tagged #Indie Jam