Stream: Lotus Crush, ‘Hearts and Minds’

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Ten years ago next month, in February 2005, the hottest residency in Los Angeles was not in some hip Eastside club, but at the Viper Room. There, a quintet who had pulled up roots in Aberdeen, Scotland, and relocated to L.A. turned the Sunset Strip on its collective ear. They were called Driveblind (after the Ride song) and behind denim-jacketed frontman Terry McDermott they made outsized anthems — true vein-bulging, cathartic U2-isms. (The comparison that comes to mind now is Frightened Rabbit.) They deservedly drew the attention of major labels, signed a deal and … many, many months, several producers and other boondoggles later released an album that sounded like their songs had been run through a food processor. Within two years, they were through, their members scattered to the wind. McDermott married and settled in New Orleans, eventually forming Lotus Crush with two members of Driveblind’s former tourmates Candlebox, Peter Klett and Scott Mercado, and releasing the album “Half Light Morning” in 2011. Then in 2012, McDermott appeared on Season 3 of “The Voice,” on which a trusted source tells us he was very good, and a series of solo singles followed. Now, he is back in the Lotus Crush fold, with the sophomore album “Rabbit Hole” planned for a March release. The propulsive song “Hearts and Minds” has an urgency absent on those post-“Voice” singles; McDermott says it represents “a shadowy view of how screwed-up our world is.” In full voice, he continues to negotiate it.

||| Live: Lotus Crush performs Jan. 22 at Molly Malone’s.