The Witches – A Haunted Person’s Guide to the Witches (Alive)

Detroit’s Witches are (were?) one of the lesser-known but most consistent standard-bearers of psychedelic garage rock for the last decade. Led by singer/songwriter Troy Gregory (whose past work with Prong, Swans and Flotsam & Jetsam did little to indicate his future direction) and usually working out of producer Jim Diamond‘s Ghetto Recorders, the amorphous band has its four records (five if you count the unreleased debut Everything Changes Reality) of rough ‘n’ ready acid-tinged rock & roll distilled down to this quick and dirty best-of compilation. Like contemporaries The Brian Jonestown Massacre, the Witches see psych rock as contemporary art, rather than nostalgic exercise, and if Gregory is less enamored of shoegazing and the Paisley Underground than Anton Newcombe, he sees eye-to-eye on the idea that psych doesn’t have to be about peace, love and pretty flowers. While the Witches indulge in trippiness with “The Haunted Regulars,” “Spirit World Rising” and “Sleepin’ On a Demons Tree,” the combo is at its best on rockers a la “People What’s Wrong With U,” the glam-stomping “Attack of Thee Misfit Toyz” and “Down On Ugly Street” – Gregory’s theatrical voice sounds more comfortable snarling than sliding. One could argue that it’s unfair to summarize five LPs with a dozen tracks (three of them previously unreleased) in 36 minutes, but given the uneven nature of the band’s albums, A Haunted Person’s Guide to the Witches makes a much stronger case for the Witches’ virtues than a journey through their catalog.

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