Danny Lee Blackwell’s Night Beats released their self-titled debut album back in 2011 and 2024 sees a long-overdue vinyl reissue hit the racks courtesy of UK label Fuzz Club. An acid-drenched modern garage-rock classic in the Texan thirteenth-floor tradition, the band’s R&B-inspired Western Psychedelic sound on this 12-track set is a reckoning, a shoot-out at dawn, the ear-splitting peel-out that leaves nothing but a cloud of red dust in its wake.

Following early releases in the shape of the ‘H-Bomb’ 45 and a split 10″ with UFO Club (a collaborative project between Blackwell and The Black Angels’ Christian Bland), the ‘Night Beats’ LP was the first full-length introduction to the band and propelled them to the forefront of burgeoning contemporary psych scene in a blaze of scuzzy rock’n’roll release. Heavy touring immediately ensued and hasn’t let up in the years that followed, and the definitive Night Beats hit ‘Puppet On A String’ has since clocked up millions of streams and become the soundtrack to an underground, fuzz-worshipping generation.

Looking back on the record and upcoming reissue, Danny Lee Blackwell says: “Turning stones, looking for a sound. In bloom, or right before. Looking back on this first album I see a band with ideas that committed early on. I see where things will be built from, ideas that set up the groundwork for sounds to expand far beyond while honing a classic sound. I ventured with my voice and guitar and glad I did because there’s self acceptance and experimentation on this album. I’m proud of it and very glad it’s getting a long overdue repress.”