Pink and fuzzy, no foolin'

Pink Skull - Gonzo's Cointreau

Our friends down in Philadelphia, Pink Skull, have returned to the world aboveground, and apparently masterminds Julian Grefe and JG spent time treating themselves to more than one batch of Guatemalan insanity-peppers.

Pink Skull is technically a band now, made up of Grefe and Justin Geller, and not that long ago they became a full live band, with Jeremy Gewertz, Mike Hammel and Sam Murphy joining the duo on stage. I got to see them play Fixed a few weeks back, and they put on quite a show and sounded great live.

Pink Skull has actually appeared here on MFR a number of times, with Julian DJ-ing a party for us, we posted a track of theirs in 2006, and a couple of Julian's DJ mixes have all been featured here over these last couple of years. Now this new record? What we get is Zeppelin 3 and it is awesome. All over the map - clearly drawing from a number of pools of sound, from acid house and techno to fuzzy psychedelic rock - but the result is totally fun, and as welcome in the club (if you go to the kind of clubs I do) as it is in your living room or on your headphones. The record features a bunch of original tracks, has guests Mirah and Billy Dufala of Man Man among others, and a couple of their remixes, like their awesome work on fellow Philadelphia crazies Plastic Little's "Crambodia". Definitely worth checking out.

The album is released today - April 1st (no fools here!) - by FreeNews Projects, a project based cooperative that works with artists and musicians in the Philadelphia area to publish and promote local arts communities and other art cooperatives around the country. Good on ya. Visit their online store or your favorite local retailer (or Urban Outfitters - yeah weird I know, but that's the Philly connection at work), or download the album from iTunes or eMusic.