Psychic Ills/The Ma Holos/Banging Fragiles

Since joining Brooklyn label Sacred Bones’ roster in 2011, Psychic Ills have steadily sharpened their hazy, ambling guitar-driven psych and listless vocals into something vaguely approaching rock music. Tightened tempos and bluesy inflections leaven the gloomy, dirge-like jams on the trio’s fourth full-length, this year’s One Track Mind, and the addition of backing vocals and production from Royal Trux/Pussy Galore’s Neil Michael Haggerty lends a degenerate southern swagger to their drowsy squatter hymns. Though some of their newest tracks languish uncomfortably between the extended cough-syrup grooves of their oft-improvised earlier catalog and generic bar-band chord progressions, their new, more straightforward approach to conventional rock structures will likely win more than a few Ills converts. When singer Tres Warren moans, “Might take a while to get back home/might take a while till I’m all grown” on One Track Mind’s “Might Take A While,” one can’t help but draw parallels to the band’s restless trajectory, getting closer with every release to some grown-ass self-assurance. (Hannah Franklin)