The Lavender Flu shape an unmistakable strain of acid rock through a lo-fi fusion that draws from psychedelia, garage rock, folk-rock, multiple strands of 1970s rock, and free-form experimentalism, letting each song dictate whether the result murmurs, erupts, or flows vocally. What began as a solo home-recording venture reached full scope with the 30-track opus Heavy Air in 2016. Once the project grew into a performing unit, the group probed studio possibilities on Barbarian Dust in 2020 and captured unscripted improvisations on the 2024 release Los Pelacaras, before returning to a tighter, more song-focused approach on 2025’s Tracing the Sand by the Pool.
Guitarist Chris Gunn, formerly of Portland, Oregon’s raucous outfit the Hunches and San Francisco’s garage-rock band the Hospitals, launched the Lavender Flu during breaks from other work and day jobs by layering tracks on an analog home setup, first alone and later with additional players. Between 2009 and 2014 he amassed dozens of pieces spanning fuzztone explosions and raw psychedelic reflection; in 2016 he distilled 30 of them into the double album Heavy Air issued under the Lavender Flu name. Positive notices in the indie press prompted Gunn to assemble a full band by enlisting his brother Lucas Gunn on guitar, Scott Simmons on bass and keyboards, and Ben Spencer on drums. The quartet convened at a house in Arch Cape, Oregon, overlooking the Pacific Ocean to cut their second album, 2018’s Mow the Glass, a more compact yet equally exploratory set that marked their debut on the independent noise and punk label In the Red. Spontaneous jams taped at the rehearsal space were later trimmed into four pieces for 2019’s Admiration for a Dancer, pressed in a limited numbered vinyl run of 275 copies. On 2020’s Barbarian Dust the group entered professional facilities, among them a Portland studio once owned by R&B hitmakers Nu Shooz, yielding a fuller sonic palette while retaining their unruly character. That same year they revisited their domestic origins with Tomorrow Cleaners, a set originally slated as the follow-up LP but shelved after technical setbacks. The cassette-only Flutes Rising appeared in 2022 in an edition sold exclusively at concerts, while 2023’s nine-song Assorted Promenades EP featured a memorable reading of Moby Grape’s “I Am Not Willing.” Another limited vinyl pressing of 150 copies documented further improvisations on 2024’s Los Pelacaras, both that title and Admiration for a Dancer later becoming available digitally. Tracing the Sand by the Pool, issued in 2025, found the musicians working independently again and favoring direct, economical material that signaled a fresh direction.
