Episode 249 : Mike Brandon (The Mystery Lights)

An unplanned party, taking a road trip to Philadelphia with Micheal Imperioli, and playing a show with M.I.A. in Poland. Mike Brandon (The Mystery Lights) "The roots of the Mystery Lights can be traced back to Salinas, California, where guitarists Mike Brandon and Luis "L.A." Solano formed the band while still in high school. Crafting their own distinctive take on a Nuggets-era '60s sound, they played around their home turf for several years, frequently revising their lineup and eventually releasing their debut LP, Teenage Catgirls & the Mystery Lightshow, in 2009. By 2012, Brandon and Solano had each made the leap to New York, settling in Brooklyn and recruiting new members Alex Amini on bass and Nick Pillot on drums. Further honing their mid-'60s Kinks and Easybeats-inspired sound and adding spacy psych elements, they began gigging around the city, recording a handful of EPs and singles before getting picked up by Daptone's rock imprint Wick Records in 2015. Their first release for the label was the 7" single Too Many Girls/Too Tough to Bear, followed in 2016 by a self-titled full-length LP. A second album for Wick, Too Much Tension!, was released in May 2019; by this time, Nick Pillot had left the group and Zach Butler had taken his place on drums, with Lily “Lilcifer” Rogers joining on farfisa." Excerpt from https://daptonerecords.com The Mystery Lights: Bandcamp: https://themysterylights.bandcamp.com Instagram: @themysterylights Website: https://linktr.ee/themysterylights Records: https://shopdaptonerecords.com/collections Merch: https://themysterylights.bandcamp.com/merch The Vineyard: Instagram: @thevineyardpodcast Website: https://www.thevineyardpodcast.com Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thevineyardpodcast