Nashville’s finest psych rockers, Adjustable Mustard, are back with a new EP, Your Love, due for release on July 31st. The new EP completes a two-part release with the Pure Love EP released on March 8th.
The four songs on Your Love show the Adjustable Mustard project at its heaviest and most fuzz-driven yet, drawing from influences that include All Them Witches, Dead Meadow, and Uncle Acid.
The Third Eye has covered the band’s music before, and we gave a bit of their backstory back then. I also got a chance to meet Will and Katie, who are part of the band, recently, and it was a pleasure to get to know them better.
The group began its journey in 2016 as one of many psych-rock bands to emerge from Auburn, Alabama’s small but colorful music scene. Adjustable Mustard happened after the chance but fortuitous meeting of vocalist Katie Pitts and guitarist Will White, who found nearly complete musical completion in one another.
Long story short, they completed an EP called Whatevers Clever in 2017, but tragedy struck, and the project was shelved. Katie and Will reunited the group seven years later and finally released the EP. It’s great to see the band trudging on and following their dreams, and it’s equally great to see them making new music.
The EP opens with the title track, “Pure Love (Oh).” From the get-go, Adjustable Mustard is going for a heavier and fuzzier sound. Katie’s vocals have an echo effect that creates a haunted, psyched-out vibe, and Will’s guitar is thicker and more muscular than in the group’s previous work.
“Bang Bang” is even heavier, adding a dose of sludge and digging into the Mississippi mud the group knows about all too well. I couldn’t help but detect hints of The Velvet Underground and The Black Angels in Katie’s vocals, primarily how they seem shrouded in a mysterious darkness.
“Change Gonna Come” is interesting for a few reasons. Firstly, the song takes a folksy, acoustic-guitar-driven approach. It’s a concise track at only a little over a minute long, and the title is similar to Sam Cooke’s iconic Civil Rights-inspired song, “A Change Is Gonna Come.” I wondered if Adjustable Mustard was hinting at a similar theme during an equally fraught time in American politics.
The EP ends with the ominously named “Grave Blanket.” In this track, the group is more grounded in a blues-oriented approach. It’s a slow, menacing blues similar to the aforementioned All Them Witches, and Katie’s distorted vocals sound downright witchy. It’s my favorite song on the EP, and it perfectly embodies the Southern gothic aesthetic.
Adjustable Mustard has created another EP jam-packed with different rock flavors that will appeal to many music fans. Most songs are heavier than their previous work, but they still maintain the blues-oriented guitar and Katie’s excellent vocals, which they’re becoming known for. It’s DIY rock from people who put their heart and soul into the music, and that’s what the psych underground is all about.
Pre-order Your Love by Adjustable Mustard on Bandcamp here.
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