PHX | AZ
SHOWS
APRIL 20: fRIED mUSIC fESTIVAL
mAY 23: lAST eXIT lIVE W/ DECKER.
The Lonesome Wilderness
The Lonesome Wilderness plays desert garage rock, filled with traces of surf, classic punk, and psychedelic rock—all mixed with sounds of the American Southwest. Formed in Phoenix in 2011, the band includes Joe Golfen, Paul Golfen, Andrea Golfen, and Brian Weis.
The Lonesome Wilderness released their first full-length record, "Awake in the Night," in Jan 2020. Produced by Ari Leopold, the album finds the band pushing their musical boundaries, exploring bleary-eyed folk rock, noise collages, swirling psychedelia, and moody atmospherics while retaining their signature southwestern flavor.
"Awake in the Night" finds the band searching for hope in the face of growing older, political unrest, and the general anxiety of our modern age. The joy and struggle of new parenthood also inform the record, offering a bright light along with brand new concerns. Through it all, the group finds passion and solace in their music.
The group released their debut EP in 2015, followed by 2017’s LUSH. That record featured the lead single “Alright,” which Impose Magazine called “Incredibly satisfying psychedelic rock” and the Phoenix New Times named one of The 50 Best Songs by Phoenix Bands in 2016. The group performed at the M3F Festival, the Canal Convergence Festival, the Sidepony Express Music Festival, and more. You can find them playing shows on ramshackle stages in dirt lots, backyards, and dark bars.
Bass / Andrea Golfen
Drums / Brian Weis
Vocals, Guitar / Joe Golfen
Guitars/ Paul Golfen
Press for Awake in the night
The Lonesome Wilderness have found their psychedelic sweet spot on this latest effort, which they open with a track that sounds like flying saucers landing in the desert as a lead-in to the first of several wistful psychedelic ballads that make the most of their pop sensibilities.
There’s an unmistakable Southwestern flavor to a number of the album’s strongest cuts, from the brooding title track to “Desert Sun” and “Black Smoke Clouds,” where they sound like the Rolling Stones writing a song for a Sergio Leone film around the time of “Aftermath,” complete with Jaggeresque vocal from Joe Golfen.
They strip it down to fingerpicked acoustic on the understated “Rolling Rock,” but the ballad to beat here is “Thought on the Stairs,” where Golfen delivers the melody in a tender near-whisper backed by ethereal harmonies from Andrea Golfen, his bass-playing wife, on the chorus.
- The Arizona Republic “Best albums of 2020 made by Arizona artists, ranked”
“The vigorous “Black Smoke Clouds” is an easy standout with its march-y backbeat, sweet hooks, and a chorus that listeners excitedly wait for to come back around.”
“This act provide the sort of hazy, psych/urban surf rock that evokes images of everything overtly arid. It’s the melodies of the 60’s played through the sort bellowing smoke that adds the best of anti-everything atmospheres.”
“The horizon has broadened for these southwestern dust devils. Not confined to simply one region, the music encompasses in sound our sea to shining sea with everything in between. While still keeping that layer of SW grit of course.”
“Awake in the Night” grabs at emotions through each note, touching anyone who has tried to chase a moment that has gone. Love, drugs, hopes, and/or fears resonate through the lyricism and musicality with raw, authentic aching of vocal delivery and soaring guitar until the clipped end—like a heroin overdose snuffing out another life. Purely brilliant.”
“Awake in the Night feels like the soundtrack to The Man With No Name spaghetti westerns if The Beatles hung out with a few Arizona Highwaymen in the desert and wrote it.”
- Keep the Greasy Side Down Magazine
“"Awake in the Night" is the Lonesome Wilderness' most ambitious offering to date, setting the tone with an experimental instrumental soundscape titled "Day/Night" before following through with the acoustic-guitar-driven psychedelic balladry of "Webs." And those are just the first two tracks.”
Press for Lush
"Incredibly satisfying, psychedelic rock." - Impose Magazine
"Swirling psychedelic guitars, rich harmonies and pounding drums mix with the desert grit" - Disarm Magazine
" Sounds like that brilliant moment where indie rock met up with the Madchester" - Phoenix New Times
"Pop aesthetic, wrapped in tumbleweeds" - Java Magazine
"Cop The Lonesome Wilderness Vinyl Before It's Gone" - Phoenix New Times
"Best July Singles 2017"- AZCentral
Music
For booking and other information:
Management: jgolfen@gmail.com