18 January 5-11, 2023 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents And a Trippy New Year The psychedelic noise-rock Lithium X-Mas returns in style after 25 years of hibernation. BY DANNY GALLAGHER T wenty-five years ago, Dallas’ most famous psychedelic rock trio, Lithium X-Mas, broke up after a long, storied run that in- cluded four album releases. It turns out that it wasn’t a death for the band, just a lengthy coma that helped the mem- bers rest up and rejuvenate. The group has returned with a new self- titled, limited-edition vinyl album just in time for the holidays (which is totally unre- lated but still a nice touch) that explores a sound that almost became a forgotten relic even on the nostalgia-loving indie scene. The group — consisting of Chris Merlick, Mark Ridlen and Greg Synodis — first came to life in 1985 at the height of Dallas’ punk scene, which produced the likes of The Nervebreakers and The Telefones and was a constant draw for bands such as the Butt- hole Surfers. Lithium X-Mas found a unique penchant for distortion and released its first album the following year. The band toured around town and even the country once, sharing stages with Sonic Youth before hanging up its noisemakers in 1997. The new album picks up right where the group left off all those years ago. The term “psychedelic” is too general in terms of the band’s concept. They aren’t making noises to fuck with your head but to explore the musical space. Lithium X-Mas produced an unusually expressive sound that’s built off the top of funk and rock beats, like a clear projector sheet laid over a painting to add something new to an established foundation. Take, for instance, the A-side cover track “Acid,” which lays down a rock track with a heavy, funky base and covers it with well-timed synthe- sized echoes and sounds like the “oooo, oooo” noise you hear in old horror movies. Another staple of Lithium X-Mas’s dis- cography, like all great punk and experimen- tal acts, is covers. Great covers do more than just spit a familiar song back at you and play with the sound to create something new out of something old. The choice of covers is also key. Any two-bit punk garage band can turn whatever bubblegum pop cover of the day into something loud and screeching simply out of a healthy dose of disrespect for the mainstream. The cover choices Lithium X-Mas made on its new vinyl album are just as lovingly disrespectful, but still different and interesting. “Acid” comes from a cheesy anti-drug song by Stu Mitchell and Wes Da- kus’ Rebels, which tells an unintentionally hilarious story about a guy who goes on one bad LSD trip. “Angel Angel Down We Go” is the theme song of a campy 1969 crime drama of the same name in which a stereotypical movie rocker who feels like a cross between a Jim Morrison impersonator and Dick Shawn’s L.S.D. from Mel Brooks’ The Producers wrecks a wealthy, suburban family’s idyllic life. The movie doesn’t know if it wants to be a cautionary tale about dropping out or if it’s making fun of that ideal, so Lithium X-Mas takes its caricature of a theme song and turns it into something better, something that could’ve possibly helped the audience understand such a mess of a movie. Lithium X-Mas’ new vinyl is also great at mixing things up from track to track. Even the best psychedelic albums can start to sound the same if you listen to the album long enough, but the band turns the tempo up to something peppy and catchy with tracks such as “Kruise Kontrol” or a little harder-edged like “Two People in a Room” without sacrificing the unique sounds that made their name. It’s just nice to know that there’s a psy- chedelic rock group that can still create a great, original sound this far away from its birthplace on the musical timeline. DIAL IT UP A DECADE HOT 93.3 CHANGES FORMATS BY BUMPING UP ITS MUSIC TO THE MODERN ERA. BY DANNY GALLAGHER J ust when we thought Pitbull’s ancient hit “Give Me Everything Tonight” couldn’t be more overplayed in mod- ern radio, the ‘90s pop music station Hot 93.3 FM has announced its internal clock is moving forward by one decade. The top hits station owned by Cumulus Media, which reaches Dallas and Fort Worth, announced it will expand its music format from only the biggest hits of the 1990s to include chart toppers from the 2000s, according to the station’s website. The station has also been renamed The New Hot 93.3 FM. Hot 93.3 FM’s format change is just the latest of several radio station reworkings. 97.1 FM changed from the long-running rock sta- tion The Eagle to The Freak as retired Ticket radio talker Mike Rhyner returned to the air- waves to run the new free-talk format station; The Freak also brought back Ben Rogers and Jeff “Skin” Wade’s Ben and Skin Show, which previously ran on The Eagle; and Pugs Moran from Pugs and Kelly fame, which aired on the defunct Live 105.3 FM station, is set to do a weekend night talk show called Mans- plaining. A few months ago, the student-run KNTU 88.1 FM at the University of North Texas in Denton announced a switch from an all-jazz format to independent music, prompting a wave of mixed responses from listeners. And, yeah, the ‘90s produced some of mod- ern pop music’s greatest songs. Even cheese- ball centerpieces like “I’m Too Sexy” trumped the 2011 hit “I’m Sexy And I Know It.” But the early 2000s had some great music, even if the memories of artists such as Amy Winehouse and The White Stripes often drown in the per- sistence of LMFAO and Creed. If you want a well-curated mix of local music, standards and classics, there’s always 91.7 KXT, Deep Ellum Radio and 89.3 KNON. Hot 93.3’s station change puts it more in line with other iHeartMedia station formats such as 106.1 KISS FM and Now 102.9 FM. Cumulus also owns and operates the coun- try stations 99.5 FM The Wolf and New Country 96.3, the fabled sports radio station The Ticket on 1310 AM and the news sta- tions WBAP 820 AM and KLIF 570 AM. So far, Cumulus has not changed Hot 93.3 FM’s on-air hosts or management. Social media star turned radio host Mason still holds down the morning slot from 5:30 a.m to 10 a.m. since her move to Dallas from Se- attle’s Movin’ 92.5 FM last year, and Sid Kelly handles the afternoon shift from 3 p.m.to 6 p.m. It’s all good. Just retire that Pitbull tor- ture song before we deliberately dive into traffic. Lithium X-mas members (from left) Chris Merlick, Mark Ridlen and Greg Synodis have a new album that picks up right where the group left off in 1997. Brent Elrod | B-SIDES | t Music
