Purling Hiss is one of the best and most unique garage rock/psychedelic rock bands currently out there. Hailing from Philadelphia, Purling Hiss manages to almost perfectly mix garage and noise rock with (lo-fi) psychedelic rock. While having released a number of great albums through the years, the best Mark Polizze's album in a garage rock sense is perhaps Water on Mars. While some of Purling Hiss's albums have been dwelling deep into the lo-fi atmosphere, then Water On Mars tends to be more listener friendly, while managing still to carry the lo-fi psychedelic garage rock banner that has become somewht iconic and synonymous to Purling Hiss these days.
The album is pretty much consistently great, with tracks like Mercury Retrograde and Water On Mars perhaps carrying a more fuzzier garage rock feel, while still managing to be extremly catchy and memorable. Then again tracks like The Harrowing Wind and Mary Bumble Bee feel like some very American sounding mellow garage rock, with some really fine vocals. What is remarkable about Purling Hiss in general is that all the tracks tend to be very catchy in a good and often fuzzy garage rock sense. Meaning that this won't be another generic forgettable garage rock album, but the songs will dwell in your mind and settle there for good. While not being American myself, but having lived in the Southern US for a while, then most Purling Hiss songs remind me of the time there and wandering around some obscure suburbs.
All in all Purling Hiss is pretty much the best psychedelic garage rock band currently out there. Some of their albums like Water On Mars are quite mellow, while some other albums like Hissteria pack some fine noisy psychedelic rock jamming. But always with a somewhat lo-fi atmosphere.
Some useful links:
Bandcamp: https://purlinghiss.bandcamp.com/
Mercury Retrograde: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfJVXmZzUZQ
Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Purling-Hiss-Water-On-Mars/release/4392356
