The Psych Rock Lounge

 

 

 

I don't recall if DeRatogis mentioned (Sowing) The Seeds Of Love's Beatles inspired title track in his book Turn On Your Mind, there's even a brief blast of Penny Lane piccolo trumpet on the track!, so I will.

 

The rest of the album follows TFF's great pop inflected New Wave that started with their first album The Hurting.

 

There always seemed to be some subliminal Psych or American sixties influence under some of the band's songs such as the hit Everybody Wants To Rule The World, which always reminded me a bit of late sixties era songs from The Rascals.

 

Rascals or not, TFF produced some stellar pop music in a dismal decade. 

Not as dark or 'heavy' as some other bands but still very enjoyable.

 

One of the most idiosyncratic but accessible experimental/electronic/psychedelic albums ever made. The United States of America's self titled first and only album was the brain child of electronics wiz Joseph Byrd.

 

Byrd basically built a crude homemade 'synthesizer' with an oscillator, a ring modulator and a voltage control filter, which could be found in every early synth of the era. Using these components separately or in tandem, the group were able to create sounds or alter audio signals, including vocals as well as music, to great effect. However, building one from scratch is one thing, 'programing' it to produce a myriad of sounds was quite another as the components had to be rewired or reconfigured constantly.

 

Joined by an electric violin player that used an early version of an Octavia like devise to raise and drop his instrument one octave, a drummer, a fretless bassist and the Grace Slick sounding vocals of singer Dorothy Moskowitz, TUSoA produced an eclectic array of songs that mimicked acid rock or space rock, along with pyschedelia and electronica, mixed with cultural social commentary that produced music that was both of it's time and of the future.

 

The group broke up due to ego clashes and, what seems the bane of 60's psych groups, drug arrests.

 

Dated at times? Yes, but still worth a listen. And a re-listen.

 

 

Probably the closest that you can get to a psychedelic band from Iceland, Sigur Ros dispensed with the more pop overtures from their previous debut album when creating it's follow up, 1999's experimentally frozen ambient Agaetis Byrjun. Meditative at times and always shifting along in order to take your mind on a journey courtesy of the beautiful soundscapes capped off at times with swirling guitars. The band secured their own odd factor with disembodied vocals, in a made up language no less, that surface from to time throughout the album.

 

Definitely an album to relax to and float down stream.

 

 

 

There has been a lot of criticized leveled against the Hendrix estate (for being greedy, in particular.)

 

I have never held that view as they made Hendrix's most mediocre posthumous reissues such as Crash Landing and Loose Ends. released in 1975 and 1974 respectively, as well 1986's Jonny B. Goode and Band of Gypsys II disappear from the market.

 

Like everyone else, I was confused and annoyed that The Cry of Love and  Rainbow Bridge, released in 1971, were discontinued and replaced by the semi compilation The First Rays of the New Rising Sun in 1997.

 

My guess is that The Cry of Love and Rainbow Bridge were reissued as stand alone albums due to the current surge in vinyl appreciation.

 

I guess we'll never know what precipitated the weird choices made by the Hendrix estate regarding these two albums, but at least they put the situation right last year with their reissues.

 

However, I doubt that will make fans that bought The First Rays of the New Rising Sun feel better.

 

Btw, where' the reissue of 1972's War Heroes?

 

After hitting on their magic formula of mixing prog pop and alt rock to produce 1999's wonderful The Soft Bulletin, The Flaming Lips created the fantastic follow up Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots in 2002.

Critically acclaimed and extremely popular, the album made The Flaming Lips into real music stars.

 

As demand for live appearances accelerated globally, the overwhelmed Lips found time to release two EPs in 2003. The first, Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell basically picked up where The Lips  left off with three tracks that sound like outtakes that never made it onto Yoshimi. Assassination of the Sun, I'm a Flying Sunbeam and Sunship Balloons are all linked together and are cheerfully atmospheric as The Lips continue to sing of those evil machines.

 

The first remix of several Y Yoshimi tracks soon surfaces as Do You Realize gets an organic sounding dance mix that does nothing to improve this gorgeous song. Two remix/remakes of Ego Tripping At The Gates of Hell follow that again do no more than show how spectacular the original is, but they are interesting. 

 

The second 2003 EP released by The Lips, Fight Test, is a bit more interesting as it showcases The Lips performing live in radio studio studios and at a university campus. the album starts off with the familiar song Fight Test unaltered from the Yoshimi album but is quickly followed by the interesting live covers of non Lips tunes like the 60's hit Can't Get you Out of My Head (no it's not a cover of the ELO song) and a cover Beck Hanson's The Golden age. The Golden Age reveals Wayne Coyne's vocals devoid of auto tune and filtering found on studio releases as his naked voice is much closer to Neil Young's and has a deeper timbre and is more folky than his 'studio voice'. An excellent cover of Radiohead's Knives Out follows and The Lips channel the song's minor key melancholia perfectly. What's interesting about these covers is there more stripped down sound that shows off Steven Drozd's love of the Mellotron and that he is quite skilled on piano as well as synths and sequencers.

 

Another remix of Do You Realize? follows. this time the song has more of an European electronic dance club mix which again does little to improve on the original.

 

The EP closes with a faux cowboy song (The Lips hail from Oklahoma after all) titled Thank You Jack White for the Fiber Optic Jesus that You Gave Me! Far out.

 

If you think  that Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots was a 5 star masterpiece (like yours truly) than these two EPs will add the Yoshimi sound experience.

 

 

Thanks for the heads up on this book....my friend Bill is a huge Beefheart fan.