There are bands that play rock and roll, bands that study rock and roll, and bands that seem determined to drag the whole battered corpse of the genre into some psychedelic laboratory and see if they can bring the damn thing back to life. Sacramento’s Love Mischief belongs firmly in that third category. Their debut album, Dissolving Through the Rainbow Gate, is a sprawling, 67-minute collision of funk, jazz, progressive rock, blues, psychedelia, and enough metallic muscle to knock the fillings loose from your teeth.
And somehow, against all reasonable expectations, the whole glorious mess works.
Released May 26, 2026, Dissolving Through the Rainbow Gate isn’t interested in fitting neatly into anybody’s musical filing cabinet. Nine songs stretch, twist, and occasionally threaten to collapse under their own ambition, but that’s part of the thrill. Love Mischief understands something that too many contemporary rock bands have forgotten: music should occasionally make you wonder whether the musicians themselves know where the hell they’re going.
Founder Brian Curtin certainly knows his way around a guitar. A Berklee College of Music graduate with roots in technical metal, Curtin approaches composition with the precision of a surgeon and the curiosity of a mad scientist. His brother Colin, also a Berklee graduate, brings another dimension to the guitar work and vocals. Alongside keyboardist Neil Heaton, drummer Alan Gamboa, and bassist Bryant Whaley, the Curtins have assembled a quintet capable of moving from delicate jazz textures to full-throttle rock without stopping to ask permission.
Recorded at Q Division Studios in Somerville, Massachusetts, and mixed by Jeremy Bernstein, the album benefits from vintage equipment and an inviting analog warmth. There’s something wonderfully physical about the sound, a refreshing departure from the sterile perfection that suffocates so many modern recordings.
The title itself comes from “Jordan,” the album’s penultimate track, but Curtin sees it as something more profound.
“To me, it represents a portal. A massive shift in perspective, consciousness, or outlook. A true before and after.”
That might sound like something overheard in a dorm room at three in the morning, but Love Mischief possesses the musicianship to make those cosmic aspirations genuinely interesting.
Their next release, the four-track Birthday Suit EP, due in early winter, promises another excursion into the wonderfully strange. Written entirely by Curtin in 2012, the collection features a title track built around an irresistible groove and the delightfully absurd question, “Who’s that wearing your birthday suit?”
Underneath the playful hook lurks an existential riddle about identity, consciousness, and whether we’re anything more than the bodies we inhabit.
Heavy stuff for a song that sounds like it could get a roomful of intoxicated strangers dancing.
But the real laboratory is the stage. The recorded version of “Birthday Suit” reportedly expands by approximately seven minutes in concert, traveling through four separate improvisational sections. That’s where Love Mischief’s debt to the Grateful Dead and Phish becomes obvious, although their metallic aggression and progressive instincts give the formula a distinctly different flavor.
And these guys have been putting serious miles on the odometer.
After an extensive summer tour through California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Colorado, and Utah, Love Mischief played Mammoth Lakes’ Liberty Sports Bar & Grill on October 30th before returning to Sacramento’s Torch Club for a Halloween bash inspired by Trailer Park Boys.
Their November Northwest excursion continued with Spokane’s The Chameleon on November 11th, Seattle’s Blue Moon Tavern on November 12th, Portland’s White Eagle Saloon on November 13th, Eugene’s Whirled Pies on November 14th, and Astoria’s Fort George Brewing on November 15th.
It’s the kind of relentless touring schedule that separates genuine working bands from weekend hobbyists.
Love Mischief formed in 2013, but its current lineup solidified in June 2023. That decade-long evolution helps explain why Dissolving Through the Rainbow Gate feels less like a tentative debut than the arrival of musicians who’ve spent years arguing with their instruments and finally reached a gloriously unstable agreement.
This isn’t music for people who demand three-minute singles with predictable choruses. It’s music for listeners who believe rock and roll should still contain danger, discovery, humor, and the occasional spectacular wrong turn.
In a world increasingly obsessed with algorithms, predictable playlists, and carefully manufactured personalities, Love Mischief offers something refreshingly human: five musicians chasing an idea until it either takes flight or crashes spectacularly into the furniture.
And frankly, rock and roll could use a hell of a lot more of that.
Listen: Dissolving Through the Rainbow Gate on Spotify | Love Mischief Official Website
By Jack Morrison
