Song of the Day: Psychic Ills - I Don't Mind

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Today’s song, featured on the Morning Show with John Richards, is “I Don't Mind” by Psychic Ills (and featuring Hope Sandoval) from their 2016 album, Inner Journey Out, on Sacred Bones.

Psychic Ills - I Don't Mind (feat. Hope Sandoval) (MP3)

From their inception in 2003 to their recently released fifth album Inner Journey Out, Psychic Ills have taken their music and listeners on quite a genre-blurred journey. The Texas-formed, New York-based duo, lead by Tres Warren and Elizabeth Hart, started out on a more experimental foot with songs that were minimal electronic labyrinths in nature and asymmetrical in structure. Album by album, they have gradually dropped some of their early nuances and structure to effortlessly evolve into a grainy psychedelic state of musicianship facilitated by Warren and Hart's mellowness.

In 2011, the duo released an album entitled Hazed Dream, which fittingly set the tone for both the persona and personality of their hazy, dream-like music that is certainly demonstrated on Inner Journey Out. Their first 2016 single "I Don't Mind" is anchored by a few acoustic chords that are hypnotically repeated as synth-twangy and slide guitar licks mosey on and off the pattern while the mellifluous backing vocals of Mazzy Star's Hope Sandoval complete and round out a Brian Jonestown Massacre meets alt-country vibe. Between Warren's relaxed pathos and the floating, airiness quality created, it's a song that you can put on being in a stressed mood and after listening to it truly be transformed into a more "I don't mind" kind of cool mood.

So far, it looks like Psychic Ills are slated for a European tour in August and an appearance at Pygmalion Music Festival in Champaign, IL, but definitely keep tabs on them via their website and Facebook page, in case they add a U.S. tour soon. In the meantime, check out "Baby", another song from Inner Journey Out: