Spindrift

Spindrift is a psychedelic western band from the United States, formed in 1992 and still active. The group is associated with a desert-influenced strain of psychedelic rock, and its line-up includes Joe Baluta, Bobby Bones and Pete Van Kowenburg.

History and development

The band begins on the east coast of the United States in 1992, where singer, songwriter and guitarist Kirpatrick Thomas, also known as KP, leads the project for its first decade. During this period the band releases eight records and tours widely. Thomas then moves west and comes into contact with the Brian Jonestown Massacre, who take him on tour with them. He later settles in Los Angeles, where the desert landscape and the region’s western film history shape a new direction for Spindrift.

While working between coasts, Thomas also develops his album Songs from the Ancient Age with his east coast band members and recruits a West Coast line-up. This version of the band draws on musicians from the Los Angeles psychedelic scene and develops a bluesy psychedelic shoegaze and experimental sound. By 2006, the original east coast group has ended and the West Coast line-up expands into a nine-piece ensemble.

Style and collaborators

Spindrift works in a cinematic psychedelic western style, drawing on old western movies and desert imagery. The band’s recordings and live activity connect it with other acts in the Los Angeles psychedelic scene, including former and current members of Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Warlocks. It tours with Dead Meadow, Vietnam, The Black Angels and country singer Charlie Louvin.

Recordings and film work

The band gains wider attention when Steve Jones begins playing the track “Red Reflection” on his radio show Jonesy’s Jukebox on Indie 103.1 FM. Spindrift also co-produces the benefit concert Clean Air, Clear Stars in Pioneertown, California, in 2007, an event intended to raise awareness of greenhouse gas emissions and support the historic desert town.

Its music also appears in the feature film The Legend of God’s Gun, a Mike Bruce-directed independent western inspired by 1960s spaghetti western films. The band helps create the film, appears in it, and provides the soundtrack, which follows a preacher-turned-gunslinger seeking revenge. The film is shot in ghost towns in the Mojave Desert and is distributed in North America by Indican Pictures and in Europe by Bleiberg Entertainment. Spindrift also contributes the song “Indian Run” to Quentin Tarantino’s Hell Ride.