Weird Owl

Weird Owl are five Brooklynites set on evoking the sort of psychedelia that gave birth to the more experimental and avant-garde styles of the late period Beatles. Inspired by Pink Floyd's Syd Barrett-led days, Weird Owl take classic and original psychedelic rock into the 21st century. It's a valiant attempt, but the common pitfall of rehashing the past while being unable to add innovation means that Build Your Beast a Fire is a bit of an artistic failure. Originality is an afterthought for Weird Owl, who succeed at sounding the way they do. The one goal that could be derived from the song and album titling, marketing and packaging is that Weird Owl are trying very hard to sound "classic." Though not without hooks and generally competent musicianship, it is mostly pandering and derivative, though any fan of '60s psych-rock shouldn't be deterred from revisiting their adolescence for 40 minutes and giving Build Your Beast a Fire a listen.