Prolific New York-based psych rockers White Hills’ hypnotic, intense, riff-heavy music got them noticed by director Jim Jarmusch who decided to write his favorite band into his 2013 indie vampire film Only Lovers Left Alive. The critically acclaimed film starred Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston and featured White Hills—Dave W. on guitar and vocals and Ego Sensation on bass and vocals—as themselves playing their song “Under Skin Or By Name” in scene that takes place in a Detroit dive bar.
The first White Hills album, 2005’s No Game To Play was basically a solo project released by Dave W as a CD-R. Julian Cope reissued the album as They’ve Got Blood Like We’ve Got Blood on his Fuck Off and Di label and it’s no surprise that White Hills’ epic pounding—influenced by Hawkwind, the Stooges and the MC5—is something the Arch Drude felt he needed to get behind. Comedian Stewart Lee has also championed White Hills in a review of their self-released Glitter Glamour Atrocity in the pages of the Sunday London Times. (The new series of his Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle is fucking brilliant and currently airing on BBC Two, don’t miss it.)
No Game To Play is being released on vinyl for the first time by San Francisco’s 300mics label. You can listen to the entire album here. White Hills will be performing at the Milwaukee Psychfest on May 6th.
Here’s a video for the album’s title number directed by Ego Sensation.