
Brain Wizard – Brain Wizard’s Most Hella Dopest
July 11, 2018 Lee Ferguson Albums, Rock 0

10/10
“What the fuck did I just listen to?” This is what I said to myself the first time I hit play on Brain Wizard’sBrain Wizard’s Most Hella Dopest (released April 23rd, 2018 on Green Monkey Records). I repeated the sentiment on the second listen. And the third. I’m still trying to wrap my brain around it; I might not be able to and I’m sure that’s just what Brain Wizard intended.
Okay, let’s get the particulars out of the way first. Brain Wizard is the project of Kurt Elzner (formerly of Mazzy Star, The Purdins and several other acts) and bassist Zach Lansdowne who played with Elzner in The Purdins. Elzner operates out of Olympia, Washington where he also runs the record label Green Monkey Records.
Now to the serious business, what is Brain Wizard? Where did it come from? What are its intentions? Here’s what I’ve gathered. Brain Wizard appeared “out of the mist of a disorderly bedroom apartment in Hollywood.” He divulged his “EPIC COSMOLOGICAL PLAN” to a select group of “Chosen Disciples” who now make up the band Brain Wizard. Although a mortal being, who is not a chosen disciple cannot comprehend the true plan of the Brain Wizard, nor even see the Brain Wizard for that matter, we can listen to these eleven songs that make up Brain Wizard’s Most Hella Dopest and gain some slight understanding as to what this plan is.
The music is a far-reaching pastiche of otherworldy alt-rock, funky electronic. The drums loom large, so loud in the mix you’re almost offended, but in a positive way if that’s possible; they strike you right in the gut on opening track “Life Is Fun” much in the way the Flaming Lips famously did on “Race For The Prize,” opening track off of their masterpiece The Soft Bulletin. Many of the tracks on Brain Wizard’s Most Hella Dopest are collages of digitalized grooves, distorted guitars and clever, poetic, tongue-in-cheek vocals, “If you want to live on this place we call earth, then you’ve got to eat food” from “Food No. 9. (Slight Return).”He seems like a real genius this Brain Wizard. “Lazy Superman” is an earworm that will fester in your brain until it is rot and pilfered for all of its usefulness. Elzner constructs songs with the carefree attitude of a five-year-old who has been handed some old magazines, a pair of scissors and a bottle of glue; the results of which I would proudly display on my fridge. The closest comparable in an audio frame I can give you is Beck’s Mellow Gold, to which I will reference Stephen Thomas Erlewine’s review on allmusic.com, “From its kaleidoscope array of junk-culture musical styles to its assured, surrealistic wordplay, Beck’s debut album, Mellow Gold, is a stunner.” Swap in Brain Wizard’s Most Hella Dopest for Mellow Gold. I could not have said it better myself.
Brain Wizard’s Most Hella Dopest is a most satisfying listen…required listening. An intergalactic, freaked-out, trippy adventure with life lessons advising kids to not make nuclear bombs “Kids Don’t Try This At Home,” love songs that reference kissing bugs “Bugzahlick” and some clues about the Brain Wizard and what he truly wants “The 3rd Most Epic Legend of Brain Wizard.” Leave your sanity behind when you hit play on this one, you won’t require it.
Exposé 8/03/18
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Brain Wizard — Most Hella Dopest
(Green Monkey GM1046, 2018, CD / DL)
by Jon Davis, Published 2018-08-03
Brain Wizard is basically a one-man band consisting of Kurt Elzner, who is assisted here and there by bassist Zach Lansdowne. Elzner has a long history in music — I remember him from a Seattle band in the 80s called The Purdins, but he’s also worked with Mazzy Star and others. Most Hella Dopest is testimony that solo outings can indeed be worthy, when the one person is talented enough.
These 11 tracks are full of clever rock with tinges of psychedelia and just the right amount of weird humor to make for a vastly entertaining listen.
The mythology behind the project involves an interstellar being called the Brain Wizard who has an Epic Cosmological Plan beyond the comprehension of mere mortals and who telepathically transmits songs to his disciples on Earth.
All good fun, though it would probably come off as pathetic if the songs weren’t in fact really good. Most of them are appealing from the first listen, like the opener, “Life Is Fun,” with inventive electronic noise peppering a head-bobbing groove and a multitude of vocal parts. Or “Lazy Superman,” which tells of a hero who’s tired of always having to get humans out of trouble: “The more you give to them, the more they ask of you, and that’s not what friends do.” “Interdimensional Bigfoot” and “Interstellar Space Love-Thing Woman” exhibit goofy humor built on science fiction B-movies infused into trippy sampled percussion (in the first case) and slinky rock with backwards guitar, overdriven organ, and bleepy synthesizers (in the second). Each track has its own flavor and its own little quirks, and repeated listens reveal additional details. Elzner is obviously having fun, and that feeling is infectious.
True Facts.
It all started with the Checkered Deemlers, a cartoonish print on thick, perforated paper. Suddenly, out of the mist of a disorderly bedroom apartment in Hollywood, kicked up by Horsey Horse (God knows why that fool was there – but he was) THE MAJESTIC Brain Wizard appeared.
Brain Wizard
Maintaining invisibility to everyone but these “Chosen Disciples” he dropped his EPIC COSMOLOGICAL PLAN – a plan so vast in scope that it could not be comprehended by mere mortals. Only these dudes in that Hollywood apartment, and only at that moment in time. On that very night, the Brain Wizard started imparting his songs of Pure Genius — communicating telepathically every nuance for his humble practitioners of the 4-track recording arts to manifest for the World.
Disciple Kurt
Out of his initial Chosen Disciples, one has never strayed far from his master’s voice – Kurt Elzner, long ago a member of Mazzy Star, The Purdins, Pretty Mary Sunshine, Frownland and Pet Knives. Brain Wizard’s driving force has remained true to the Wizard’s ancient, Epic Vision – whatever that is even. Zach Lansdowne, the bassist from Kurt’s first band, The Purdins, was also given the ability to receive the Brain Wizard’s instructions, a feat of unimaginable importance, which he executed with amazing precision.
Yes, the Brain Wizard’s music is forged of time, space and multi-dimensional conference calls with Bigfoot, all distilled into the cosmic essence of everything which is Hella Dope.
And THAT is so Hella Dope.
Brain Wizard
Disciple Kurt Elzner
Whatever the Brain Wizard Instructs, Songwriting
Zach Ragsdale
Whatever the Brain Wizard Instructs, Songwriting