The Warlocks

The Warlocks operate out of Los Angeles under the leadership of guitarist and vocalist Bobby Hecksher, the only member to have stayed with the group through its entire history. The band folds Nuggets-era garage rock, British shoegaze, drone textures, and art-rock echoes of the Velvet Underground into present-day arrangements. After forming in the late 1990s, the group put out its first album, Rise and Fall, in 2001 and continued sharpening its neo-psychedelic approach across later records such as Surgery in 2005, The Mirror Explodes in 2009, and Mean Music Machine in 2019. For the 2023 release In Between Sad, Hecksher and his fellow players introduced fresh instrumental colors to a sequence of songs shaped by the death of his brother.

Florida native Bobby Hecksher absorbed rock & roll from an early age, thanks in part to his mother’s job at a station owned by his grandfather. He relocated to California in the late ’80s and soon started his first band, Charles Brown Superstar, which released two singles and two albums before disbanding. Hecksher later contributed to Beck’s 1994 album Stereopathetic Soul Manure. With James Ambrose he next formed Magic Pacer, issuing two albums on Win Records before splitting off to pursue solo ideas. He also spent a short time in the Brian Jonestown Massacre alongside Anton Newcombe.

After years of shifting personnel—one of the group’s consistent traits—Hecksher assembled an eight-piece ensemble and named it the Warlocks, a title previously attached to early versions of both the Velvet Underground and the Grateful Dead. Although the band never resembled the Grateful Dead, its earliest tracks often evoked a fevered take on the Velvet Underground around the White Light/White Heat era while also pulling from space rock, prog, and Krautrock acts, especially Neu! and Hawkwind.

The Warlocks rose to prominence on the Los Angeles scene during 1999 and 2000. In October 2000 Hecksher signed with Bomp!, America’s oldest independent label, based in Burbank, which put out the band’s self-titled debut EP later that year. Bomp! followed with the first full-length album, Rise and Fall, in fall 2001. The group then moved to Birdman Records for 2002’s The Phoenix Album; in certain regions the record was handled by Mute, which later partnered with the Warlocks on 2005’s Surgery. When sales fell short of expectations, the band returned once to Bomp! for 2006’s Destroy and Rebuild before landing at Teepee Records, aided in part by Anton Newcombe.

After two Teepee albums—2007’s Heavy Deavy Skull Lover and 2009’s The Mirror Explodes—the Warlocks paused recording while Hecksher launched Zap Banana Records, whose logo nodded to the classic artwork of the first Velvet Underground album. The label began with an expanded reissue of Rise and Fall that added a bonus disc of rare material, including the Warlocks’ reading of “Cocaine Blues” from the soundtrack of a short film Hecksher directed that featured Rivers Cuomo of Weezer. In 2013 Hecksher presented a new lineup on the Zap Banana album Skull Worship. Three years later the Warlocks, now a six-piece featuring four guitarists, worked with Cleopatra Records on Songs from the Pale Eclipse; the concert recording Vevey, captured on their European tour supporting that album, appeared in 2017.

Mean Music Machine, issued in 2019, drew from Stereolab, Krautrock, and death rock. The following year brought the concept album The Chain, centered on a couple’s crime spree and encounters with the justice system. Also in 2020, Fuzz Club Records released the limited-edition vinyl Live At Webster Hall NYC (March 6, 2006), documenting a show supporting Destroy and Rebuild. In March of that year Hecksher’s brother passed away after battling cancer, an event that deeply affected the songwriter. While grieving, Hecksher composed the material for 2023’s In Between Sad, an intimate record that emphasized the darker side of the Warlocks’ sound and incorporated electronic touches such as ’80s synthesizers and drum machines. After its release the band embarked on a lengthy European and United Kingdom tour.