Three guys, seven bands, nine cities, one traveling Japanese festival. Sound nutty? Some of the craziness can be attributed to the fact that the men behind the music are Acid Mothers Temple's Tsuyama Atsushi and Kawabata Makoto, and Ruins' Yoshida Tatsuya-- touring together in numerous arrangements, among them Acid Mothers Temple SWR. Now it's common knowledge that AMT and Ruins are two of the most exciting psychedelic artists active today, but what's with the new SWR arrangement? According to Tatsuya, "SWR is the AMT Family's most powerful battle-formation yet...their crushingly acute freakout sound will pulverize the world's legions of wannabe psych groups." The Japanese New Music Festival, featuring the aforementioned trio and now in its fourth year, will travel across the bars and lounges of North America over the course of the next week...more...

09-02 New York, NY - Tonic
09-03 Brooklyn, NY - Northsix
09-04 Atlanta, GA - Eyedrum
09-05 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
09-06 Denver, CO - Larimer Lounge
09-07 Seattle, WA - Wooden Octopus Skull Festival
09-08 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
09-09 Los Angeles, CA - Smell
09-10 Mexico City, Mexico - Alicia

Acid Mothers Temple (and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.) will cross the Pacific once again for a full-blown North American tour in April and May. In typical AMT fashion, they're calling it the "Crystal Rainbow Pyramid Tour", and we can't even begin to imagine what that could mean. The metaphysical mayhem begins April 13 in Los Angeles and concludes exactly one month later in Santa Cruz. All dates are with California's Mammatus; swing by the merch table after your mind is blown to pick up Acid Mothers' limited edition "Crystal Rainbow Pyramid" tour 12".


04-13 Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
04-17 Austin, TX - Emo's Jr.
04-19 Birmingham, AL - Bottletree
04-20 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
04-21 Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle Tavern
04-22 Charlottesville, VA - Satellite Ballroom
04-23 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
04-24 Washington, DC - Rock and Roll Hotel
04-25 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church Sanctuary
04-26 New York, NY - Knitting Factory
04-27 Brooklyn, NY - South Paw
04-28 Cambridge, MA - Middle East Downstairs
04-29 New Haven, CT - BAR Nightclub
04-30 Ottawa, Ontario - Babylon
05-01 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
05-02 Buffalo, NY - Soundlab
05-03 Cleveland Heights, OH - Grog Shop
05-04 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
05-05 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
05-06 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock Social Club
05-09 Vancouver, British Columbia - Richard's on Richards
05-10 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
05-11 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
05-12 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
05-13 Santa Cruz, CA - Attic

...Back in Salford, naffed off and chippy, Katie and Jules began tinkering with music in their shared flat in Islington Mills - a northern version of Warhol's Factory that houses all manner of arty dreamers. 'They had club nights in the basement, where they'd put on bands I'd never heard of,' says Katie. A pivotal moment, she recalls, was seeing Japanese freak rockers Acid Mothers Temple. 'It was a performance like I'd never seen before - they had fans crying and I thought, Oh my god, you can actually make people do that. I found it so inspiring'...