Acid Smoothie pushes the Garage Rock sound to the edge on album, “Bending”
With Bending, Acid Smoothie, the project of Southern California multi-instrumentalist Paul Dunne, has delivered a record that doesn’t just nod to the golden age of fuzzed-out garage rock but it tears through it with modern intensity and emotional honesty. Across its 8 exceptional songs, Bending feels both like a high-volume meditation on identity, change, and the weight of the past, filtered through walls of distortion and the thrill of sonic abandon.
Dunne has long been a force in the fuzz underground, raised in the same West Coast current that gave rise to Ty Segall, Wavves, Wand, and Meatbodies. Yet what he’s crafted here is far more than homage. Bending feels like a fully realized evolution that takes the raw chaos of those early garage sounds and molds it into something emotionally deeper and technically sharper. For listeners familiar with his previous release, Faxing the Vatican (absolutely worth checking out), this new album expands that soundscape while retaining Dunne’s unmistakable energy. It’s more introspective and yet somehow even louder.
The record is an unrelenting fuzz-heavy trip through the psyche packed with riffs that bleed into each other like fever dreams and moments of pure, blissful noise that make you want to crank the volume until the walls vibrate. When we say it’s fuzzy, we mean it’s fuzzy to the point of feeling like it’s shaking your brain loose while you listen.
Dunne’s vocals sit high in the mix carrying the weight of the record’s style. He manages to inject meaning into every ounce of feedback, whether through direct confessions or cryptic allegories that leave space for interpretation. This isn’t noise for noise’s sake. There’s purpose in every crescendo and catharsis in every crash. Though we’ve obviously kept a focus on the guitar portions, we absolutely have to give a special shout out to the underrated groovy bass lines that show up on this record. Particularly, “404” was a huge standout for us!
At its core, Bending is the sound of an artist completely in control of his chaos. He’s evolving, never making the same thing twice, and at the end of it, you can literally feel the fun ooze through. It’s almost as if you’re in the garage with him as this record holds a really intimate feeling too.
The rest of his discog is a must listen, but before you do, go ahead and click those links below to give this one a spin and make sure to follow along for the latest as well.
Like what you read? Follow our social media and playlist for the latest in independent music:
