WXPN Radio

The premier guide for new and significant artists in rock, blues, and folk - including NPR-syndicated World Cafe ®

Listen Xpo

24/7 Musical discovery. A unique mix of emerging and heritage blues, rock, world, folk, and alt-country artists.

Singer Songwriter Radio

Featuring classics from heritage troubadours to new musicians and bands in the singer-songwriter tradition.

Folk Radio

Folk music radio streaming on the web; Americana, Roots Music, recordings, and stories from folk's best.
Listen Live

West Indian Girl - West Indian Girl - Astralwerks

In 1963, renowned chemists Bear Owsley and Nick Sands developed a strain of designer LSD which had a reputation for inducing tribal hallucinations. This strain of acid was called “west indian girl,” hence the name for which the Los Angeles duo of Robert James and Francis Ten have chosen to call their musical collaboration.



The musical sensibility of this marvelous, trippy debut is evocative of those hallucinogenic daze of the 1960’s, but this is modern day psychedelia. Listen closely and you’ll be able to hear musical touchstones like the Verve, Stone Roses, Primal Scream, Jane’s Addiction, Bowie, Can and even the literary folkisms of Simon & Garfunkel (particularly on the song “Leave Tonight”).

Even with these familiarities, West Indian Girl has a fresh sound, and throughout the album they breeze through open-ended musical soundscapes that are hypnotic, buzzing, jangly and melodically engaging. Songs like “Hollywood,” “What Are You Afraid Of,” “Northern Sky,” and “Dreams” are mind-altering tunes – Lovely Sound Designs for modern times.

Written by Bruce Warren

Release Date: 8/24/2004

Buy it now at our CD Store

Check out our other Featured Albums of the Week

Visit Artist's Official Site.

Watch Julia Holter’s new video for “World” (playing World Cafe Live on 7/13)

In advance of her forthcoming For Loud City Song LP, Julia Holter has shared a new video for lead single “World.”  The...Read More

Tonight’s Concert Picks: Japanese Guy at PhilaMOCA, Femme Fest at Sellersville Theater, Cruiser at Ortlieb’s Lounge, Telequanta at...

Japanese Guy perform at PhilaMOCA tonight.  The less-talked about side project of a Fleet Foxes member, Japanese Guy is the...Read More

My Morning Download: “College” by Rogue Wave (playing Union Transfer with The Boxer Rebellion on June...

Photo by Terri Loewenthal Rogue Wave have a new album, Nightingale Floors, coming out on June 4th. The band plays Union Transfer on...Read More

The Swollen Fox is celebrating its 3-year anniversary at PhilaMOCA on 7/11

The Swollen Fox has announced a special 3-year anniversary concert at PhilaMOCA on July 11th with TJ Kong & the Atomic Bomb, Swift...Read More

Watch Tin Bird Choir perform WXPN’s lunchtime buskers’ series at The Porch at 30th Street...

The Chester County-based folk group Tin Bird Choir performed in a stripped down two-piece configuration for this weeks’...Read More