The Mystery Lights The Mystery Lights

In the 1950s, while Chess Records was churning out Muddy Waters LPs, its in-house subsidiary imprint Checker was putting out rock'n'roll hits by Bo Diddley and Dale Hawkins. In the 1970s, while Stax was raking in Isaac Hayes' “Theme From Shaft” money, the label was also distributing Big Star's #1 Record. There's practically a blueprint in place for Daptone and its new imprint, Wick, through which the gold standard soul institution will start shilling rock music. They're planning records from proven garage rock entities like Mark Sultan and the Ar-Kaics, but the label's proper introduction is the debut album from the Mystery Lights.

A departure from the band’s DIY psych-rock roots to a more mature and polished sound, the album was produced by Mattiel’s Jonah Swilley and recorded in May 2019 at Detroit’s acclaimed (and rumored haunted) Masonic Temple with Bill Skibbe (Jack White, The Kills) in a lodge belonging to the Free Masons’ Detroit chapter.

The Mystery Lights's sophomore album on Daptone's rock subsidiary, Wick Records, finds the group digging deeper into their well of eclectic influences, enriching their sound without echoing the past. It mixes the eerie, insistent synth sounds of groups like The Normal and Suicide, the energy and swagger of punk’s golden age, the pop sensibility of The Kinks, and the stark, deliberate execution of Television. The Mystery Lights are taking their idiosyncratic brand of rock and roll to dizzying new heights.

This event special follows exciting new experiments unlocking the mysteries of the Northern Lights.