The Psychedelic Noise-Rock Lithium X-Mas Returns in Style After 25 Years of Hibernation

Twenty-five years ago, Dallas' most famous psychedelic rock trio, Lithium X-Mas, broke up after a long, storied run that included four album releases. It turns out that it wasn't a death for the band, just a lengthy coma that helped the members rest up and rejuvenate.

The group has returned with a new self-titled, limited-edition vinyl album just in time for the holidays (which is totally unrelated but still a nice touch) that explores a sound that almost became a forgotten relic even on the nostalgia-loving indie scene.

The group — consisting of Chris Merlick, Mark Ridlen and Greg Synodis — first came to life in 1985 at the height of Dallas' punk scene, which produced the likes of The Nervebreakers and The Telefones and was a constant draw for bands such as the Butthole Surfers.

Lithium X-Mas found a unique penchant for distortion and released its first album the following year. The band toured around town and even the country once, sharing stages with Sonic Youth before hanging up its noisemakers in 1997.

The new album picks up right where the group left off all those years ago. The term "psychedelic" is too general in terms of the band's concept. They aren't making noises to fuck with your head but to explore the musical space.

Lithium X-Mas produced an unusually expressive sound that's built off the top of funk and rock beats, like a clear projector sheet laid over a painting to add something new to an established foundation. Take, for instance, the A-side cover track "Acid," which lays down a rock track with a heavy, funky base and covers it with well-timed synthesized echoes and sounds like the "oooo, oooo" noise you hear in old horror movies.

Another staple of Lithium X-Mas's discography, like all great punk and experimental acts, is covers. Great covers do more than just spit a familiar song back at you and play with the sound to create something new out of something old. The choice of covers is also key. Any two-bit punk garage band can turn whatever bubblegum pop cover of the day into something loud and screeching simply out of a healthy dose of disrespect for the mainstream. The cover choices Lithium X-Mas made on its new vinyl album are just as lovingly disrespectful, but still different and interesting.  "Acid" comes from a cheesy anti-drug song by Stu Mitchell and Wes Dakus' Rebels, which tells an unintentionally hilarious story about a guy who goes on one bad LSD trip.

"Angel Angel Down We Go" is the theme song of a campy 1969 crime drama of the same name in which a stereotypical movie rocker who feels like a cross between a Jim Morrison impersonator and Dick Shawn's L.S.D. from Mel Brooks' The Producers wrecks a wealthy, suburban family's idyllic life. The movie doesn't know if it wants to be a cautionary tale about dropping out or if it's making fun of that ideal, so Lithium X-Mas takes its caricature of a theme song and turns it into something better, something that could've possibly helped the audience understand such a mess of a movie.

Lithium X-Mas' new vinyl is also great at mixing things up from track to track. Even the best psychedelic albums can start to sound the same if you listen to the album long enough, but the band turns the tempo up to something peppy and catchy with tracks such as "Kruise Kontrol" or a little harder-edged like "Two People in a Room" without sacrificing the unique sounds that made their name.

It's just nice to know that there's a psychedelic rock group that can still create a great, original sound this far away from its birthplace on the musical timeline.