West Indian Girl

• Genre: Indie/Alternative
• West Indian Girl Website

About

West Indian Girl specialize in airy space rock where the gentle psychedelia of David Crosby's If I Could Only Remember My Name combines with a subtle '90s drone (think My Bloody Valentine minus the feedback). A female backing singer brings back the hippie days while the instrumentation follows a jam rock blueprint and the lead vocals echo both Perry Farrell and the late Shannon Hoon, of Blind Melon. Clearly, the band, formed in L.A. in the late '90s, is much more than simply a psychedelic rock act. Main instigators Robert James (guitar, vocals) and Francis Ten (bass) appear to be as into late-period Beach Boys as Porno For Pyros, which leads to an accessibility that prompted Astralwerks to release their self-titled debut in 2004. The band parted ways with Astralwerks for their second record, 4th & Wall, which appeared in 2007. A third album, We Believe, turned up in 2009.

- Mike McGuirk