Local Review: Nicky V A and the Four Locos — The Pinto Lounge for Broken...

Nicky V A and the Four Locos
The Pinto Lounge for Broken Hearts
Far Out Cassette Club
Street: 04.20.2026
Nicky V A and the Four Locos = Johnny Blue Skies + All Them Witches

I’d never heard of Nicky V A and the Four Locos before I was asked to review their latest record, The Pinto Lounge for Broken Hearts, and despite a great fuckin’ band name, I’ll admit I wasn’t expecting much. However, unlike my experiences with the questionably legal beverage that serves as the band’s namesake (which has ruined every party we’ve ever attended together), I’m happier and healthier after consuming this record. In fact, it is really goddamn good, and I’m mad at myself for not having found it sooner.  

The band plays within a self-described “Spaghetti Psych” genre, and I see what they mean. The music is a lot like if Sturgill Simpson had done even more psychedelics and came back with the kiss of psychosis on his cheek. In the album notes on Bandcamp, it is noted that the record is about “losing and finding yourself on a bad trip home from the bar.” That makes sense to me if your route home takes you through the retro-futuristic hellscape which serves as the backdrop for Fallout, but I’m glad that’s not my usual experience on the drunken stumble fest home from Sugar House Pub. 

The first track, titled “The Pinto Lounge,” starts out incredibly filthy, snowballing into a distorted lick that could have easily shown up on an early Black Sabbath demo. Snuggled between brawny guitar fuzz and space laser tones, Nicky V A sounds like he’s singing from behind the veil, encouraging you to head on over to the Pinto Lounge for a shot and a beer. What can go wrong? I’m not sure what’s in that shot, but apparently a lot. The song finishes with a roaring guitar solo that eases into an ominous synth tone, which perfectly blends into the next song, “Bartender’s Hymn.” This is a short track, but in the context of the concept album, it’s important. It sounds like it’s being sung to you by the boat master as your soul is being shuttled across the river Styx. For the remainder of this record, your ass is in the Underworld.  

“Snake-bit Hand” is where your trip home turns bad. Physically, you’ve probably got the spins and you’re puking in the Barnes & Noble parking lot, but mentally I’d imagine this is the time of night you begin struggling with the various life decisions that led you here. The song clocks in at 8:46 and honestly, I think it utilizes all of it well. The mood lightens at roughly the 5:45 mark, before building into a beautiful and chaotic outro.

“Water in the Sand” has an eerie, classic country, western feel to it. In the context of the journey, I like to think this is the part where you’re woken from a deep slumber by the sprinklers on the neighbor’s lawn: “Oh no, here we go again, I see water in the sand.” It’s followed by my favorite track on the record, “On that Great and Dreadful Day.” This is the perfect “late-stage-hangover-and-I’m-mad-at-myself” kind of song. The guitar work is superb, but the lyricism is the highlight. It is an eight-minute requiem to the man you were before and a reckoning with a life that has thus far been without meaning. “Will you live the rest of your life from goodbye to goodbye / won’t someone please give these idle hands work?” Amen to that, brother. —Cole Stocker

Read more music reviews from Cole Stocker:
Local Review: J.P. Whipple— the next disaster
Local Review: The Snarlin’ Yarns — The Remedy

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