artist Nassau

Psychedelia got hijacked by the hippies, and now we want it back. This music is not about kaleidoscopic oranges and yellows; it’s about dark blues and blood reds. This is not about peace and love; it’s about fever dreams and paranoia. This is not about living in the past, it’s about living in Nassau. It’s a beautiful place, – a place where you think you’ve been before, until a creeping unfamiliarity sets in. For many years, it was a place with a population of one: Jon McCann, who kept these strange buzzing sounds and mystical melodies locked into a secret corner of his psyche while getting on with his daily business — providing the bruising backbeat for Toronto indie-rock stalwarts 13 Engines, Blurtonia and The American Flag. In 2000, he got the call to join the ultimate psych-pop playground: Guided by Voices, friends and tourmates of The American Flag who were looking for their Keith Moon. But even as Jon bashed his way around the world with GBV, the voices in his own head were ringing louder than the ones he was pounding out on the kit. After recording 2002’s Universal Truths & Cycles, Jon left GBV on amicable terms and went into therapy — i.e., his home studio, where he dropped the drumsticks for guitar and spoke his mind for the first time. Over the course of the next year, he would welcome kindred spirits into the fold —brother Chris on guitar, bassist Scott Wilson, and drummer Brad Pallister— transforming Nassau from a solitary head-trip to a communal freakout.

Jonathan McCann vocals/guitar
Chris McCann Guitar
Brad Pallister Drums