Matt Adams, the force behind the genre-fluid outfit The Blank Tapes, is a nomadic voyager of artistic landscapes. He is drawn to places like Joshua Tree and Brazil for their beauty and cultural climates.
When I talk to him, he’s hugging the Mexican border in McAllen, Texas, driven there by an opportunity to collaborate with Rotten Mangos guitarist Ramiro Verdooren. As with anywhere he goes, Adams carries with him seeds of raw songs, 60 to 70 at the moment. Verdooren was asked to choose 15 tracks, which they recorded for a future album.
In 2015, The Blank Tapes released Sha La-La Love and Geodesic Dome Piece. The lo-fi, melancholy Sha-La-La was recorded on an eight-track player in an Oakland shack where Adams lived from 2008-10.
Adams was inspired by the Bay Area’s folk revival soundscape to write melodies layered with acoustic guitars, slide guitars and banjos, a la Neil Young and the Byrds. “One day I’ll write a country song and the next day I’ll write a rock song,” he says.
Written within the same time period as Sha-La-La Love, Geodesic Dome Piece is evidence of Adams’ prolific and ambidextrous abilities. The first track, “Way Too Stoned,” a hazy, not-so-subtle tune about getting high, is the white rabbit that leads you on a 43-minute voyage of dirty psych-rock terrain.
For The Blank Tapes’ next album, debuting in spring, Adams says he cherry-picked tracks from an ample backlog he wrote on an international tour. Those songs are laced with references to Brazil, Japan and Europe, as well as Adams’ relationship with ex-drummer Pearl Charles.
“It’s like Vacation, part two,” Adams says, referring to The Blank Tapes’ sunny, ’60s pop 2013 release, Vacation, which Adams also wrote primarily on the road.
Spin magazine praised that album’s single, “Coast to Coast,” for “[staying] true to the Los Angeles – and Oakland-based band’s scrappy roots.”
Adams has relocated to Los Angeles as part of a southern migration of indie artists and musicians from the Bay Area, prompted by possibilities of more affordability and fresh aesthetics.
“There’s a certain zeitgeist happening in L.A.,” says Adams. “It seems like the best place for music right now.”
Popular local psych rock prodigies The Pip Squeeks open for Adams’ solo show at Pierce Ranch Vineyards on Saturday. Only 30 tickets are available.
Matt Adams 8pm, Saturday, Nov. 21, at Pierce Ranch Vineyards, 499 Wave St., Monterey. $10. 372-8900, www.piercevineyards.com