Ruckzuck Return to Yellow Springs

From Long Island, New York, Ruckzuck the psychedelic, three piece krautrock curators of time warp atmospheres returned to Yellow Springs and The Spirited Goat, a town they may someday call home. While producing sounds and musical landscapes emulating influences and inspirations from the ‘60s, ‘70s and a few movies their shows bring back the vintage California coast vibe, the sounds of the eternal night sky and the astral projections of space. They do their best to keep the art and style of the freak out shows alive.

Singer/multi-instrumentalist Faith Kelly, guitarist Nick Bedo and drummer Matt Bedo have two records out, a live release and a series soundtrack with darker, unrelated music. They’re currently recording and preparing for an east coast July trek, returning to Yellow Springs in mid-October. They bring a bit of Jane’s Addiction, Jefferson Airplane, a hippie folk feel and plenty of exploration through experimentation with whatever inspires them.

Their seven song set was mostly new material. Kelly sported silvery stage attire with the all-seeing eye and a space age lined cape.

Oh You! began the mid-day show with the sun shining, shrouded in a mix of psychedelic ‘60s notes and sounds. The all-important universal Healthcare rang out with Kelly strapping on a second six-string among her surrounding arsenal of music makers.

Written in an apartment building 39 stories in the air, enough to hear the forces of nature shake the tall building, 39 Stories High carried a large collective composite mixture of sounds with a trippy ‘60s mind-warping cosmic passage way with guitar tinkering’s and keys hitting spooky foreboding horroresque atmospheres. Midway through the song turned bluesy with a sea surf boogie vibe with music drifting away with the tide.

Ones and Zero’s beach side Luau out vibe started the two song encore. Sometimes old school simplicity is better than high tech online technology. They ended with the yet untitled space aged jam tune that glistened like glass menageries off the keys, possibly called Future Shock.

“We try and make unique sounds that people haven’t heard before. The thing with psychedelic music is that it transcends genres, because a lot of people are doing it but they have their own take on it. So it’s kind of a non-threatening genre, people that are appreciative of music seem to like it,” Nick Bedo says.

The tour started October 30 in Long Island, cross county to California, Texas and Georgia.  A late April two week tour with Astronauto followed. They plan on going overseas eventually to pay respect to their German influences. “We’re just trying to carve out our own place right now.”

They’re returning to the places they played before, due to friends and connections made. “It’s like the whole part of touring, you meet people, you can’t expect big crowds yet but there’s the kind of people that need to hear it first then things start to spread. There’s a lot of enthusiasm, the shows are getting better and we’re becoming better musicians. We’ll be recording our third album this summer, self- produced and engineered,” Bedo says.

Kelly stills plays the original old Casiotone 403 eclectic keyboard Nick Bedo bought her that basically started everything.

“I went to this pawn shop and this keyboard stuck out to me. I started playing creepy church organ sounds, bringing the store owners attention,” Bedo remembers.

Bedo has done soundtrack work for the independent series, City of Mercy, the music of which being in sharp contrast to Ruckzuck’s taking a much darker, ominous sound. It can be heard on their Facebook page.

Soundtracks are another way to get their music out there and get more music out of themselves. Pink Floyd’s music is great and their music could be soundtracks to certain movies. In the vein of playing Dark Side of the Moon over the Wizard of Oz “We’re planning on doing a special Halloween gift for the fans. We’re trying to intentionally write a piece of long form music that will sync up with a horror movie,” Bedo explains.

Being movie fans and living in Long Island, their rehearsal studio was in Amityville, the brothers never passed by the house but Kelly read the book as a kid. She drove by it with a friend. “It’s just a house, we drove by it all the time,” she says. “A lady came out in the yard giving me snake eyes. I guess they are tired of it.” Though there’s always the built in tourist, thrill-seeker factor to any famous/infamous house.

The band joked about living in the studio last summer with no AC calling it home base and calling it their Amityville Horror.

Their genre is a specific taste. “Krautrock isn’t to widely known.  Some people don’t get it but it makes them feel something even if they don’t know what we’re going for,” Bedo explains. Pink Floyd’s Inter Stellar Overdrive was Bedo’s initial inspiration to pick up a guitar to learn it and begin his musical journey.

2016 has taken so many great musical minds already. “There are people you haven’t met before but you get so sad when they go. That’s part of the reason we do what we do, we like to give people some enjoyment.”

“Music, as far as healing goes, I do what I have to do to get out my emotions and if someone relates to that and it feels relatable then I feel like its connecting things,” Kelly says. Kelly usually does one big scream per show.

To them the music of the ‘60s has a bit of a mythological charm since they weren’t there to experience it firsthand, it was all stories.  “It gives us something to look back at and take interest in. Things that were done before us, gives inspiration of where to go next.”

Images by Mike Ritchie