JACK WATERSON: Influential LA Musician Shares Hallucinogenic New Video via Adrian Younge’s Linear Labs

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Jack Waterson has been an important part of the Los Angeles music scene since his influential late-70s band Green on Red, who inspired artists as diverse as My Bloody Valentine, Wilco and Mazzy Star with their records and psychedelic palette. He expanded from musician to neighborhood mainstay by opening his revered musical instrument store in Highland Park, Future Music. Most recently, Waterson released his modern psych rock record with longtime friend and bandmate Adrian Younge.

Adrian Younge presents Jack Waterson was released this spring via Younge’s Linear Labs. Getting lost in the impressionistic and, at times, jarring world of psychedelia, the album questions what is real and challenges you to question the role you play in this world. These kindred spirits have created a cinematic psych album with no boundaries. Laced with hip hop breaks and acid rock, their intention is to subvert the designation of what is black vs. white music. Today, Waterson takes a hallucinogenic dive with the just-released new video for album track “Flashback.” Watch it here: https://youtu.be/gRHZhjGdfqE.

Waterson also released the video for album track “Smile” (watch it HERE) around the album release and the track was recently named KCRW “Today’s Top Tune,” calling it “a sonic psychedelic kaleidoscopic.” You can also take a trip down Waterson’s musical influences, as well as his own track via his BBC “Freak Zone” playlist here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0005m12.

Punk rock and hip hop came from the same place, fueled by identical sentiments: people taking the music back, reclaiming it, and finding a new audience. In ’99, an 18 year-old Younge realized that he wanted to create music that sounded like the records he was sampling. Unbeknownst to him, he serendipitously wandered into Future Music. It’s there that he realized his dream was possible. Intrigued by the stores focus on pre-’83 equipment, Waterson soon became a mentor in developing Younge’s unique analog sound. They spoke heavily about the importance of vintage equipment and its use in creating revolutionary worlds.

During these years, Waterson schooled Younge on psych and art rock; Younge returned the favor by schooling him on hip hop, the origins of sampling and its source music. Together this unlikely duo manifested new revolutionary worlds with Waterson appearing on every Younge album within the last decade.