Javi Arcega is living the dream. The frontman of Memphis-based Latinx psychobilly band, Los Psychosis, is pleased to release the band’s debut LP Rock and Roll Dreams on Memphis-based Black and Wyatt Records.
“I had no clue that this would ever come back again,” Arcega tells me, referring to live music in a, if not post-pandemic, at least post-crisis world. Now, fresh off a performance at Black Lodge’s Telethon fundraiser and having just released his band’s first full-length record, it would seem Arcega and Los Psychosis are poised to make the most of a world that, once again, sways and hums with live music.
Arcega wears a lot of hats — songwriter, bandleader, guitarist, occasional bassist, business person. He’s ginned up opportunities for Los Psychosis while working as a sound tech at other bands’ gigs. In fact, it was while Arcega was running sound at a Toy Trucks concert that folks from Black and Wyatt approached him about releasing the Los Psychosis record. “They asked me to cut 1,000 copies of the record,” Arcega remembers. “They told us they had already gone to some of our gigs.”
But, for all Arcega’s extensive work on the project, the saga of Rock and Roll Dreams is one that involves multiple Memphis studios, businesses, and media personalities. “We also had a handful of people who had a lot of faith in us. Like Lee Grant,” he says, thanking the host of WEVL’s The Modern World and Mood Swings programs, who helped fund additional studio time. “We couldn’t have made it without him.”
But Grant is just the latest in a line of local music luminaries to inspire Arcega. “I half-assed it through my teenage years,” the singer admits. “I had a few mentors who said, ‘You need to get your shit together if you really want to sound good.’” Jim Duckworth, who once played in Tav Falco’s Panther Burns and has worked as a session musician, was one such mentor. “I used to play in a band with him,” Arcega says.
Los Psychosis cut some of the album with Memphian Toby Vest in the producer’s chair. “I really liked what Toby did,” Arcega says, before uttering the oft-repeated musician’s lament: “At that point the lineup was kind of funny. I guess it’s always been kind of funny.” As so often happens, lineup changes forced a pause on recording. Later, spurred by interest from Black and Wyatt, Arcega sought out a studio where the band might finish the record. “We decided to finish the rest of the record at Sun Studios with Crockett Hall.”
The end result is something special — a shot of adrenaline and take-on-the-world enthusiasm. As wonderful a soundtrack it makes to cooking dinner (I can verify), Rock and Roll Dreams is a tantalizing invitation to see the band perform these songs live. Lap steel, organ, and backing vocals are used to excellent effect, creating a layered sound that fleshes out the raucous rock-and-roll of the band. “Glittered Eyes” is enough to raise even the most placid listener’s heartbeat as it pairs swooping lap-steel lines with a frantic drumbeat. “Astral Dreams” is chugging, sultry stuff that would make The Cramps proud. In the end, the album sounds like what it is — the culmination of years’ worth of hopes and dreams.
For more information on Rock and Roll Dreams, check out blackandwyattrecords.com.