Rolling Stone Live: Austin Psych-Rockers Black Angels

With their lysergic grooves and hilarious twists on iconic rock titles ("Bad Vibrations," "Sniper at the Gates of Heaven"), the Austin, Texas fivesome Black Angels are one of the best psych-rock groups going. (They were recently named Rolling Stone's Band of the Week.) This intimate, stripped-down set is still plenty loud — check out these three songs from their third and latest LP, Phosphene Dream: "Entrance Song," "Haunting at 1300 McKinley" and "Bad Vibrations."

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Song Stories

“Let My Love Open the Door”

Pete Townshend | 1980

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."

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