Trip Inside This House

BRAIN BUZZIN' BEST OF 2011

2012-01-25T12:00:00.042-06:00

Hail Voyagers! Patience is rewarded. After nearly calling this "Brain Bursting Best Of..." I'm happy to report the lists have been nailed down sufficiently to go to print, or at least be published. As in prior years I've asked some of my go-to friends for assistance in sorting the wheat from the chaff. Proof yet again there's quite a bit of a difference in how we all hear and view certain artist's output. In the end two things are certain: every album mentioned is worthy of your time and effort, and this assemblage could not nor did not hear it all. (Note: in asking for their participation I left it wide open as to how they wanted to enumerate. The lists could be a Top 10, 20, etc. LPs and/or EPs. Single tracks. made no difference to me. Nor should it to you.)

Hey, we've all thought at one time or another, "if I could go back and change ___", but we can't; I could revise prior year-end lists but that's the joy of discovery. I'm just thankful I got to hear all this joyous racket. Great music has no sell-by date or expiration.

So, let's launch into this, shall we:
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Collin A., of Chatham Rise
(Like last year, we're honored to have this guy's input; his ears are everywhere.)

20 songs to check out from 2011

1. vacant lots - kingdom come
2. lead stones - lord i feel it
3. new mystikal troubadours - morning highs
4. brian jonestown massacre - illuminomi
5. asteroid #4 - the unknown6. the laurels - turn on your mind
7. dead skeletons - ljósberinn
8. lower heaven - fallen angel
9. thee piatcions - time (extended)
10. troubadour dali - the prickly fingers of sante muerte
11. kid's garden - prayer mast
12. koolaid electric company - going blind
13. moonbell - figurine
14. grimble grumble - slow rider
15. black market karma - all that i've made
16. is/is - vowel movements
17. the great society mind destroyers - higher bodies
18. psychic ills - mexican wedding
19. the red plastic buddha - waves
20. joel gion - control

5 songs to check out in 2012

1. bad liquor pond - echos in amber
2. the spyrals - long road out
3. brian jonestown massacre - les nuages mentent
4. rancho relaxo - gandhi is my gun
5. secret colours - faust

Mr. Atavist
(Great friend. Outstanding radio show, Sunrise Ocean Bender, on WRIR, in Richmond, VA. Plus a blogger, too!)

The Lumerians :: Transmilinnia

An outstanding psych rock record from start to finish from Oakland's Lumerians. From pulsing to droning to throbbing to rocking and, at times, psych funky…a psych-rock record that moves across all kinds of territory without ever devolving into a trite genre-excercise. From the album art to the outfits to the wholesome and nutritious psych goodness inside the grooves, Transmilinnia is going to top a lot lists at the end of 2011′s run. Bet on it. They handle everything so sublimely that by the time the phantasmagoria comes to a close you'll forget just how much you took in; Atlanta Brook's quiet interlude, the epic Longwave, the bouncing Black Tusk, etc, etc … this one really does have it all.

A man far wiser than me described it as such: ‘Take a big helping of early Floyd, a dash of Tadpoles, a half-pound of primo bud and shake vigorously ….’

The Red Plastic Buddha :: All Out Revolution

All Out Revolution is a whip-smart slab of psych rock and pop that would roll off your speakers’ tongue if they had one. Maybe they do; anything is possible. But if you’re not ready for a little tongue just yet, then at least get a big, warm kiss from the Buddha…a wonderful gem of a record that has been likened to the Zombies, Love, our beloved Syd Barrett, and the heyday of garage and psych pop. Moving through harder edged rockers (Soldier Boy) and melodic psych washed power pop (Daisy Love), All Out Revolution is packed start to finish with a crisp production that plays to all their strengths, consistency and songwriting savvy.

The Luck of Eden Hall :: The Butterfly Revolutions, Vol. 1 & 2

I got to lump these two together…This is what ‘pop’ music should be: honeyed, thick, creamy and packing stones. Everyone who should know, knows pop disintegrated into empty calorie pabulum a long, long time ago and I for one need nourishment from my food. Butterfly Revolutions Vol. 1 and 2 prove that you can not only have your cake (with lots of frosting) and eat it too, but that you can get more than a cheap sugar rush out of it to keep going. I’m a firm believer that cream doesn’t rise to the top; shit floats. I’m happy to say that LOEH prove me wrong. Twice. Vol. 2 is as top shelf as Vol. , with a tinge more melancholy. Concept record? I'll ask them, but it doesn't matter. A whopping helping of dual-layer psych pop/rock cake with just the right amount of sonic frosting.

Hills :: Master Sleeps

Hills follow-up their debut Hills with the outstanding Master Sleeps picking up right where they left off and going exactly where you wanted them to. It’s a stellar follow-up that in no way diminishes the excitement of their first. Hills simply deliver again on the manifesto of foundation, showing what that foundation is made of and not getting showy or bloated. If anything, Hills knows how to use moderation like an instrument. Like a hill, or mountain, at their core, they simply are. And that’s more than enough…The earthy and intergalactic Master Sleeps is the sophomore platter minus all the slump. A slump is downward bound and this one is anything but. It heads out into multiple spaces with long ropy roots that obviously show no signs of snapping. Master Sleeps is a hefty being that knows that its presence alone is a big enough calling card.

Cranium Pie :: Mechanisms (part 1)

A veritable all-you-can-eat cornucopia of psychedelia saturated in a long tradition of pioneer freaks like Hawkwind, Floyd, Arthur Brown,…but sits with modern fractured like-minded outfits like equally, though differently, deranged Human Eye. There’s some mutated crustacean post-apocalyptic mechanized concept running through it, but the less said the better. Figure it out on your own. Or don’t. Maybe we can’t know it that intimately. Might not want to. All valid ways to enjoy their modern nostalgia tinged insanity. And there are many more ways and trips to take on this wigged out masterpiece as we wait for part 2 to materialize, probably out of a writhing mass of who knows what. It’s a constant stream churning over and over; oscillating, trippy instrumentation, baked distorted vocals and spoken breaks, levitating keys, and just about everything else you could want for your freak out…They really do make them like they used to.

Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor :: Spectra Spirit

Packing the swagger and menace introduced on their debut s/t, Spectra Spirit ups the ante and delivers. SOYSV put down some serious foundation work on their first and Spectra Spirit not only picks up where that one left off, but builds on it, their sound pumped up tight like a balloon (with sunshine and vapor among other things). Admittedly shooting for a more continuous flow than individual songs with hard borders, Spectra Spirit wafts in and out of itself. That continuity is reflected in the sequencing, a spacious production that showcases their loose frayed playing, and of course the songwriting. Woven straight through the whole affair is their trademark slow boil uneasiness…like emotions running, and getting, high under the skin; it’s about desire, of many kinds, more than a knee-jerk cock-rock lust (here is where I suppose I should make a comment about the great use of their organ on Spirit). Twitching under the skin is a vibe that it all might just fall apart; a vibe that doesn’t come to fruition.

Electric Moon :: The Doomsday Machine

There’s been a slow boiling darkness in Electric Moon, brought even closer to the surface on this year’s Flaming Lake, that sees the full light of day on TDM. And quickly eclipses it. More of a culmination than a soundtrack to the Apocalypse, TDM is a gloriously monolithic, and intergalactic, march that does more than lay waste. It cleans the slate… In a nutshell, TDM is another top-shelf addition to a breath-taking catalog. EM’s frequency of output is as impressive as the unshakable quality of every release…They say a lot of people convert at the end. Well, here’s to the afterlife…Get behind The Doomsday Machine, because you don’t want to be in front of it.

My Brother the Wind :: I Wash My Soul In The Stream Of Infinity

Buoyed by a stellar production, thick and meaty without getting bogged down, I Wash My Soul in The Stream of Infinity moves through scorching intergalactic jams as easily as it does the quieter, but never slight, moments like the exotic Pagan Moonbeam. Citing influences such as Crimson, Floyd, Sun Ra, Amon Düül and Hawkwind, My Brother the Wind takes it all and not only talks the talk, but walks the walk. You can hear all that, and more, collapsing and redigesting itself throughout the whole outing. Filled with soaring Mellotron, a bubbling thick bottom end, guitars that catch fire just as often as they create texture, I Wash My Soul in The Stream of Infinity plays out with as much control and focus as it does exploration…

three dimensional tanx :: three dimensional tanx

Smelting space and psych rock with sneering and snotty post punk and garage fueled sensibilities, 3d tanx hammer out a platter that could find a home in whatever era their self-made worm hole spits them out into. There’s a thin line between smart-ass and whip-smart, and 3d tanx definitley err on the side of the latter, making tdt not only an intergalactic frayed nut-buster, but one with the stones to back up the unhinged mix of ingredients. What follows is a ferocious high-voltage warped experimentation (and interpretation) blur of The Stooges, Spiritualized/Spacemen 3, Hawkwind, The Velvets, and whatever else suits their fancy…and yours. Obviously not ones to color within the lines, 3d tanx don’t genre-hop or make fleeting references for the sake of doing so. If they did, tdt would be engaging, but impenetrable as a wall. There’s plenty of dynamics from the scorching opener to the hazy languid Way Up to the Sun; the buoyant 60s tinged Baby Universe to the brash, punkish and punishing Six Dead. Real 3D in every way with that ‘x’ rating deserved and hard earned.

Eat Lights, Become Lights :: Autopia

Obvious ‘neo-krautrock’ pigeon-holing is bound to happen, but there is far more going on in Autopia to render it another revivalist eunuch. As far as that krautrock goes, Eat Lights Become Lights aren’t honing in on one specific period, or a handful of definitive trademarks. Where others might focus on a specific point to define themselves, or get so wrapped up in recreating a particular time, Eat Lights Become Lights puts Autopia out as part of an ongoing tradition, a continuing update and layering that takes that tradition and keeps it vital and alive. They not only take it all to heart, they may have digested the heart itself…Much of the origins they look to promoted an ‘idyllic’ {interpretation is yours…}, and often skewed and satirical, vision of a possible future to be. Autopia hones in on the same thing, but avoids looking backwards to an out of date anticipation of what may come and reheating it for some empty nostalgia trip that leads nowhere. Shimmering, propulsive and driving.

Ryan Revolt
(Mr. Revolt of the Apes. Blogger/wordsmith extraordinaire. Likes books. Uses them, too. Oh, and also, any truth to the rumor -the rumor I'm trying to start here...)

Swahili – “Swahili” (self-released)

All I really need to do is think about the first time I heard the ghostly, longing vocals of “Soma” and I deliver myself the chills. Uplifting, strange and radical. We don’t really have to still listen to people who say electronic music is void of a soul, do we?

Weird Owl – “Build Your Beast a Fire” (TeePee Records)

From the opening intergalactic-busking of “No Time Nor No Space” to the repeating, retreating, revolving refrain that gives the album its title, this is an incredibly welcoming album, especially if you find songs about saucer-shaped shadows that leap pyramids in a single sound welcoming. And we do. Why this hasn’t sold a million copies, I have no idea.

Marissa Nadler – Marissa Nadler (Box of Cedar)

In which Ms. Nadler again wears her “reliquary eyes” and “diadem frown,” now coupled with “phantom limbs” and “eerie hyms.”

White Hills – “HP-1” (Thrill Jockey)

The space race is on! Who will be crowned “Greatest Space Rock Band of All-Time” – Hawkwind or White Hills? And the winner is … White Hills by a nose! Unlike Hawkwind, they choose to race without a saxophone, giving them just enough thrust for the victory! Bow down and kneel to the ones who call you slave.

Canary Oh Canary – “Last Night In Sunway Knolls” (self-released)

Does this count as an album? Is it an EP? Does anyone care? When you stand up and spit your first song into the world and that song is the ten-minute-plus soul-cleansing of Canary Oh Canary’s “Embrace,” you make my top-ten albums list (what an honor!). Someone play this at my funeral, please.

Ga’an – “Black Equus” (Captcha Records)

The experience of listening to Ga’an is something like if a bunch of wackos from the Midwest slowed down their Bauhaus records to 17.5 RPMs before welding them to a shrine built out of Tangerine Dream bootlegs, and eventually blasting light-speed through a Voivod-timewarp before recording the first note. I’m talking a mystic, technology killing, “Piper at the Gates of Dawnrazor” trip.

Amen Dunes – “Through Donkey Jaw” (Sacred Bones)

Angry, hypnotic , strange, honest and beautiful. What else do you want an album to be? Amen Dunes can only give you everything.

Gnod – “InGnodWeTrust” (Rocket Recordings)

You could easily take this monstrous, mental hydrogen bomb of a record and replace it on this list with their OTHER equally stunning album released this year (“Chaudelande Volume 1”) and I couldn’t blink an eye. By turns, the music of Gnod is punishing, dramatic, ecstatic, frenzied and – wait for it – danceable.

Master Musicians of Bukkake – “Totem Three” (Important Records)

For longer than I am comfortable admitting, I avoided this band, assuming they are something of a joke, given their – ahem – descriptive choice of a name. But they are no joke. By the cleansing twilight of Kali Yuga, they are no joke. Still not sure I can bring myself to wear the t-shirt, though.

Spindrift – “Classic Soundtracks, Vol. 1” (Xemu Records)

It’s just shy of impossible to think of Spindrift without thinking of the past. There’s a strange, sweaty, sideways energy in their utter musical and cinematic commitment to reanimating and reverb-ing the ghosts of the conflicts of the West. But the latest confirmation of this commitment – the instant classic, “Classic Soundtracks Vol. 1” – doesn’t sound anything but timeless to me.

Thee Sonic Assassin(Sydney, Australia's, man with the pulse on the pulsars. And quasars. And other space objects -including musicians, as the host of Sideways Through Sound radio show on 2ser.)

21. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
20. Arbouretum - The Gathering
19. Brad Barr - The Fall Apartment: Instrumental Guitar
18. Into The Woods - Demo
17. Sisters Of Your Sunshine Vapor - Spectra Spirit
16. Oh Ruin - Static Caravan 7"
15. Hills - Master Sleeps
14. Jeff Lang - Carried In Mind
13. Nick Jonah Davis - Of Time & Tides
12. My Brother The Wind - I Wash My Soul In The Stream Of Infinity
11. The Sand Pebbles - Dark Magic
****************************************

10. Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart

9. Tyler Ramsey - The Valley Wind

8. Wooden Shjips - West

7. Marissa Nadler - Marissa Nadler

6. True Widow - As High As The Highest Heavens And From The Centre To The Circumference Of The Earth

5. Vetiver - The Errant Charm

4. Martha Tilston - Lucy & The Wolves

3. Six Organs Of Admittance - Asleep On The Floodplain

2. Laurels - Mesozoic EP

1. Black Angels - Phosphene Dream

And so concludes our Guest lists. I was too late, in my own mind, to ask for input from some likely suspects. Their lists, as well as the rest below, are all worth a look. Highest recommend.

* DJ Astro, of the Psychotropic Zone

* Kenny "Cantankerous" Bloggins, of The Decibel Tolls (He's gonna' be missed!)

* Mike Newman, of Beyond Beyond is Beyond

* Aural Innovations

* Latino America Shoegaze

* The Blog That Celebrates Itself

* Frontier Psychiatrist

That should keep you all busy for a day or three, digesting and note-taking. Scouring and scurrying. Take time to enjoy the information and what it's leading you to.

OK. On with it. What a GREAT year 2011 was for the music I love. We love. WE! Wow. With over 45 Pick of the Week artist's releases plus five more clamoring for that week's spot it was a richly rewarding year's listening.
I've gone through my list so much I see it in billboards in my sleep. EPs, 7" records, LPs....foreign and domestic and flat out otherworldly. To the artists who've created the sounds: THANK YOU.

TOP TEN EPs (alphabetically)

* The Altered Hours - Downstream (Self-rel.)
* Chatham Rise - No One (Apollo Audio)
* The Dandelion Seeds - Good Times With (Self-rel.)
* DC Fontana - Meshkalina (DCTone Records)
* The Lost Rivers - My Beatific Vision (Northern Star)
* The Ovals - Into The Eyes Of Those Who Sleep (Self-rel.)
* The Spyrals - Clouds (Self-rel.)
* Sundress - Sundress (Self-rel.)
* The Telewire - The Telewire (Self-rel.)
* Woodsman - Mystic Places (Fire Talk)

TOP ALBUMS, Nos. 11 - 25 (alphabetically)

* Deleted Waveform Gatherings - Pretty Escape (Rainbow Quartz)
* The Donkeys - Born With Stripes (Dead Oceans)
* Lead Stones - Set+Setting (Self-rel.)
* Love Explosion - The Perverse Caress of Satan (Self-rel.)
* Lumerians - Transmalinnia (Knitting Factory)
* The Orange Revival - Black Smoke Rising (Self-rel.)
* The Paperhead - The Paperhead (Trouble In Mind Records)
* Piatcions - Senseless>Sense (I Blame The Parents)
* The Red Plastic Buddha - All Out Revolution (Space Cat Records)
* Rói Höttur - Imaginarium (Self-rel.)
* Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor - Spectra Spirit (New Fortune)
* The Strange Flowers - The Grace Of Losers (Self-rel.)
* The Tweeds - Goliath (Self-rel.)
* Voyageurs - Freak Cave (Self-rel.)
* Wooden Shjips - West (Thrill Jockey)

THAT was hard! I could've expanded that list to 50-100. Easily. But, those 15 leaped out of the crowded field and are certainly in MY trunk on that proverbial Desert Island in the Sea of Hypothetically....but now we ride the waves over to the Top 10:

TOP TEN LPs, 2011 (alpha' & according to -valis)

#1 - Asteroid #4 - Hail To The Clear Figurines (The Comm. To Keep Music Evil)

#2 - Cranium Pie - Mechanisms Pt.1 (Regal Crabomophone)

#3 - Dead Skeletons - Dead Magick (A Records)

#4 - Eastern Magnetics - Eastern Magnetics (Self-rel.)

#5 - The Great Society Mind Destroyers - Spirit Smoke (Sloow Tapes)

#6 - Henryspencer - To The Timeless Valley (Bookmaker Records)

#7 - Koolaid Electric Company - Random Noises & Organised Sounds (Self-rel.)

#8 - Mmoss - i (Burger Records)

#9 - The Night Beats - The Night Beats (Trouble In Mind)

#10 - The Oscillation - Veils (All Time Low)

There you go...

-valis Pick of the Week

2012-01-24T09:16:00.005-06:00

Hail Voyagers near & far! Our Pick this week comes from the sunny clime of Florida, (where all that sunshine seems to just make 'em angrier.) Led by Ates Isaldak, ex-Strangers Family Band, their new 7" EP has just been released on HoZac Records.
the band in Heaven!

Featuring four songs of sun-addled psychedelic psychosis they certainly prove their worthy of their debut appearance/invite to this year's PsychFest in Austin. Listen for yourself. They've arrived.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2012-01-17T13:48:00.004-06:00

Hail Voyagers!

We are indeed trippin' inside THIS house! We're absolutely punch drunk on the new album by Baltimore's own Bad Liquor Pond!

Blue Smoke Orange Sky is set for release to the world at large this Friday, January 20th.
Their third full length, and first since 2008's Radiant Transmission, finds the band in full-on psychedelic mode from the start with the shambling "The Crescent Ship" and follows through on that promise throughout the remaining ten tracks. (Four years is a while between releases but it's clearly not been wasted on them.) There's an effortless '60s aesthetic at work here which suits the lyrical bent without rote aping of the first Golden Age.

Bad Liquor Pond will be playing an album release show this Friday, along with The Flying Eyes and Slow Jerks, at the Golden West Cafe in Baltimore, MD.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2012-01-10T11:50:00.005-06:00

Hail Voyagers! Just ten days in to this new year and we've got a Pick with a 2012 provenance. No strangers to the radio show, through their great EP as well as a brilliant 7" (!), it's San Francisco's The Spyrals!

The 3-piece packs a psychedelic wallop on their debut eponymous long player.

Over the course of the nine tracks we're treated to a dizzying array of tricks and treats from a well-stocked arsenal. With Elliot Kiger & Brandon Wurtz providing a muscular backbone via drum and bass, respectively, Jeff Lewis pours forth a like-minded energy to match on lead guitar and vocal duties. Though they, too, are certainly their own band -and brand, they're distant cousins by mileage to Detroit's own Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor. Swagger: check. Attitude: check. Bravado: check. The chops to back it up..? Check!

Their LP is available via their Bandcamp page. Your transport awaits.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2012-01-05T04:04:00.004-06:00

Hail Voyagers! 2012 is here indeed. Ushering in this brand new year is a release which came out at the very end of 2011 and worthy of attention by all who enjoy our favorite sounds.

From Sweden, with their self-titled debut album, it's The Early Days! The album is a worthy successor to two highly-acclaimed EPs; 2008's The Early EP, and 2010's Contraries.

Sonically, this album roars. Big, stadia-filling, sounds emanating from this thing. Not too far off from their countrymen, The Soundtrack of Our Lives. This comes as less a surprise when you learn Mark Gardener was along for the Ride as the man responsible for mixing the album.

Stylistically, the band are at a peak in terms of songwriting and instrumentation. There's not a duff track in the bunch, and at ten tracks that's saying something anymore. The studio was their friend and they knew how to get exactly what they wanted from its interiors.

As they say in their press release: "Finally the long and winding road from industrious songwriting to the release of an album is behind us. We kindly ask you to take over the wheel from this point. We have finished the job and The Early Days debut album belongs to us no more."

Here's "Butterfly" from the album played live last August at the Way Out Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden:

And "There She Falls":
The She Falls

Here more at SoundCloud.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-12-27T09:13:00.004-06:00

Hail Voyagers!
For our last entry of 2011's Pick of the Week we feature a multi-cultural collaboration known as 8x8, (Eight by Eight.) "8X8 is the transatlantic collaboration between Lane Steinberg (NYC, US) and Alex Khodchenko (Kiev, Ukraine). The entire album was recorded via file sharing. The principals have never met, nor even spoken. Their relationship, which began as a series of emails, blossomed over several years into a working musical partnership that transcends the lack of a common language and physical proximity."

Amazing sounds in the psychedelic-pop vein that, to these ears, belies the facts they've never been in the same room. A harbinger of efforts to come. My congratulations and applause to Lane & Iskandr. CD is also available via CDBaby.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

Tune Into Winter

2011-12-23T05:28:00.005-06:00

DJ Stod is back indeed! Fitting since we in the Northern Hemisphere have passed through the Winter Solstice and soon will witness the rebirth of the Risen Sun.

Our friend has brought us something to warm the circuitry and light up the darkened corners of your cortex. So come on, brighten the corner where you are!

Stay tuned for the return of the "10 Questions" Survey and much more in the New Year.
Best wishes for this Solstice Season to all of you. The light is always on here.

-valis

Update: January 8, 2012 - DJ Stod' has posted the playlist in the comments section.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-12-21T04:52:00.002-06:00

Hail Voyageurs! Happy Winter Solstice, too! (Summer, on the other side of the stone.)

As is so often the case, the Pick this week was brought to my attention via conversations which go on all day, every day, which go like this: "..have you also heard ____ ?", followed by a link. Then it's doune the rabbit hole I go.

Three weeks ago I was unaware of this band but now have them firmly in the "Ones To Watch" List. (A list that bulges to bursting.)

From Rennes, France, it's Sudden Death Of Stars! By some accounts a septet going by names which are numbers in the 80s. They seem to have caught the eyes and ears of the festival-going reviewers at the recent Rennes-held Trans Musicales:

" Of the hometown acts, Sudden Death Of Stars impressed me the most… partly because they've got someone sitting cross-legged playing drone sitar, but also due to their obvious love of all things Nuggets. There's the standard Brian Jonestown/13th Floor Elevators connection for sure, but I also dug the more intriguing elements of their set, which to me recalled the trippier sides of both The Standells and The Hunters. "

(* above by NME's Matt Wilkinson)

Try 'em!

Their album, Getting Up, Going Down, on CloseUp Records, is available via their BandCamp page. Free.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-12-13T09:40:00.006-06:00

Hail Voyagers e dammi questo!

Our Pick this week are every bit psychedelic veterans having been founded in 1987. Still maintaining the fire & vision of the early days, they're set to release a new album this Thursday, December 15th! Self-released with planetary distribution via CD Baby, it's Pisa, Italy's The Strange Flowers and their new album The Grace Of Losers.

Like American counterparts The Grip Weeds, The Strange Flowers get better seemingly with each outing. As Jimi would say: "they are experienced." Throughout the nine-song album they prove life has taught 'em a thing or two and they know what to do with it. They want more. And, so do I.

You can hear streaming of the full album at their SoundCloud page and await the arrival of Thursday when CD Baby will provide you a means to get your own. Here's the first video from The Grace Of Losers:

Thanks Giulia! e...A buon intenditor poche parole.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-12-06T11:34:00.005-06:00

Hail Voyagers! This week's Pick hails from my beloved city of St. Louis! While there have been a few psychedelic bands here, it has decidedly not been a hotbed for the genre. (Much more a blues/r&b city.)

Brian Andrew Marek & Manik Myk Thompson have been flying under the banner of The Vertigo Swirl for some time and have released Swirl 3 on their Rubberstamp Records label. I found it a most-enjoyable release.
Our blog friend, Mike Floyd, over at homemade lo-fi psych has posted download links, approved by the band, for your enjoyment.

(You can also check out their ReverbNation site.)

Finally, for those readers in the St. Louis area The Vertigo Swirl has grown to a four-piece cast of madness and will be playing live this Thursday night, December 8th, at Pop's Blue Moon.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-11-29T09:46:00.005-06:00

Hail Voyagers! Well, "better late than never" is fitting for this week's Pick of. Released back on May 12th, Random Noises And Organised Sounds, by the Koolaid Electric Company, is one not to miss whenever you come to it!

(* Cover art designed by Chrissie Abbott)

Over the course of the album's nine tracks they manage to show why their devil-may-care attitude toward management, labels, etc., may be sound strategy. Their launch party for the album was a sold out show and by all reports was an incredible evening's psychedelic entertainment.

Try these:

SOS

Brillig stuff, to these ears! And thanks to collin a. for yet another solid tip.
Sincere best to the Koolaid Electric Company!!!

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-11-22T11:25:00.004-06:00

Hail Voyagers! As suggested last week in a comment, our new Pick of the Week is Psychic Ills! (Brooklyn. Again.)

Their new album, Hazed Dream, came out late last month on Sacred Bones. Although from a cursory overview the blogosphere seems rather split on the overall merits of the album. To these ears the arguments stating there's a saminess to the album bears a kernel of truth but there's also enough difference to warrant attention on its own.
They've found a vibe that worked for Hazed Dream and got locked in it. It works, for me. Try this:

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-11-15T10:36:00.004-06:00

Hail Voyagers! New week, ergo new Pick...

Neo-Brooklynites, Woodsman, have been lighting up the cortical zones here at Trip Inside This House for a few weeks now since first hearing the new EP, Mystic Places, just released three weeks ago on Fire Talk. As I stated on the radio show this morning, I no longer know what constitutes an EP or an LP; this has the length to be considered an album but they created it so they decide. Right?

Regardless. The damned thing smokes. Slow plumes of narcotic haze. Enough backbone to keep the body and mind focused and alert. This notion was further solidified when I heard them line in the studios of East Village Radio last Thursday on good friend Mike Newman's show, Beyond Beyond is Beyond. (The band have a link to the archived segment, here.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-11-08T15:50:00.006-06:00

They're BACK! The Motor City's bringers of mayhem & psychedelia, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor, are set to launch the new album on Friday, 11/11/11, through Detroit label New Fortune Records. Titled Spectra Spirit, it comes on translucent yellow vinyl and comes in a hand screen printed sleeve. Delicious!

The new album finds our heroes in full-on swagger and menace mode, disposing of the incense and lava lamps for the wafts of a hookah and bonfires. They're neither here to mess around nor waste your time. Highest recommend. (Pardon me whilst I puff on my own hookah...)

Also, "F Y I," the threesome is out on the road throughout the eastern portion of the U.S. of A. in support of the release; go see 'em, ask about the hookah's size, and tell 'em "-valis sent me!"

11/11 The Symposium, Cleveland, OH
11/12 The Bug Jar, Rochester, NY
11/13 Castaways, Ithaca, NY
11/14 Pa’s Lounge, Somerville, MA
11/15 Ralph’s Diner, Worcester, MA
11/16 Piano’s, New York, NY
11/17 The Charleston, Brooklyn, NY
11/18 JR’s Bar, Philadelphia, PA
11/19 The Sidebar, Baltimore, MD
11/21 The Galaxy Hut, Arlington, VA
11/22 37th & Zen, Norfolk, VA
11/23 Motorco, Durham, NC
11/25 The 5 Spot, Nashville, TN
11/26 MOTR Pub, Cincinnati, OH

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-11-01T15:10:00.004-05:00

Hail Voyagers! Cause for celebration, on multiple levels, 'round here. Germane to our topic though is a brand new release by the pride of Sandgate, Kent, The Higher State!

Long-time readers well know our love of this band and their vibrant take on all things garage & psych'! The new release, out today on 13 O'Clock Records, is titled Freakout At The Gallery.

Once again they've created an album brimfull of the pineal juice. What sets Marty, Mole, Ben & Daniel apart from the crowd, (and the crowd's getting bigger, eh?!), is their ability to distill the essence of their favorite forebears of the genre without merely aping or parroting. No, these cats are of a different stripe. (Can paisley be a stripe?) While listening you'll catch the references to the bands that've caught their ear but in a way which bands this savvy do: by making the sounds their own...they don't linger long enough to bludgeon you with a "hey! look who we're sounding like now!" vibe. They're veterans. Pros.

If you like some wobble with your crunch then The Higher State surely satisfy. Period.

Check this.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-10-25T11:27:00.004-05:00

Hail Voyagers!
There is certainly something in the waters of Chicago! Whatever it is: keep drinking! We're all the luckier for it.

This week's Pick hails from the Windy City and has shown they can be as relentless as any of their peers mining the rich vein of psychedelia: Apteka!

Their new album, Gargoyle Days, is about to drop this coming Monday, October 31st. (Order the vinyl via Saki Store; it also comes with a download card. Band recommended.)

A worthy addition to thier body of work, Gargoyle Days is rather loaded with pure shots -of and for, the pineal. You should consider streaming the archive of today's Trip Inside This House show to get your ears around two of the finer tracks as no video exists, yet, for those. (Perhaps brother blood meridian will take up the challenge?)

At any rate, how about this: give a listen to their Traitors 7" on Bandcamp.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-10-18T11:33:00.005-05:00

Our Pick of the Week, this week, hails from the vast north lands just above me and right up the Mississippi. The river turns neon when they're out melting the crisper air up there and becoming a source of heat themselves.

Chatham Rise!
minneapolis' own psychedelic sons/suns. Their new EP, No One, has been launched through the portal of Apollo Audio.

Four sizzling cocktails, foreshadowing the long drink to come...

Check out the always cool Ryan's write-up at Revolt Of The Apes!

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-10-11T09:32:00.004-05:00

BOOM! Out today, ('though I'd read it was releasing this Friday, the 14th,) is the third album from Iowans-turned-Californians, Radio Moscow: The Great Escape Of Leslie Magnafuzz! True to its title, this!

Full of boozy, psychedelia-laden blues by the bucketfull, the guys show absolutely NO SIGNS of letting the foot off the gas to whatever place they've seen in their mind's eye. And, we're along for the ride. (Now that I think about it: maybe they're drivin' back to the '70s! Erasing three decades of mind-numbing pap along the way. Granted there's been a lot to like in the past three decades. I could name hundreds. But the crap, not the cream, is what gets churned into ---insert solid waste reference here.) Radio Moscow would be right at home with the bell-bottomed crowd, stereos in the basement turned to 10, keg in the corner, bong on the homemade coffee table......double album opened to separate seeds.

What's playing on the stereo..? This:

Get the album through Alive, BOMP!, or other fine establishments where aural assaults are traded for currencies.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

10 Questions

2011-10-07T08:44:00.011-05:00

Hail Voyagers! Happy Friday as well....

Back in May we featured today's guest as our Pick of the Week, so they should now have pummeled their way into your brains. We're honored to have The Great Society Mind Destroyers' Andrew Kettering take on the survey.

Andrew seems -like our man Plastic Crimewave, to be a force of nature on the Chicago Pyschedelic Scene; he's a huge part of the Commune Records label, as well as the organizing force behind the Chicago Psych Fest!

(* there's a great interview recorded of Andrew discussing this year's Fest with CHIRP DJ Alli Klein, here.)

He's certainly got the CV to take this on, so let's go! Ready?

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."

Music inspired by, relating to, or embodying the psychedelic experience.

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?

Just based on sound alone and not so much how they are being played I would say India instruments like the tambura, the sitar or the shruti box because of their natural droning qualities resonating like the OM. Although lately I have been more tranced out by the poly-rythmic tribal drumming of African folk music. Syd Barrett did a good job of embodying the psychedelic with just his voice and an acoustic guitar, so there is also something to be said about who is at the helm.

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?

This has changed over the years and will probably continue to change as I dive deeper, but the record that has resonated the deepest with me in the past year or so has been "Heavier Than a Death in the Family" by Les Rallizes Denudes. It's probably the most raw hypnotizing and destructive music I heard this side of "Sister Ray".

4. What live performance in history, if it could've been recorded as a bootleg, would you most like to have?

It would be cool if there were some street recordings of Moondog playing crazy things he built. Maybe there are? I also wish there were some recordings of the last Elevators shows when Tommy got back with them. They were supposedly playing this more droned out tune called "Jerusalem" that I wondered about.

5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?

I am hugely into "dub" music. The droning echo and repetitious grooves are very psychedelic. My all time favorite dub album is the Scientist's "Rids the World of the Evil Curse of the Vampires". It's the perfect mix of heavy bass 'n riddim with fantastic vocal and horn melodies mixed in by a genius dub master. For a dub album it is much more expansive and layered then most. I have also been really getting in this collaboration record between Creation Rebel and New Age Steppers called "Threat to Creation" that is infinitely far out, just covered in echo and reverb splendor.

6. Is there an advantage in being the pioneers (60s psychedelic bands), or being the continuing explorers armed with the knowledge of those pioneers work (the modern psychedelic bands)? Why?

It all depends on what you are exposed to and how deep you go down the rabbit hole. There are plenty of 60s groups that just jumped on the psychedelic bandwagon and probably never took the time to understand what a psychedelic experience is, they just played the part. Just as there are modern groups that probably saw DIG! once and decided to form a "psychedelic" band. It ultimately depends on what kind of people are in the band and what they want out of their music. When you look at how the psychedelic experience influenced music across the world in the 60s it is incredible to hear all the variations and interpretations of how that translates into music. Groups like Parson Sound were obviously interpreting their experience a bit differently then The Beatles or the Jefferson Airplane. Nowadays with so much information and obscure music available I think the more interesting modern psych groups are the ones soaking it all in blurring genres and dispelling conventions but are still tuned into that greater consciousness experienced from the altered perception and expanded awareness of the psychedelic experience.

7. Who are The NoMen..?

A modern underground British group?

* (Editor's Note: They are actually Scots.)

8. Your band elects to cover an album, entirely, even though you may be the only ones who ever hear it; what's the album, and why that one?

It would be interesting to try and cover something by Fela Kuti, maybe "Expensive Shit". I think that would translate into being pretty far out because it's already pretty much there, just add the massive reverb, echo and drone.

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?

from the top of my head and in no particular order

Slip Inside This House by the 13th Floor Elevators
Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground
Kalyani/You Can't Ever Come Down by Joe Byrd & the Field Hippies
Dancing Gods by Silver Apples
Amboss by Ash Ra Tempel
You Made Me Realise by My Bloody Valentine
Der LSD-Marsch by Guru Guru
Night of the Assassins by Les Rallizes Denudes
The Psychedelic Saxophone of Charlie Nothing by Charlie Nothing
10 Minutes by Parson Sound

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question.

Andrew: Who is your favorite 60s era Austin, TX psych band besides the 13th Floor Elevators and why?

-valis: I'll take The Golden Dawn. Their Power Plant album seems about as close to another 13th Floor Elevators LP as possible. The similarities in the vocals are uncanny, as well as the lyrical bent of George Kinney. (He's not Tommy Hall, but then who is?!) I also think the lyrics stand up well to the passage of time, now 43 years on from its release, unlike quite a sufficient amount of other tracks by bands which seem to have disappeared up their own fundament. Hysterically.

There's an emotional pull on Power Plant that saves it, to this day: Raw, honest, unflinching and earnest.

Thanks Andrew! Also, for our Chicago-area readers, The Great Society Mind Destroyers will be playing the Viaduct Theater with Panda Riot, Lightfoils, and (great friend of the blog, Collin A's band) Chatham Rise, tomorrow night, October 8th!

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-10-04T09:53:00.006-05:00

New week, new Pick!

It's an absolute treat to make you aware of our Pick this week: Deleted Waveform Gatherings! The vehicle for our long-time friend Øyvind Holm & Co., (ex-Dipsomaniacs) from Norway. Their new release, Pretty Escape, is out on Rainbow Quartz Records now.

In a word, this new CD is LOADED! 20 tracks for your enjoyment & amusement. Me, I'm bemused. It's my belief in a few short years hence the rest of the world, and especially music writers/critics, will be comparing other great songwriters & lyricists to Øyvind instead of the other way 'round. The man has a keen knack for the juste mot along with a Borgesian sense of rhythm. Classy.

Comparisons seem too facile in this case; the man can stand on his own -and he does, alongside anyone. To these ears he's brilliant.

Congratulations Øyvind & Deleted Waveform Gatherings!
You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

10 Questions

2011-09-30T12:25:00.010-05:00

Hail Voyagers! Well, as my attempt to shine a spotlight on the efforts of The NoMen these past two weeks comes to a close, (though there'll certainly be more from them in the future,) I'm thrilled no end to bring you this edition of "10 Questions" as answered by The NoMen! All of them!

Let's see what informs their tastes in psychedelia, shall we?

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Psychedelic music is music that takes you where you want to be!

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
George NoMan - The Sitar, just because it is and I want one (donations most welcome!)
Brian NoMan - a phased drum kit
Jamie NoMan - The Theremin
Allan NoMan - Backwards Guitar. There's never been a bad song with backwards guitar in it!

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
George NoMan - Neu '75
Allan NoMan - The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders. It has taken me over 30 years of hard work to get into this album. I've hated it, thought it was funny, found it annoying, been intrigued by it and eventually came to love it!
Brian NoMan - Forever Changes by Love

4. What live performance in history, if it could've been recorded as a bootleg, would you most like to have?
George NoMan - The Stooges, Funhouse era. There are lots of James Williamson Raw Power era bootlegs but I'm still looking for a Ron Asheton one.
Brian NoMan - Nero fiddling while Rome burned!!!

5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
George NoMan - Sun Arise by Rolf Harris. It feels psychedelic to me! Or the Star Trek theme.
Brian NoMan - Venus in Furs by The Velvet Underground or anything by William Shatner!
Jamie NoMan - Telestar by The Tornados
Allan NoMan - Rock On by David Essex

6. Is there an advantage in being the pioneers (60s psychedelic bands), or being the continuing explorers armed with the knowledge of those pioneers work (the modern psychedelic bands)? Why?
George NoMan - It's nice to be at the forefront, but making music with the tools of others is good, as long as you use them with your own ideas and have fun.
Brian NoMan - I'm glad all those psyche bands went before and took all the bad trips for us!

7. Who are The NoMen..?
Allan NoMan - We are a band from Scotland who started doing cover versions of UK punk bands from the early DIY era. We got the opportunity to work with some of these original artists and released CDs and 7" singles on Topplers Records. We are all fans of psychedelic music so we started writing our own songs in a psychedelic style.
George NoMan - We are outsiders… Brothers on a mission to do something great without even knowing what we are doing.
Brian NoMan - We are the wind that blows the leaf of revolution from the tree of conformity!
Jamie NoMan - I don't know, man!

8. Your band elects to cover an album, entirely, even though you may be the only ones who ever hear it; what's the album, and why that one?
Allan NoMan - This is what we have been doing for the past 7 years!
George NoMan - Psycho Candy by The Jesus and Mary Chain. I got it when I was 12 and it changed my life.
Brian NoMen - The Beady Eye album so that we can do it properly!

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?

George NoMan -
Enter the Mirror by Les Rallizes DeNudes
Mr Farmer by the Seeds
Seeland by Neu!
Cha Cha 2000 by La Dusseldorf
It's All Too Much by the Beatles
Final Solution by Pere Ubu
Bliss by Psychic TV
Monk Time by The Monks
We Will Fall by The Stooges

Brian NoMan -
Broken Arrow by Buffalo Spriingfield
In Another Land by The Rolling Stones
Porpoise Song by The Monkees
Soon by My Bloody Valentine
The Dr Who Theme by BBC Radiophonic Workshop
When Doves Cry by Prince
The Heater by The Mutton Birds
Making Plans For Nigel by XTC
Open Your Eyes by The Nazz
The People in Me by The Music Machine

Jamie NoMan -
All of the Chill Out album by KLF

Allan NoMan -
People Games Play by Faine Jade
Your Phrasing is Bad by Caleb
Captain Groovy and His Bubblegum Army by Captain Groovy and His Bubblegum Army
Half a Mind by the Holy Modal Rounders
A Question of Temperature by The Balloon Farm
On the Road South by The Stereo Shoestrings
Warm Are the Sounds by The Cobblers
Baby I've Got News For You by Miller
Ray of Light by Madonna
Cold Winter Sun by Faine Jade

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question.
The NoMen: If you could be a Lou Reed solo album which one would you be????

-valis: that's easy...

Sail on, further, NoMen! You certainly propel my voyages...

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-09-27T09:28:00.006-05:00

Just when you perhaps thought it safe to come 'round again we've made the unprecedented move of going back-to-back with a band as Pick of the Week.

The NoMen. Again!

This time we're highlighting a release originally hatched in 2010 but given the remix-remaster treatment just recently. Ergo, it qualifies. (Dammit. I'm unable to get the connection of the word "qualifies" with the "Ally's Tartan Army" chant of Scotland's, re: singing about England in the 1978 World Cup but "they did nae qualify." out of my head.)

Back To The Rubber Room...

Brilliant choices of cover version, including "Motorbikin'", "Citadel", and their immense original, "All Seeing Eye"! Must have at This House.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

The Wayback Machine

2011-09-23T12:26:00.004-05:00

Once again we take a ride on the whirlwind known as The Wayback Machine!

This time our intrepid Voyager is George NoMan, of The NoMen! He's certainly the adventurous type we respect around this house!

Once again, the premise being:

You've been given a one-time opportunity to use The Wayback Machine; what band in what year are you going back in time to see and what song do you most want to hear while there?

George NoMan: Les Rallizes DeNudes, any year, any song.

Okay, how about 1979.....

I do believe George is into mind-melting corruscations. He trips, inside this house.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-09-20T13:38:00.005-05:00

Some mysteries are better left unlocked and examined- if it all,with caution. I am however not of this mind when it comes to intersting bands of a psychedelic stripe and persuasion. Such is the case with our Pick of the Week this week:

The NoMen! Hailing from Scotland "The NoMen has always been a loose collective of musicians who play with different bands but, since February 2010, they settled on a four piece line up and started expanding their songwriting skills which has culminated in this album written, produced and released independently by the band." (Music Industry News Network)

They've just released another great album of whip-smart originals along with their typical shrewd cover version choice(s), like Faine Jade & Ramases on The NoMen Are Zodiac Adventurers! Available as a free download.

A brilliant band, and one you'll be reading much more about.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-09-13T09:07:00.005-05:00

Hail Voyagers! With a mere week to go in our (Northern Hemisphere) Summer the timing is right for this week's Pick: Wooden Shjips release (unleash?) West today, on Thrill Jockey!

" West marks the first time the band recorded in a proper studio, as well as the first time with an engineer (Phil Manley). All previous recordings, either self-released, for Holy Mountain, or Mexican Summer were done more piecemeal in the band’s rehearsal studio. West was recorded and mixed in six days at Lucky Cat Studios in San Francisco. It was mastered by Sonic Boom at Blanker Unisinn, Brooklyn, with additional mastering by Heba Kadry at the Lodge in New York...

While indebted to both the psych music of the ‘60s and mid-‘70s, electric Neil Young, and even the induced travels of Spacemen 3, the Wooden Shjips’ music is modern and in every way their own. West is an epic journey to the edge and beyond. "
(from Thrill Jockey)

A slow-burning, smoke-filled album sure to make a LOT of Top Ten Lists for the year.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

Stuff n' sundry

2011-09-12T12:11:00.004-05:00

Scouring the interwebs for stuff n' sundry. Found these items of possible interest to you:

1 - You may or may not be aware over this past weekend our great friends, Asteroid #4 played some shows with Peter Daltrey of Kaleidoscope/Fairfield Parlour fame. The bigger news is they're also working on a collaborative album all put in motion by yet another great friend, Damien Youth. This should be huge!

More here.

2 - Jared Artaud, of The Vacant Lots, asked me to let those of you on the US West Coast know they'll be in your neighborhoods, soon:

" Mexican Summer artists The Vacant Lots are set to make their first trip to the West Coast for a run of Fall dates September 20th - 27th. The label released their first official single 'Confusion/ Cadillac’ earlier this year and since then the band have been touring the East Coast and playing festivals.

Hailing from the wooded confines of Burlington, Vermont, the Vacant Lots are musicians as well as scientists, having built a time machine that will transport your headspace directly to the Sunset Strip in 1967."

The Vacant Lots are influenced by groups such as Bo Diddley, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges and Spacemen 3 and have developed their own sound , combining minimal drumming, hypnotic guitar riffs, electronic drone, poetry-driven lyrics, and live film projections.

Recently, the two-piece have been getting good reviews off the back of their single release including a Pitchfork debut of the video for their song ‘Cadillac’. They have previously toured with Sonic Boom’s Spectrum and this year played a number of East Coast US dates, SXSW, Austin Psych Fest 4, and supported Dean & Britta (Galaxie 500) in Brooklyn. They are in the process of recording new material and expect to have a second single out soon to be followed by a first official album release.

TOUR DATES

September

20 The Echo, LA with (Tomorrow’s Tulips, Exitmusic, C-Horse)
21 Tin Can, San Diego with (Tomorrow’s Tulips, Trap Gold)
23 Bottom of The Hill, San Francisco with (Man/Miracle, Hiking)
24 Crepe Place, Santa Cruz with (Tomorrow’s Tulips, Cataldo)
26 Mississippi Studios. Portland with (Tomorrow’s Tulips, The Shivas)
27 The Comet, Seattle with (Tomorrow’s Tulips, The Blinding Light)

3 - As my friend José Miguel Segarra , in Spain, has alerted me, it seems as though Sidonie are going back to their psychedelic sounds!
In Spanish, here.

4 - In case you missed it, Olivia Tremor Control have just released a new single as a precursor to what looks to be a new album release slated for early next year! The track and an interview, here.

OK. That'll do it. Back tomorrow with the Pick of the Week!

10 Questions

2011-09-09T06:28:00.009-05:00

Is today's bedroom yesterday's garage? I don't trouble myself much over the question and can't really be arsed to essay an answer either. I ask because -in case you haven't noticed, we're in an era where output of music and the ability to create it have grown exponentially. It's a full time avocation just keeping up with the psychedelic niche, let alone all of the other byways, eddies, and dead pools. Good luck with that.

If there's a point to this it may be: like the first garage explosion, it can and is happening anywhere and everywhere. Geography is rendered moot. If geography matters at all it's in the sheer size of the pool of likely like-minded. (And this may not matter too much longer with online collaborations gaining increasing ease and awareness.)

All this as preface to our guest today and the locale he inhabits. It's as likely as any. From Fayetteville, Arkansas, it's Brad, of Voyageurs! (a prior Pick of the Week.) Besides, Arkansas can hang with the best of 'em.

Freak Cave is still getting spins here and should be in your house, too. imho.

Let's see how sharp this razorback is, shall we?

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
desert party topless speedfreak babes skateboarding double live gonzo beer

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
No instrument is inherently more "psychedelic" than another, but you can never go wrong with a loud ass tube amp and an sg guitar.

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
High Rise - Live or any Les Rallizes Denudes album

4. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
The 'Keep on Chooglin' live cut from disc 6 of the CCR boxset. CCR live is punk as fuck.

5. What was the first song you remember listening to in an 'altered' state?
My buddy's older brother's band playing the rage against the machine cover of 'Maggie's Farm' in their living room. I was into it; that was probably one of the first times I actually watched dudes not in a praise band play music together. The guy playing lead could also play the 'thunderstruck' riff on an acoustic guitar, I was pretty impressed by that. I may have fallen asleep at some point. Later that day we gave the 'thunderstruck' guy all the cash we had between us to get some dirt weed. He never came back.

6. Is there an advantage in being the pioneers (60s psychedelic bands), or being the continuing explorers armed with the knowledge of those pioneers work (the modern psychedelic bands)? Why?
I don't really know if there's an 'advantage' to being a pioneer of any kind of music except that people worship you and you can always do reunion tours and sell tons of reissued albums and what not. I'm not really one to idealize past decades of music or anything like that. Plus, back in the day, i'm pretty sure lots of people wanted to kick your ass for being weird.

7. Name a movie you've always considered highly psychedelic:
2001, Stone, Mad Max, Altered States, Clockwork Orange, I Drink Your Blood, Heavy Metal, Wizards

8. Can you give us a few bands active right now who you consider psychedelic?
Cheater Slicks or Lil B

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?
I'm terrible at making top 10 lists so I'll just say any 10 songs from 'The Stooges' or 'Funhouse'

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question:
Brad: Wit whiz or witout?
-valis: Rather a wiz of wit. Otherwise, witout please.

Thanks Brad! And, as we like to say here, Hail Voyageurs!!!

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-09-06T13:15:00.005-05:00

New week, new Pick!

I was hipped to this album just last week by my nephew who stated "I think you'll like this!" He was right. I do like this. A lot.

Self-released rather than sat upon, All In The Golden Afternoon's magic lighthouse on the infinite sea winds and whirrs and pulses with panache. We are all better for their decision to go the self-released route in the face of circumstances put upon the band.

Getting iker spozio to do the cover art is a coup, too! He's done some of the best cover art for the old Ptolemaic Terrascope. Speaking of the Terrascope, Ian Fraser wrote the following:

" Named after a poem from the trippiest of children’s books, Lewis Carroll’s “Alice In Wonderland”, husband and wife duo Carlos Jackson and Rachel Staggs specialise in lo-fi, deceptively innocent sounding dream pop but which on this outing at least displays both an edge and a creative maturity which ensures it never sounds twee.

Ranging from instrumental like “Advice From A Caterpillar” and “The Pool of Tears”, the woozy acid pop of “In A Box” - which sounds like a slowed down and deconstructed outtake from Hawkwind’s “Hall of Mountain Grill” - delightful, semi-sweet shoegaze vignettes and the hypno-tronic, download –only closer “Up All Night – Western Arms Remix” *, Magic Lighthouse on the Infinite Sea is bound to draw at least superficial comparison with the likes of Mazzy Star, Damon and Naomi, even latter day Broadcast. However, make no mistake, this has both an instant and enduring charm of its own and stands favourable comparison with any of the “peer group”.

Other than the quality of the music, the reason why this works well is pacing. Aside from the deliciously ethereal eight minute, “30th and Sanchez” (featuring some serious Theramin action courtesy of Octopus Project’s Yvonne Lambert) only the aforementioned “Up All Night...” clocks in at more than 5 minutes. In fact, most of the rest barely touches half of that. Whilst those who consider the world to have started and ended with side-long slow burners may be tempted to feel short changed at this point, bear in mind that this sort of format doesn’t allow for much latitude as a result of which it would be easy for this to quickly become a boring retread of itself. In this case, less really is more and it is to Jackson and Staggs’ credit that that they are able to keep proceedings so fresh and interesting throughout.

The verdict? Well, Magic Lighthouse on the Infinite Sea is pleasingly poptastic in a way that goes straight to your psychedelic psunspot (and in a way that shouts “silly grin alert”). Great cover from the inimitable Iker Spozio, too.

(*For all you vinyl junkies (and where do you store it all?) then I’m afraid you’ll have to make do with the download code supplied with your album). "

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

10 Questions

2011-09-02T07:17:00.008-05:00

Hail Voyagers! As we head into this last holiday weekend of Summer, 2011, (here in the U.S.,) I'm delighted to bring you a further look into the mind of a band we've highlighted previously, via the Pick of the Week.

As noted then, they hail from Toronto, Canada, and have brought forth a rather stunning debut of much merit. I'm still attached to "Varanasi Sleigh Ride," "Persona," and "Down On The River End." You can hear the latter track here.

Today we welcome Max, of Eastern Magnetics!

On with the show!

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Seismic. No notes, just colours. No rules. Volume.

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
The Sitar. The original drone. One instrument, many layers of sound. I play this strange Italian 12 string from the 60's that drones like a sitar when the volume is up.

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

4. What was the first song you remember listening to in an 'altered' state?
Not sure. My last (recently) was "Gin Joint" the Boston Crabs version.

5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
Arvo Part: Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten.
I had a job as a night cleaner at a pharmaceutical factory. A massive space filled with all the powders and chemicals that make pills. The sound was good because it had really high ceilings. I heard Arvo Part on the radio while I was cleaning the floor one night and that experience changed how I hear music and sound.

6. Favorite book(s) or movie(s) you consider psychedelic?
Books: The Master and Margarita, The Hawkline Monster

Movies: Zabriskie Point (in particular the final scene) using detonation as an art form.

7. Name some of your favorite psychedelic bands working right now:
The Black Angels "Directions to see a ghost"
The Flaming Lips "See The Leaves" on David Letterman

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?

For this week:
Arthur Brown -Time/Confusion
Alexander "Skip" Spence - War In Peace
John's Children - Midsummer's Night Scene
Locomotive - Mr. Armageddon
Pink Floyd - Astronomy Domine
The Moles - We Are the Moles
Tomorrow - Revolution
The Magic Mushrooms - It's-a-Happening
The Creation - How Does It Feel to Feel
Blue Cheer - Out Of Focus

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question.
Max: Do you dream in colour?
-valis: I most-assuredly do dream in colour. Quite a lot of red, with purple flashes.

Thanks Max! Have a great weekend everyone!

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-08-30T09:18:00.006-05:00

Despite the unleashing of this EP last year, it wasn't until Northern Star Records got behind the project that our Pick of the Week really was pushed out front to a larger audience. I'll take the February, 2011, release date via this mighty label and champion of great music.

So, our Pick is The Lost Rivers from Baden-Württemberg, Germany! Their EP, My Beatific Vision, sounds like a marriage of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Singapore Sling, to these ears. Rips like the latter, goes down smooth like the former.

Here's one of the tracks I played on the radio show:

You can listen to the archived stream of Trip Inside This House here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-08-23T09:18:00.004-05:00

This week's Pick comes from Fayetteville, Arkansas, Voyageurs!

They've just released their fourth album, Freak Cave, through Bandcamp. Mixing psychedelia with garage has always been a favorite in this cranium, and if that reads as of interest this group can bring the sounds.

(Nice review here, from Styrofoam Drone.)

So, what do they sound like?

FREAK CAVE by VOYAGEURS

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-08-16T08:37:00.004-05:00

Happy, and proud, to tip you to the new Pick of the Week: St. Louis' own Troubadour Dali! Having watched them for a few years now through myriad lineup rotations it's been fun to witness the transformation and maturation of the band and their sound.

Their just-released album, Let's Make It Right, is on the local Euclid Records imprint.

Fellow KDHX DJ, Thomas Crone, writes a spot-on review for STL Mag, here.

My sincere congratulations to the band for making it right!

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

10 Questions

2011-08-12T09:29:00.011-05:00

Hail Voyagers! We return to normal programming here at Trip Inside This House HQ. Or, what passes for normal where all manner of quark and strange are revered, cajoled, and held in high regard. This is our life.

For those paying attention, we feted the album by our respondent for this edition of "10 Questions" a few months ago, May to be exact. I also placed it among my "Top 10 of the First Half of 2011" posted per request at the radio station's Trip Inside This House show page.

It's still holding on to a lofty spot among my personal Best Of's for this year. Like the claw of my boy cat, Rollie Fingers. His seem to grow at twice the rate of the girl's, Vida Blue. It's a sturdy claw. OK, where were we..?

Oh, yes. It's Rachel from MMOSS!Highly capable, as you'll soon read, of pulling back the curtain.

So, let's on with this exercise shall we? It's what you came for:

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
mind-altering, hypnogogic dribble encouraging day dreams via sonic journey

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument? ( why that one?)
the thing about instruments is that is all they are. i mean, sitars rule and an infinity exists in the bending of its string, and a shruti box drones and aligns with the player's breathing tricking her into believing they are one and you can sound a bell and move it all around your head and hear the tone change but what makes an instrument psychedelic has more to do with the spirit and breath moving through it than it's dead body.

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
oh man, this is a hard one. time- "before there was time" ('68) - i don't know too much about these guys other than the singer had really tall leather boots, they were from canada and dug on things like poetry, metaphysics and sonic assault. i bought this record on a whim and it didn't leave my stereo for months and months. half of the record is composed of these baroque folk songs, staring harpsichords and lutes and bells and recorders, but the other half is some of the most raucous, heavy grooves i have ever heard - there are spoken word parts, an e. e. cumming's poem turned into a song, "lily has a rose" and embodies everything i love about psychedelia.

4. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?

'psychedelic music' is about the ability to transform the listener's surroundings and take them into other worlds. i remember when i first heard piper i was like, 'holy shit-mythical beasts, mushrooms, happy animals' and my bedroom seemed more like an incense lounge and i lounged. i bought a lot of compilations, like acid drops and circus days, familiarized myself with records in the psych section at record shops and tried to figure out the string that tied all these different styles of music together. like, what do all these vaudeville songs and hard blues songs and pop songs and funk songs have in common?
the thing about psychedelic music for me is this level of uncertainty, the 'this is going to change at any second' or the overwhelming polyphony of free floating vocals, guitars and any other instrument available. it is either gonna posses you by driving rhythms into your skull, hypnotizing you, or it is going to knock your reference point out and force you to float around with it. with that said, here are some of my fave "non-traditional psych" records:
i listen to this lungfish record, 'feral hymns' more than anything really. it's so heavy and hypnotic and dan higgs preachy singing screaming makes it a total terrifying, religious experience.
nine circles is this minimal new wave band that made some spacy tracks in the early 80s in the netherlands-tunes got released in the mid 90s and the record is self-titled. it gives off such a 'the future is now' vibe that it really relics your surroundings.

5. What is your favorite rock or music movie of all time?
rock n' roll high school. no explanation necessary.

6. Name an album that you associate with a powerful memory every time you hear it.
that challengers record that beatball reissued, think it's self-titled. when i first got my head lost into the whole psychedelic cloud that was rapidly changing my wardrobe and thoughts, i would go record shopping everyday at this great, tiny, basement record store in harvard square, cambridge, MA - twisted village. one of the first 'i know nothing about this record, but what an album cover' records i bought was the challengers-and i don't often listen to it and it isn't really even in my top 20 but there is something about their rendition of 'needles and pins' that gets me so pumped i want to wake up early and stretch and make my bed, have an egg and draw a picture kinda thing.

(Editor's Note: Interesting conversations re: Los Challengers here.)

7. Tell us some of your favorite bands working the psychedelic genre today:
the fedavees are ruling my world right now, they have these perfectly crafted pop songs that seem to be coming from underwater in a rain storm. there is also this band called water moccasins that are a mystery to me, they have a few songs up on bandcamp and i want more, can you tell me more?
-valis: New Hampshire band, and solo project of Aaron Neveu, formerly of The CQ.......(more here.)

8. What album would you most like to cover, beginning to end, even if you were the only one(s) who ever heard the recordings?
the entire everly brothers catalogue

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?

group 1850 - paradise now
united states of america - coming down
soft machine - hope for happiness
pink floyd - paint box
velvet underground - venus in furs
lewis and clark expedition - house of sorrows
comus - drip, drip
the poets- in your tower
kaleidoscope - faintly blowing
food - forever is a dream

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question.
Rachel: i find genres to be ever so helpful when browsing records and whatever and is this why genres exist? to help us categorize and group? what would music be like without them? would it be as accessible to the masses when they do not know what kind of music they are listening to? would 'kind-of-music' even be a thing? would we all be floating around with individuals, creating new sounds and mixing all?

-valis: Interesting question Rachel. I believe the need to categorize is hardwired into our DNA. What may be more interesting is the notion that by the very nature of this categorizing as "safe - not safe" -in terms of self preservation, we almost shut off exploration based on those judgements. This no matter how far "out there" someone thinks their pushing the envelope. Goes for genres, too. Often times things get labeled, rightly or erroneously, and it stops further exploring because "I'm not into that" kicks in. Whereas if we took the old freshmen year biology class learning of "Kingdom>Phylum>Class>Order>Family>Genus>Species" and applied it to music we know there are a LOT of subdivided routes to the Kingdom...

Best wishes on your journey Rachel..!

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-08-09T13:28:00.004-05:00

Hail Voyagers! Whilst enjoying the peak of the Perseids Meteor Shower from now thru' Sunday, slip in the earbuds and get further on the power of the newest EP released by London's own Black Market Karma!

The four-track EP, in anticipation of their forthcoming debut album, is entitled All I've Made, and is out on their Flower Power Records label.

Solidly psychedelic! Witness:

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-08-02T09:18:00.003-05:00

Hail Voyagers! Brooklyn's own Weird Owl have loosed another mind-melter, out last week via Tee Pee Records. Titled Build Your Beast A Fire, the smoke's still wafting moonward here! (Our friend Trevor T. never aims low.., ever.)

From the Tee Pee website:

" Weird Owl’s sophomore release on TeePee Records, Build Your Beast A Fire, finds the New York City five-piece in a similarly altered state of mind as its 2009 debut, Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed, but the band has taken a decidedly different path to get there.

After initially recording basic tracks at Verdant Studio in Vermont with Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur Jr., Witch, Sonic Youth), Weird Owl did the majority of the album’s tracking and the entirety of its mixing at The Drawing Room in Kingston, NY with Bishop Allen’s Justin Rice.

With a focus on tighter songwriting and arranging, BYBAF boasts a much more concise and melodic approach to the band’s signature take on the inner-to-outer-space psychedelic continuum. The acid-tinged mysticism of the 13th Floor Elevators that was once channeled through the ragged stomp of Crazy Horse is now given life through a voice closer to the odd clarity of mid-era Pink Floyd mixed with the synthesized textures of The Flaming Lips. "

Proof? Try this:

Songs sung at campfires on Sirius-B says I...

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-07-26T09:10:00.003-05:00

Hail Voyagers! As our last Pick of the Week for the month of July we're both surprised and delighted at news delivered to us by our great friend, Kris Thompson, that a new thought-to-be lost Bobb Trimble record is coming out. Today!

As the press release states:

" The year was 1983, and Bobb Trimble had two then-unrecognized masterpieces to his credit and a lot of confusion and indifference from his fellow travelers in the Worcester, MA “Wormtown” scene. Never one to worry much about appearances, Bobb accepted an invitation to join a group of teenage boys who called themselves The Crippled Dog Band, named after Boopsie, a three-legged canine local. Bobb donned the title of Chief Crippled Dog and led the Band on enthusiastically received gigs throughout the region. Unbeknownst to almost anyone, they completed a raucous album full of addictive hooks, feedback, teen chatter and video game noises. But soon the Band splintered and Bobb decided to forget about the whole thing, disposing of the entire 500-count LP pressing in an office park dumpster. All of which would be nothing more than a typically weird footnote to the Bobb Trimble legend, except for the fact that The Crippled Dog Band is very different from, but every bit as remarkable and brilliant as Iron Curtain Innocence and Harvest Of Dreams. Having proved himself, if only to himself, this is where Bobb stops chasing glass menagerie fantasies of perfection, tempers the dread of his first two records, and reconnects with his DIY roots. This unique collaboration between “the greatest psychedelic musician of the 80s” and his scrappy acolytes yields pure rock and roll and the result is raw, crazy, and infectiously exciting. "

Kudos & salute to Kris Thompson and all at Yoga Records, (Ted Lucas, Robert Lester Folsom, and Dwarr,) for putting this out!

Bobb Trimble: You Should See My Girl, live, 1983 from Yoga Records on Vimeo.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-07-19T10:24:00.003-05:00

After all of the "Hilly Fields (1892)" Day celebrating yesterday, we're back with another Pick of the Week. Clear your head, then refill it with the sounds of Sydney, Australia's, The Laurels!

Their debut EP, Mesozoic, has just been released, July 8th, on Other Tongues. At six songs it certainly makes me want more. Bring on the FULL DOSE!

There's a great interview with drummer Kate Wilson here.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-07-12T11:10:00.004-05:00

Trip to, heave ho! That's exactly what you'll do to this week's Pick! Set to launch on July 14th, Bastille Day, is All Out Revolution by Chicago's The Red Plastic Buddha.

Creating a perfect blend of psych-pop, rock, and pure psychedelia, there really is something for everyone on this new album. Their talent matches their reach on this their follow-up to the debut Sunflower Sessions.

Here's "Tao of None w/ Waves"...

Get a copy here! (Great interview of Tim Ferguson here.)

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-07-05T11:08:00.003-05:00

The heat of Summer is ON! So is the music from Lansing, Michigan, in the form of The People's Temple!

Scorched grooves and burned out melodies lie within their Sons of Stone album, out on Hozac Records. Use oven mitts to handle...

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

Summer, and Psychedelia!

2011-06-21T01:14:00.008-05:00

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” -T. S. Eliot

Summer Solstice. A thousand images and feelings conjured by two simple words. My hope is you'll come to extend your own connotations of the two with this humble blog
and believe that, when it comes to psychedelic music, there's no better time than Summer.

We're fortunate we've found so many brave souls who've risked the adventure and taken up the challenge of creating the tracks which you are about to enjoy. Bands of artists who've actually come through for us after stating "Yes I can." or "Yes, I will." It's not in me to hold anything remotely resembling a grudge by those bands who said they would, and didn't. But, they're not here. Let's honor the ones who dared and did:

01 - The Magic Shoppe - Trip Inside This House
Boston's own Josiah Webb & Co. lead it all off with a strong dose.

02 - Secret Colours - BlackholeChicago favorites lead us further into the trip...

03 - The Orange Drop - Soul Cleanser
Psychedelphia's not about to be left out!
Do you feel the world closing in?
Spirals around your eyes
Zip-zap
Neon light
It's all too bright

Did I fall out of the sky?
Like an angel in disguise
Knock-Knock
Who's there?
Who am I?

I just want to cleanse my soul
Chase my demons and become whole
I just want to cleanse my soul
Chase my demons and become whole

Take a trip inside my house
If you cry I'll be nice
I'll try my very best
I hope you do
too

When I sin I realize
My broken love starts to die
Oh no
I fucked up my flow

I just want to cleanse my soul
Chase my demons and become whole
I just want to cleanse my soul
Chase my demons and become whole

04 - The Dandelion Seeds - Love and Sweet Dreams
Iceland provides the first foray from the international perspective!

05 - Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor - Hole In The Brain
Detroit comes through with another powerful engine of hallucination!
*Added Fri., June 24, courtesy of THE psychedelic video master, blood meridian:

06 - The Sirago 17 - Fever Dream (Playing With Prescriptions)
Clovis, California proves the weird ARE turning pro...

07 - The Telewire - Without A Doubt
Austin, Texas: the birthplace of American psychedelia...

08 - Todd Parker and the Witches - Temple of the Goddess
Sacramento, California. No stranger to anyone who's paying attention to the strange.

09 - ROSCO - AAA Trip Inside This HouseSterling Roswell, ex-Spacemen 3, representing the U.K....

10 - Tone Rodent - Black Iron
St. Louis' own come through with a nod to...PKD!

11 - The Brian Wilson Shock Treatment - King Of Atlantis
Brooklyn, New York, submerging...

12 - Stay - Lucky StarBarcelona, Spain's own deliver Sol y psych'...

13 - Fantasmes - Tell Me
* added Fri.,June 24, courtesy of THE psychedelic video master, blood meridian:

14 - Fantasmes - Tell Me (Nothing Is Wrong)
Puerto Rico's "full of sunshine" band end it all with a mesmerizing two-part trip!

So.., there you have it. Vol. IV of the Trip Inside This House, Summer Solstice, compilation. (I'll have the download link up and ready later this morning.)My eternal gratitude to each of the bands who've taken the time to deliver this special Trip! I hope you can find the time to thank them as well, in your own way. They deserve your support. Get it here!(* Note: all tracks are copyright to their original creators. Play & air them freely. Share the love. Give 'em credit.)Art is here.

The tracks will be getting their official debut later this morning, 5am central time in the USA, on my radio show. Listen live! Become a Fan of the show while you're there!

Finally, thanks to Mr. Atavist for his fantastic artwork. You've kept the tradition whilst being completely original. I'm thankful.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-06-21T00:42:00.004-05:00

Hail Voyagers! Odd Pick of the Week this week, given their current stomping grounds, (emphasis on stomping,) is known more for its rain than its portion of sunlight.
But, such is our way. Hailing from Texas- Dallas & Austin, to be exact, and relocating to Seattle, our heroes are the Night Beats!

Their new album, Night Beats, is due out on June 28 courtesy of the fine folks at Trouble In Mind Records. (The label also released their brilliant EP, H Bomb, last year.)

Get it, here! And, if you're in the Pacific Northwest, catch 'em:

Lee Blackwell Guitar/Vocals
James Traeger Drums
Tarek Wegner Bass

JUN 28 2011 – SLABTOWN – PORTLAND, OR
JUN 29 2011 – CHOP SUEY W/ BARE WIRES – SEATTLE, WA
JUL 01 2011 – NEW FRONTIER – TACOMA, WA
AUG 07 2011 – COMET DAY SHOW W/ TRMRS – SEATTLE, WA

And so it begins...

2011-06-17T08:16:00.005-05:00

It's that time of year friends! The annual run-up to the High Holy Day, Summer Solstice! Who better to kick off the pre-Solstice celebrations than our great friend & psychedelic psounds Wizard, DJ Stod'..?

Though busier than a very busy thing, he's taken the time to assemble a new mix of the great stuff because, as he says: "can't get much time for mixes at the moment however as it's THAT month then here you go..."

THAT month indeed! So, enjoy the weekend with this, and tune into June!

Thanks DJ Stod'!!!

Swingin' London!

2011-06-15T09:03:00.005-05:00

While I'm certain I'm sometimes prone to hyperbole I'm also nothing short of amazed by the comeback mounted by The Chemistry Set. After a 20 year gap in releases they're just as relevant now as they were when back in their ubiquitous late '80s, early '90s days.

Last year's This Day Will Never Happen Again, released on Dead Bees label has garnered attention once again, and rightfully so. While updating their sound without sacrificing the stylistic qualities we've come to love them for, the album proves The Chemistry Set as creative and imaginative as any psychedelic band going today.
They're back!

Which brings us 'round to our mission here today: they are indeed BACK! Back in London for their first gig on English soil in over 20 years. Playing to sold-out crowds in Spain over the past year has proven they've got the goods to deliver a great evening's entertainment. So, for those of you anywhere near the capital city this Saturday, June 18th, make your way....otherwise, This Day Will Never Happen Again.

They'll be playing The Garage, (" The Relentless Garage is a music venue located at 20-22 Highbury Corner, just across from Highbury & Islington Underground Station. The upstairs music space has a capacity of 150, with the larger downstairs area having capacity at 630 guests.") Tickets here!

Say "Hi!" to Dave, and tell him "-valis sent me!"

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-06-14T09:32:00.004-05:00

From Toronto, Ontario, it's Eastern Magnetics! Helluva' debut album they've just put out, with a wide range of psychedelic moves. Highly recommend this one!!! (Especially "Persona" & "Varanasi Sleigh Ride"!)

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-06-07T08:57:00.004-05:00

Our Pick this week hails from Brooklyn. (It seems there's a battle going on between Chicago & Brooklyn for mind-blasting material as of late.) Crystal Stilts bring us their new album, In Love With Oblivion, on Slumberland Records.

Try "Shake The Shackles" here!

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-05-31T09:00:00.005-05:00

Another week, yet another Pick. A band that brings the full-on onslaught of psychedelic sounds and doesn't let up until they power down the amps. Beg all you want.

From Chicago, The Great Society Mind Destroyers! The track featured is from their newest release, Spirit Smoke. (Freely available to download. Highest recommend from this House!)These guys RIP. And they're clearly able to handle multiple tabs, imho.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

Let the assault begin!

10 Questions

2011-05-27T10:52:00.011-05:00

Hail Voyagers! Welcome back for yet another entry in the "10 Questions" series. This time our participants, (yes, we've multiple answerers,) come from the land of the volcano and other cool things: Iceland!

We have Axel Björnsson & Alex Nehru of The Dandelion Seeds! Their EP, Good Times With.., gets consistent play in this house. (We're gonna' need more gentlemen!)

Anna Margrét Björnsson of The Reykjavik Grapevine waxed thusly on a show of theirs last Fall:
" When the five fresh faced youngsters came on stage something quite
magical happened. These British invasion styled feedback rockers created
an amazing and all-encompassing wall of noise with sixties
psych-patterned videos overlaid on sixties soft porn and go go dancing
projecting in the background. The gallery space turned out to be a
magnificent venue, with plenty of space for the musicians and plenty of
walls for the sound to resonate from. If you mix up the British blues
invasion, the psych of UFO and Middle Earth with the eighties feedback
world of Spacemen 3 and Loop, and stir in a hefty dose of darkwave,
you’ll get The Dandelion Seeds. How's that for a wicked recipe? The
Dandelion Seeds do seem to live in their own little world of sixties
psychedelia but at least they're doing something completely different
from anyone else playing Airwaves this year. They managed to create a
stunning show and a sonic explosion that will be hard to forget."

So, let's see what they're thinking:

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Alex Nehru:

Psychedelic music is the externalization of our own innermost perspectives.

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
Alex Nehru:

If we look up the word 'Psyche' in Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, one of the results we get is: "2. The soul; the vital principle; the mind."

Why, isn't it obvious? The most psychedelic instrument is the human mind for it is the essence of our creativity. The existence of every instrument, musical or otherwise, is but the result of this same creative spark and if it wasn't for human thought there would be no instruments in this world.

Furthermore, we may express only what we perceive in space. What we think is molded by what we perceive and what we express is molded by what we think. Without thought, without perception there would be no expression.

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
July (1968) by July

4. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
Axel Björnsson:

Fly like an Eagle - Steve Millers Band

Alex Nehru:

"Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka" by the Master Musicians of Joujouka could be described as "psychedelic", although "Sufi-trance" would be a better term. It's a great album nevertheless.

5. What was the first song or album you remember listening to in an 'altered' state? (*"altered" does not imply illegal.)
A mix CD of songs by the Strawberry Alarm Clock.

6. Who are some of your favorite bands working within the "psychedelic" genre right now?
Axel Björnsson:

Thee Oh Sees, Dead Meadow, Om. Brian Jonestown Massacre, Caribou (before last record) Darker My Love

7. Name your 5 'Desert Island Albums':

Axel Björnsson:

The Mamas and the Papas - If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears, Black Sabbath- Black Sabbath, Gene Clark - Echoes, and the rest would be some pebbles, nuggets and back from the grave compilations.

Alex Nehru:

The Beatles - Rubber Soul, Love - Forever Changes, Pink Floyd - A Saucerful of Secrets, The Rolling Stones - Their Satanic Majesties Request, Psychic TV - Dreams Less Sweet

8. Was there a song or album which made the decision to play this type of music a creative goal of yours?
Alex Nehru:

The Crazy World of Arthur Brown was my earliest and greatest inspiration for entering the world of psychedelic music. I've been listening to that one since I was ten.

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?
Axel Björnsson:

The Byrds - Eight Miles High,
Syd Barrett - No Good Tryin,
July - The Way,
Rolling Stones - 2000 Light Years From Home,
Eric Burdon & The Animals - When I was Young,
The Byrds - I Wasn’t Born To Follow,
The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows,
The Strawberry Alarm Clock - The Curse Of The Witches,
Hawkwind - Silver Machine,
House of Nimrod - Slightly-Delic

Alex Nehru:

The Rolling Stones - Sing This All Together,
The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows,
The Strawberry Alarm Clock - The World's On Fire,
July - The Way,
The Moon - I Should Be Dreaming
The Association - Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies,
Purple Canteen - Brains In My Feet,
House of Nimrod - Slightly-Delic,
Pink Floyd - Let There Be More Light,
Aphrodite's Child - The Four Horsemen

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question:
Axel Björnsson:

What do you like more? Pink Floyd before or after Syd Barrett and why?
-valis: While I like both, I listen to post-Syd PF far more. Larger body of work for one thing, and for me they were extending the original vision without Syd. Wish You Were Here & Dark Side of the Moon are favorites.

Alex Nehru:

What is the answer to life, the universe and everything?
-valis 23

Thanks Axel & Alex! Best wishes to The Dandelion Seeds in all your endeavors!

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-05-24T09:25:00.004-05:00

Another week, another new Pick! This band outta' Brooklyn, NY, (quite a scene coming out of there, eh?), are (now) known as Lead Stones. Tracks aired on this morning's show are from their self-released album, Set + Setting. Great stuff! Get your own, here!

You can listen to the archived stream of my show here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

Kickstartin'!

2011-05-20T10:34:00.004-05:00

Hail Voyagers!
This is an out-of-the-ordinary post this week, but after last Friday's unavailability of blogger (debacle) I thought I'd give it another attempt:

As you probably know Kickstarter is a site where friends & fans can make donations to assist a worthy cause. I'd like to present two cases for your estimable consideration:

#1 - one of our favorite bands, Bipolaroid, are trying to get their classic psychedelic album, Transparent Make-believe, reissued on vinyl. If you've never heard it, you're missing out on a great one. As our friend George Parsons, of DREAM magazine, said: "This late 2003 release is one of the best psychedelic pop albums I've heard in 2004."

Bipolaroid Kickstarter
I know the album is worthy, and the band (and the good guy, Ben, as leader) are very worthy of anything you can do to assist.

#2 - Plastic Crimewave, writer/illustrator of the Galactic Zoo Dossier, is up on Kickstarter to try and raise funds for a European trip as a performer AND to gather interviews for the next issue, including Arthur Brown!

He writes: " I have just set up a project on Kickstarter (fund-raising site for artistic projects) to help with my UK/European tour/interview quest, and I am offering some premiums of rare goods/personalized gifts to any who donate! So PLEASE forward this link to anyone who might be interested in helping this poor artist's cause (and who might want said gifts for donating):

Plastic Crimewave Kickstarter

Some details:
I am building my first European tour and series of UK rock legend interviews around a festival I'm playing in Poole, Dorset. My ticket is booked for the festival June 17-21, but my band and I will need to take a costly overnight ferry to the Netherlands, as well as buses and trains to venues and the UK interviews in Twickenham, Nottingham, Brighton, and London; the Chunnel to Toulouse and Paris, France to play few more gigs before returning to Chicago. The kickstarter goal will still not cover all the tour/journey costs, but will be a great help.Accompanying musicians (and interview aids) on the tour will be Libby Ramer on keys, who plays in both Moonrises and Solar Fox with me, and ace guitarist Nathan M. Dodge of Indiana desert-psych jammers Black Wyrm Seed.
Interviews are planned for my Drag City-published magazine, The Galactic Zoo Dossier with two of my biggest heroes, "The God of Hellfire" Arthur Brown (whose album is the namesake of my magazine) and legendary UK proto-punk bandleader Edgar Broughton. I will also be interviewing original Fairport Convention singer Judy Dyble, influential folk-god Martin Carthy, and Floris Kolvenbach of Dutch psychsters Mother's Love/The Dream. These in-person interviews are the opportunity of this scribe's lifetime."

If you know of other worthy Kickstarter projects leave 'em in the Comments and I'll point the way next time I run this. Sincere best to Bipolaroid & Plastic Crimewave.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-05-17T09:52:00.004-05:00

Released late last year, November methinks, this album has just now come within my Sennheisers's grasp. And though I'd heard about the band as a known quantity I wasn't expecting the end-to-end blisteringly brilliant psychedelia contained within!

The pride of Bristol, England, The Moles! Out on the (fantastic) Welsh label See Monkey Do Monkey, they have this to say:

" Psychedelia has always been something of an opposing force in popular music. The Beatles turned to The Book Of The Dead. The Stones loved us. The Damned moved on from punk and recorded The Black Album. When things get predictable psychedelia returns to tip over the apple cart. Brin, Billy and the gang uncannily emerge from their burrow as everything in music is getting just a tad boring and predictable. The Future Sound Of Ashton may shock those who expect a dot-to-do recreation of the ’60s though. ‘The Combined Force Of An Atom’ is as feral, urgent and angered as Blur’s ‘Chinese Bombs’. And like Damon Albarn, lyricist Mole Brin Davies fully understands the correlation between the disconnected playfulness of Syd Barret and the art school nihilism of the early punk movement. Indeed, there is something very Soft Boys about The Moles’ musical landscape; fractured imagery, nightmarish word play, distinct vocals and an evident debt to 1967 without plagiarising the source material.

Across 15 songs the group forge a distinct sound, relying on simple production rather than the everything-but-the-kitchen sink effect laden approach of the Sgt Pepper school of recording. Billy Fuller (also a member of Beak, Fuzz Against Junk and Robert Plant & The Strange Sensation… yes, ROBERT PLANT) supplies many a memorable bass line whilst Davies’ characteristic English vocals may well leave the same lasting impression as Ray Davies, Andy Partridge, Robyn Hitchcock, Howard Devoto and Jarvis Cocker… even when having explosive US garage-punk/psych edges the forlorn, upbeat, funny and sad music of The Moles is as English as fish ’n’ chips at the end of Weston-Super Mare pier! "

I salute these Hallucinauts: Brin, Billy, Steve, and Dan! Hail The Moles!

You can listen to the archived stream of my show, Trip Inside This House,here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week,

2011-05-10T10:24:00.003-05:00

Hail Voyagers! New week, new Pick! This week's band hail from Dover, New Hampshire:
MMOSS! Consisting of Doug, Justin, Brian & Rachel, they've released their new album "i" on Burger Records!

Get yourself a copy and TRIP Inside your own house!

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

10 Questions

2011-05-06T11:09:00.011-05:00

Hail Voyagers! Happy Friday, too. After a brief hiatus to recharge the internal guidance systems, as well as take in some psychedelic shows of amazing talents both locally and at some distance, I am back. Back to the place I like to be. Breathe. Breathe in the air.

All things considered, today's guest was virtually inevitable. Not a "dead cert' " for that would be too full of hubris. More like a "our paths will indeed cross" situation. He's a man who -in my concentricity of friends, can be discerned by use of first name only. (That's rather astounding, even for these all & everywhere times.) I can give you three clues and you just might know him after the first:
1 - mutton chops; 2 - big fly's-eyes glasses; 3 - tambourine.

Hallucinauts, it's Joel Gion of the Brian Jonestown Massacre!

As you may know, he's just release a new record wherein he plays (virtually) all of the instruments, 99.7%. Home-recorded. Self-released. Damned enjoyable.

Try some, buy some!

Besides the aforementioned three magical totems, I'll add his mind. I like his brain. Synapses are clearly firing. Proof? Let's on with it then!

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Hearing the unhearable that lives inside your mind and stuff. 10 words

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
Well I'd have to say any instrument can be more psychedelic than any other depending on the execution and intent. Playing with a spoon against a pot can be more psychedelic than a wailing guitar solo depending on the who and the how and the why.

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
Forever Changes or Revolver.

4. What's your favorite quote about music or musicians?

"Don't quit your day job" Ha-ha grumble grumble.

5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?

Theme to "Star Trek" the original series cause I've watched that show stoned a million times.

6. Is there an advantage in being the pioneers (60s psychedelic bands), or being the continuing explorers armed with the knowledge of those pioneers work (the modern psychedelic bands)? Why?

Pioneers get the legend and the followers get the money so it's whatever your into.

7. Build us an all-star pyschedelic band, made up of current musicians (name/instrument/current band)?

Well I'd like a psychedelic vocal / percussion group consisting of Val Kilmer singer from the Doors / Elijah Wood singer from the Stooges / Gary Busy singer from Buddy Holly and The Crickets / Mike Myers drummer from The Who.

8. What's your favorite Brian Jonestown Massacre album?

Their Satanic Majesties Second Request. I'd love to jump on the current bandwagon and perform the whole thing from beginning to end.

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?
Too hard to say but here are 10 I've been digging on lately:

The Monkees: Daily Nightly - Mike Nesmith wrote this and it's one of the most '60s' Psychedelic sounding songs to come straight outta Wowsville. Works equally as well during a lysergic overload lay-down or Sunset Strip style Go-Go Party freakout. Pow! Zap!

Ennio Morricone: La Bambola - from The "Veruschka" Soundtrack 1971- This music is seemingly written to score the best sleepy time.

The Blues Project: Flute Thing - East coast Psychedelic Trip-out Jazz, baby.

Third Bardo: Five Years Ahead of My Time - Full throttle sneering youth power firing all it's garage guns into the face of a world that allows anything square. Every time I stumble back across this tune it's yet again jumped another 5 years ahead of the current time. Makes a nice watch.

Black Angels: Manipulation. Got the Record Store Day vinyl "Another Nice Pair" which is my favorite thing right now.

Kim Jung Mi: Sun - first track from the album "Now" 1973 - This super foxy Psych Folk Psych singer is just as good as any late period Beatles.

Jacques Dutronc: Les Gens Sont Fous, Les Temps Sont Flous 1966 - French Super 60's Fuzz guitar with the maracas turned up to 11 and 1/2

Jorge Ben: Ponta De Lanca Africano (Umbabarauma) from the album "Africa Brazil" 1976 - The Tropicalia Maestro and co laying down 10 tons of percussive psychedelic grooves.

Kaleidoscope (UK): The Sky Children from the album "Tangerine Dream" 1967 - This would have to be on the top 10 most Psychedelic songs of all time.

Anything off of Broadcast & The Focus Groups "Investigate Witch Cults of the Radio Age" - Pure Modern Psychedelia and completely retro free. Less guitars and often feels as if the tape looping on "Tomorrow Never Knows" had been the big bang for a new universe. This band was in a class all by themselves.

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question:

Joel: Who killed Sgt Pepper?

-valis: I'm tempted to resurrect the whole (mostly Brit-held) view that The Band and their '68 album Music From Big Pink was the contemptible turning point which signaled the end of an era. But I won't as I don't hold this view.

I'll go with Col. Mustard. In the library. With a revolver.

THANKS Joel! Best wishes on Extended Play and all you do.., always.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-05-03T11:44:00.002-05:00

After three weeks of chaos all seems back to normal existence here therefore, new Pick of the Week!

No strangers to the pages of our blog, they were in my personal Top Ten Albums of 2009. From Argentina and now working/living in Bilbao, Spain: CAPSULA!

Their latest release, In The Land Of Silver Souls, just dropped on BCore Disc.

Like Rising Mountains, this new one is full of fire and swagger. If anything's changed it may be the focus is more tightly refined as the songs seem shorter-for the most part, with no sacrifice of quality in the grooves. At all!

Enjoy!

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-04-19T10:32:00.003-05:00

Walthamstow's own, The Oscillation! Their new album, Veils, is out on All Time Low, who've said:

"...It is almost three years since the release of The Oscillation's debut album 'Out Of Phase' for DC recordings. In those three years the band have played live all over the world to great acclaim and Demian Castellanos has clearly honed his musical vision. Whilst the debut album was dominated by stripped back grooves and motorik rhythms 'Veils' sees The Oscillation sound mature in numerous ways: song craft and introspection adding to the already rich sonic textures to create a powerful and varied new collections of songs. From the industrial pulse of 'Future Echo' to the haunted b-movie swagger of 'Fall', the disco dub fury of 'Telepathic Birdman' to the ecstatic melancholy of 'See Through You', the album features a remarkable spectrum of sonic experiences that range from beautifully crafted melodic songs to droning, no-wave chaos."

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-04-12T10:57:00.005-05:00

Hail Voyagers & fellow Hallucinauts! New week = new Pick and this week we've chosen a one-man band (as far as I know) from Austin, Texas:The Telewire! Stephen Thurman IS The Telewire. Alone. (Read a bit of background here.)Great sounds coming from this man's mind!

His self-titled album is available as a free download at Bandcamp. I recommend.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

Holo-Hagiography, April 2011

2011-04-08T11:13:00.007-05:00

Hail Voyagers! Back again for a long-overdue (!) installment of 'Holo-Hagiography,' wherein we divulge and point the way to several items of interest in this our favorite genre of sound. So, away with it...

First up, and hopefully not too late, is the latest from those wacky Wizards -Keith & Andy, at Fruits de Mer Records: Roqueting Through Space! (As our somewhat-prog-addled pal at Headfull of Snow says:

" Through a fuzz of galactic debris, Roqueting Through Space soars across the celestial plains, harvesting tracks originally recorded by the likes of Neu!, Pink Floyd, Can and Brainticket. Liberties have been taken with the “traditional” definition of what constitutes space rock, with the inclusion of versions of The Tornados’ ‘Telstar’ and Julian Cope’s ‘I Come From Another Planet, Baby’. Neither artist immediately lends themselves to the image of excessively hairy, chemically enhanced voyagers, embarking on a psychedelic trip to the furthest reaches of their mind, but as the FdM press release says, “… it [space rock] means different things to different people – spacey, spaced-out, sci-fi, electronic rock … We decided to drop the pretence of defining the genre, and instead allowed our chosen bands to decide for themselves what ‘space rock’ meant …”

...and, back to our man at HFoS:
"
With the coordinates set to veer slightly in favour of 70s Krautrock (Brainticket, Can and two Neu! tracks), which in turn lends itself perfectly to the out-of-this-world atmosphere the FdM scientific team set out to explore, the answer to the question you were earlier left to ponder can only be a resounding “Yes”. Cranium Pie’s version of Brainticket’s ‘Blacksand’ is a galaxy-busting treat, swimming in phased vocals, the fuzziest of guitar noise and intergalactic whalesong. Frobisher Neck and The Grand Astoria tackle ‘Isi’ by Neu! and ‘Oh Yeah’ by Can respectively, with riveting results, but it’s Helicon’s 10 minute crack at ‘Hallogallo’, also originally by Neu!, that impresses the most, fuelled as it is by a decidedly hypnotic Hawkwind vibe." (* emphasis added.)

Read more: http://headfullofsnow.com/roqueting-space-fdm-vol-18/#ixzz1IwvxjKg5

Printed on colored vinyl in a one-time pressing of 500, my understanding is there's now less than 100 left. Get it, NOW!

Next up, good friend with great taste and a knack for assembling some of the best sounds around: Pierre Priot, of Toulouse, France, and his Dead Bees label's tenth sampler!

As his website states: "Originally due on 10/10/10, our tenth sampler got a bit delayed. We are sorry about that. This new compilation tracks were gathered last summer for an early batch, and some others were recently added over the past weeks. This very long process got us more tracks than we could include on a single CD, so we had to put some of them aside. This means we already have material ready for sampler #11!

This music is to be shared under the terms of a Creative Commons license. Spread this record, make copies of it, and give them away.We will also post it onto various websites, file sharing portals, and non-profit free music, such as Archive.org or FreeMusicArchive.org and more...

Our new track providers include: FEDERALE (Collin Hegna, from THE BRIAN JONESTOWN MASSACRE, Portland, Or), THE RUSTY BELLS (Toulouse, Fr), OSTRICH TUNING (Toronto, On), PETE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (Peter Holmström from THE DANDY WARHOLS, Portland, Or), THE COBBLESTONES (Paris, Fr), GEORGE (Paris, Fr), TREASURE MAPS (New York, NY), THE DEAD MANTRA (Le Mans, Fr).

Get it, here or here! Thanks Pierre, for all you do.

Next..? How about the Deep Heaven Festival's compilation? Taking place next weekend, April 15 & 16th in Somerville, MA, the band roster looks a stormer! Asteroid #4, Sky Drops, Ghost Box Orchestra, and on and on and on! Get the compilation and pretend you're there!

This just in, from Lars K., of Denmark's (mighty) Bad Afro label:
" Telstar Sound Drone formed in 2007 when Hans Beck convinced Mads Saaby to join him in a project called Les Aprés L’amour Sonnes, an artist collective working with media such as sound and video. The first project was to add sound to old educational movies, playing along with the projections. With the addition of Sean Jardenbæk and Mads Løwe the project turned into a band and settled with the name Telstar Sound Drone.

The band recorded a self-titled EP that led to a show at Roskilde Festival in 2009. After that Telstar Sound Drone took a break while internal problems almost destroyed the band. At one point Hans Beck was the only member of the band playing all the instruments. The problems were solved and in February 2011 they recorded two brand new songs at the Black Tornado studio in Copenhagen with this single in mind.

Telstar Sound Drone cleverly blend shoegazer, drone and psychedelic rock and even though the noise breaks are quite breathtaking the music is always melodic making this release one of the most promising singles on Bad Afro for a long time.

The Telstar Sound Drone line-up is: Sean Jardenbæk (Vocals, Guitar), Mads Løwe (Bass), Mads Saaby (Guitar) and Hans Beck (Drums). The two last mentioned also play in Baby Woodrose. "

Listen to "Mirror Pieces" here.

I'm also hoping you're paying some attention to the "-valis Pick of the Week" post each Tuesday, after the radio show has aired. Often times the band picked has offered free downloads. (Not always, but that's not a prerequisite either.)

And, finally, if you're lucky enough to be in Sweden next weekend, (lotta' great stuff happening world-wide next weekend, eh?), then get out and see the crazed mayhem that is The Crimson Shadows led by Jens Lindberg and Mans Mansson where they'll be setting the 99th Floor club afire!

Got a tip for next month's H-H post..? Post it as a comment and we'll do our best.

Enjoy the music everyone, and have a great weekend! Tripping, Inside THIS House, I am... -valis

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-04-05T11:33:00.004-05:00

Better late than never at all might hold true on this week's Pick. (There's indications this EP came out as early as last June! Late indeed.)

Thee Piatcions are a 4-piece from Domodossola, Italy. There's a great mini-interview on the genesis and backstory of the title track of their EP by Chris DeLine, from last November, on Culture Bully.

You can download the Time EP free here. I recommend. Thee Piatcions are:
Frankie Woodson - Guitar & Vocals
Dave Cocks - Bass
Skaio - Keyboards & Vocals
Carellino - Drums

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

10 Questions

2011-04-01T09:36:00.006-05:00

Happy Friday & Hail Hallucinauts! Back for yet another entry in the unsettling feature we know and love as "10 Questions." The mysteries continue apace with our investigations. We seek "the runcible spoon."

Today's guest hails from that psychedelic hotbed Bognor Regis, in the U.K. It's "Trike" Pashanoy!

His band, The Uncanny Insolvent, were a force in their heyday. We're honored to have him. (Took a long time to locate him!)

Shall we?

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Fuel for the inward journey I guess.

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
Probably my pipe. All else seems to flow from that. My creativity, my music-listening time, all of it really. Yeah, I'll stick with that.

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
Gotta' be From The House Of Lords, on Bam-Caruso. So many great bands on that one.

4. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
Right good question that. Unsure I've an answer either. When I'm in my pipe they all seem psychedelic. Maybe Lord Buckley or a Cook and Moore cock-up.

5. What was the first song or album you remember listening to in an 'altered' state? (*"altered" does not imply illegal.)
I don't remember anymore.

6. Who are some of your favorite bands working within the "psychedelic" genre right now?
Are there any?!

7. Name your 5 'Desert Island Albums':
While I'm picking I am also holding out hopes for something to play these on while stuck there. How about:

The Beatles Mono Box (bit of a cheat there)
The Stones Satanic Majesties
McCully Workshop Inc. - Self-titled
Painted Faces - Anxious Color
Tyrnaround - Colour Your Mind

8. Was there a song or album which made the decision to play this type of music a creative goal of yours?
Yeah, all of 'em! Especially lots of phasing and efx.

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?

1 Workshop of My Mind - The Glass Keys
2 Slow Patience - The Attractions
3 The House of Lords - The Doctor
4 Carroll By Candlelight - The Tyrnaround
5 Minas Tirith - The Chemistry Set
6 Anxious Color - Painted Faces
7 Ex-Art Student - McGough & McGear
8 See Emily Play - Pink Floyd
9 Circles - Les Fleur De Lys
10 Hey Bulldog - The Beatles

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question:
Trike: Any thought on these new vapor pipes?
-valis: None, whatsoever.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-03-29T09:24:00.004-05:00

As you will soon learn, the Pick of the Week has confounded geometers & physicists alike; however, all YOU really need is a pair of ears to discover the underlying meaning:

" Whenever two notes are sounded together loudly, precisely in tune and sustained, the conjunction of resonant waves results in a third note whose pitch geometers and physicists have tried to determine, but so far this question cannot be considered as completely resolved…"

The Third Sound gradually formed, slowly took shape.

"Whilst living in the historical city of Rome, Italy, Hákon Aðalsteinsson (Singapore Sling and formerly Hudson Wayne) started work on new material. It started life high upon the rooftop of the building he was living, initially heard only by himself and the birds circling overhead.

Eventually introducing the songs to his friend and 6o’s fanatic, Francesco D’Onofrio, the two of them worked out the arrangements then went into a studio and slowly recorded the album.

Hákon returned to Iceland where he mixed the album with Hallberg Daði Hallergsson (formerly of Jakobínarína) before relocating to Berlin.

The album is ready, the band has grown into a 5 piece live act.

The Third Sound is now complete."

* above text from Outlier Records. Suppliers of The Third Sound.

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

Happy Anniversary!

2011-03-25T03:44:00.005-05:00

As you can see by the above picture, Richmond, VA, celebrated early this morning as their favorite radio show, The Sunrise Ocean Bender, turned one year old today!

Crowds estimated at unestimatable numbers gathered prior to the 3am launch of the anniversary show and we're told hooped and hollered throughout the show's duration!

Mr. Atavist, the esteemed host of the show -and good friend of ours, was deeply touched by the gathering and donned his interstellar gear to lead them all both inward AND outward.

The show, heard each Friday from 3am to 5am, (Eastern Time-US), can also and always be downloaded as a podcast/mp3 here. Avail yourself of his psychotropic handiwork.

Smile if you've crossed over!

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-03-22T15:29:00.005-05:00

Hail Hallucinauts! Happy Spring as well for all in the Northern Hemisphere.

Our Pick, this week, hails from Nashville, Tennessee: The Paperhead!

Their debut album from Trouble In Mind Records just dropped today and we're all better for it, too. Here's what Trouble In Mind have to say:

" Upon your first listen to this record you may think that you’ve stumbled onto some lost nugget from 1968. The Paperhead take their name from a lyric in July’s golden-age psychedelic single “My Clown” and while the record may have a vintage sound, it’s mind boggling to learn that it was written and recorded in the summer of 2010 by three 18 year old kids from Nashville, Tennessee. Neo-psych fans may hear a more ambitious ‘White Fence’ or a poppier ‘Spacemen 3’ while more classic minded listeners may recall ‘The Pretty Things', their namesake ‘July’ or post-LSD ‘Beatles’.

Before they all went their separate ways to start college Ryan Jennings and his closest childhood friends Walker Mimms and Peter Stringer-Hye holed up to record an album that combines all the orchestrated pop layers, eastern influence and groovy instrumentals of a classic British Psych record. With Cheap Time’s Jeffrey Novak as producer & “spritual advisor” these guy’s technical and songwriting abilities far outreach their young age, while still maintaining a sense of wonder about the world and a dash of charming naivete.

RIYL: White Fence, Black Angels, Pink Floyd, J.K. & Co, Kaleidoscope (U.K.)"

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

* PodOMatic's server is down; I'll try and have a track up in the next 24 hours.

The Fleshtones

2011-03-18T14:19:00.004-05:00

Touring in support of their newly-released album, Brooklyn Sound Solution, on Yep Roc Records, I had the privilege of interviewing The Fleshtones!

Making St. Louis a stop on their tour this past Saturday, March 12th, the four makers of mayhem carved out some time to stop by KDHX and give us a taste of the new album's tracks. You can here the tracks here.

ENJOY! And, see 'em LIVE in a city near YOU!

Date Venue City State
SA 03.12.11 Off Broadway
St. Louis MO
SU 03.13.11 Knuckleheads
Kansas City MO
MO 03.14.11 VZD's Club
Oklahoma City OK
TU 03.15.11 Club Dada
Dallas TX
WE 03.16.11 Continental Club
Record release Houston TX
MO 03.21.11 The 12 Bar
New Orleans LA
WE 03.23.11 Star Bar
Atlanta GA
TH 03.24.11 The Admiral
Asheville NC
FR 03.25.11 Snug Harbor
Charlotte NC
SA 03.26.11 Local 506
Chapel Hill NC
TH 03.31.11 IOTA
Arlington VA
FR 04.01.11 Maxwells
Hoboken NJ
SA 04.02.11 Dogfish Head Brewery
Rehoboth Beach DE
WE 04.06.11 Double Door
Chicago IL
TH 04.07.11 Beachland Ballroom
Cleveland OH
FR 04.08.11 The Summit - Ohio
w/ The Ferals Columbus OH
SA 04.09.11 Grounds for Thoughts
Bowling Green OH
MO 04.11.11 Grounds for Thought
Bowling Green OH
FR 04.15.11 Stage on Herr
Harrisburg PA
SA 04.16.11 Live @ Drew's
Email for tickets Ringwood NJ
SU 05.15.11 Oneida Bingo Casino
Green Bay WI
MO 05.16.11 Oneida Bingo Casino
Green Bay WI
TU 05.17.11 Oneida Bingo Casino
Green Bay WI
SA 06.11.11 Knightsapalooza
Seattle WA
SA 06.18.11 Cafe Nine
New Haven CT
TH 06.23.11 The Satellite
Los Angeles CA
FR 07.01.11 Dante's
Portland OR
SA 07.02.11 El Corazon
Seattle WA
FR 07.22.11 Stage on Herr
Harrisburg PA
SA 07.23.11 Carpool
Herndon VA
FR 09.09.11 Black Swamp Arts Festival
Bowling Green KY
FR 09.09.11 Black Swamp Festival
Bowling Green OH
SA 09.10.11 Black Swamp Festival
Bowling Green OH

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-03-16T09:42:00.004-05:00

A day late, but far far better than never at all! From Switzerland comes our Pick of the Week in the form of Navel! Their new album, Neo Noir, is out on Noisolution Records. Hot stuff, too. Check below...

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

10 Questions

2011-03-11T04:32:00.008-06:00

Back with another entry in this long-running fav'. I'm always excited when someone acquiesces to the idea of letting us pick their brain for the "shape of the elphant" on their side of the room.

Hailing from Providence, Rhode Island, their own local pundits have described them thusly:

" Fans of darling indie folk like Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver or our own Death Vessel should get themselves down the 201 tonight for Moga, whose deftly layered and beautifully played songs cover lots of bases from the above mentioned to the more esoteric stuff of Brian Eno and the Flaming Lips." (Providence Daily Dose)

Today's guest is Greg Mallozzi of MOGA!

I came to find out about them via "happy accident" as is sometimes the case; friend & fellow DJ Baron Saturday of Plastic Tales From The Marshmallow Dimension played a track by them a few weeks ago due, as I recall, to their being in NYC for a show. Did some digging, found 'em, wrote 'em, and here we are!

So, let's on with this, shall we?

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Type of music that makes your mind wander.

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
The guitar. There is alot you can do with it, with or without effects. Synth's and other keyboards, etc have different effects built in where you can just hit a key or button and play something really psychadelic, but certain players can make the guitar produce psychadelic sounds without pedals or anything else.

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
A standard- Dark Side Of The Moon- Pink Floyd. Many other greats, but this always surpasses all in my eyes.

4. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?

I think The Beach Boys fall into this. Even though some of their albums around the Smiley Smiley time were really experimental, I still always felt a lot of it was really psychadelic. The weaving of backing vocals and the organ always struck me to be psychadelic......even Pet Sounds to some extent.

5. What was the first song or album you remember listening to in an 'altered' state? (*"altered" does not imply illegal.)

I think it was the Allman Brothers "Ramblin' Man". I remember finding a cassette tape in the road one time with this song on it. Had no idea who the band even was. I remember listening to it and being really weirded out because I had never heard anything like that before, ever. I remember I listened to it over & over again just trying to piece together why I thought it was such a great sounding song. There are a bunch of others, but I always remember this one for some reason, and I think I was maybe 8 or 9 years old.

6. Who are some of your favorite bands working within the "psychedelic" genre right now?

Dead Meadow is a big one for me. They seem to be bringing back that old Cream sound more so than a lot of other bands. I've always loved the Flaming Lips, but I can't really think of any else. I'm sure there is a lot more.

7. Is there anything you've been listening to that makes you want to let everyone else know about it?

The Great Vibration. A band out of Philly. Good friends of Moga and just a great band. They incorporate everything that good music should be.

8. What are the qualities, as self-defined, which makes Moga's music "psychedelic"?

I think we used to experiment & jam a lot with synth's and other stuff which always seemed really psychadelic. We couldn't really define the music we played back in the day, it always just naturally seemed experimental and psyhadelic, partly because we didn't know what we were doing. Now, I think we incorporate that into actual structured songs without even knowing it. Were so immuned to playing that kind of stuff it just comes through, even if were trying to write a country song.

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?

1. Pink Floyd- Dark Side Of The Moon
2. The Beatles- Sgt. Pepper
3. Pink Floyd- A Saucerful Of Secrets
4. Troyka- Troyka
5. Yes- Yes
6. Camel- Music Inspired by the Snow Goose
7. Grateful Dead- Aoxomoxoa
8. Moon- Without Earth & The Moon
9. Paul McCartney- RAM
10. Cream- Disreali Gears

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question:
Greg: What are your top 10 albums?
-valis: Albums..? OK, off the top of my head & in no order whatsoever as this list will change in approximately thirty minutes (or less.)

The Pretty Things - SF Sorrow
The December Sound - Self-titled
Asteroid #4 - These Flowers Of Ours...
The Purrs - The Dreams Our Stuff Is Made Of
The Motion Pictures - All We Have Is Everyone
The Soundtrack of Our Lives - Extended Revelation For The Psychic Weaklings Of Western Civilization
The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
The Beatles - Abbey Road
Zerfas - Self-titled
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Give It Back!

There you go Greg! Thanks for participating and best to MOGA on the road to SXSW!
(Check out their Bandcamp page here.)

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-03-08T15:31:00.003-06:00

Creeping ever onward, closer and closer to the Equinox. The promise of more Sun, more green, more life, more spiders..! Yes, more spiders, as in Denton, Texas' Mind Spiders. Their debut album, self-titled, just came out in January on Dirtnap Records. (Available via Green Noise Records.)

Full of psych' and swagger. Hail the future!

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

TUNE Into...

2011-03-04T09:15:00.004-06:00

...MARCH! Forward ho! Hey-ho, let's GO! Another alchemical great work by our resident musiphysician- DJ STod', is here to sate appetites and boggle minds.
I've also just posted the tracklist for February's trippy delight so those of you keeping score at home can check your knowledge against what really went on inside your head.

MARCH!

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-03-01T09:34:00.003-06:00

Fresh new discoveries happening ALL the time! Today's band hails from Reykjavík, Iceland: The Dandelion Seeds , featuring Jimbo - Guitar, Axel - Guitar/vocals, Víðir - Organ/vocals/sitar, Einar - Bass, Helgi - Drums.

Their EP, Good Times With The Dandelion Seeds, was let loose on the world last month and we're looking for more from them in 2011!

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-02-22T09:51:00.002-06:00

They're back! Norway's own Dog Age have just released a new album, On The Garish Isles, through the Voices of Wonder label. (Sporting cover art by our great friend & pop savant, Mick Dillingham.)

I'm always in the mood for their brand of psychedelic strangeness!

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday, on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

The Wayback Machine

2011-02-18T11:30:00.004-06:00

Take a RIDE...!!!
Back with another intrepid traveler ready & willing to take a journey back thru' the temporal biways and pop in on unsuspecting musicians in the midst of the weirdness.

Who's our hero? Our friend Todd Parker, who dissolved minds back in September with his take on the 10 Questions Survey.

You've been given a one-time opportunity to use The Wayback Machine; what band in what year are you going back in time to see-and, what song do you most want to hear while there?

Todd: I'm not going too far back for this one. But, it would have to be the year 1990 at the apartment dubbed "The Pod" in Solesbury Township, PA with Ween while they are recording "The Pod" album.
I would hope to survive intact and I might die laughing if something else didn't get me first. I would have loved to have witnessed the birth of "The Stallion," the creation of "Awesome Sound" or really anything from that album.

Stop it!

I got an awesome sound goin' down [3x]
I got a pork roll egg cheese and bacon

Stop...right...there...
What?
I - I - I got an awesome sound -

I got an awesome sound (biyatch!) goin' down [2x]
I got a pork roll egg cheese and bacon

What you got, buddy?
Shit!
Hit me again!

Awesome sound goin' down
I got an awesome sound goin' down [2x]
I got a pork roll egg cheese and bacon

Goin' down
Goin' down

Go, man, go!
So funky, ohh! Ohhh! Ohh! Ohhh!
Deaner, don't hurt 'em, man!!!
Ohhh! Ohhh! Ohhh!

Goin' down! Goin' down!

Got an awesome sound, goin' down [3x]
I got a pork roll egg cheese and bacon

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-02-15T10:06:00.006-06:00

"Better late than never" is the mantra I've repeated daily, several times a day, since I first heard our new Pick of the Week. (Quite a lot of mumbling and self-flagellation, too, for being so slow to get to them.) Anyway, it's Seattle's own The Purrs! Brilliant band, brilliantly rendered tracks, and fully realized albums. All of 'em.

Their latest, the above-pictured Tearing Down Paisley Garden, from 2010 is hard to move on from, meaning: once you start it's hard to move on to something else. Same goes for the 2009 release, Amused, Confused & More Bad News!

Here's the Blurt review of Tearing Down Paisley Garden:

" Seattle's Purrs well remember the Paisley Underground, not to mention the British psychedelic pop explosion. If that makes the band sound like it's stuck in the ‘80s underground, well, so what? Tearing Down Paisley Garden makes it clear the quartet has a thorough and loving understanding of acid guitar pop, not to mention the chops to pull it off. Between smart covers of Red Lorry Yellow Lorry's "Only Dreaming" and Lee Hazelwood's "I Move Around" and stylish originals like "Always Something in My Way" and "Just a Little More," the Purrs handily demonstrate that they know just what to do with a dreamy melody, a languid tempo and a psilocybin haze. Tearing Down Paisley Garden isn't so much retro as timeless. "

(Mmmm, "psilocybin haze" has me caught in a feedback loop.)

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday,on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

10 Questions

2011-02-11T13:13:00.016-06:00

Hail Voyagers! A brand new installment ready to be unleashed! I've had this in storage for a while now, providing heat to the containment unit and all surrounding matter. Now you're about to find out who: Barcelona's own JORDI, of Stay!

" Stay is an indie psych pop band from Barcelona formed in 2001. After the release of two demos, Stay (2001) and As Another Girl
(2003) the english label Matchbox Recordings released the third EP , So Slow (2004). That release and a more personal sound, very careful tunes and guitar work truly influenced by Britpop and madchester scene, made possible a record deal with Wild Thing Records (Madrid) in 2004. Starting To Lose Control (WTR, 2005) is the first LP and two singles were extracted from this. The band keep on their influences but also have a look to late-60’s American sound and vocals work from bands like CSN&Y or The Byrds. Good reviews permitted the band to play in important national festivals like Primavera Sound 06, Bilborrok or on the TV program Conciertos de RNE3. "

Recently they've had their cover versions of "2,000 Light Years From Home" (Rolling Stones)/"Rainy Day Mushroom Pillow" (Strawberry Alarm Clock)/"Chicago" (Graham Nash) on the forever-cool Fruits de Mer label. Damnably great interpretations, too:

Finally, Passport To Freedom, was released just last year on Subterfuge.

So, what's Jordi thinking? Read on:

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Hi!, personally I don’t like very much the term “psychedelic music” in order to classify music styles because of its wide meaning . Some people use this term very often as a label and sometimes there are misunderstandings, especially when you play in a band trying to make your own sound and they have previously created big expectations. I think that psychedelic music could be every experimental sound played under extreme states of mind related to drugs or not.(Editor's Note: My emphasis added.)

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
The most psychedelic instrument is 12-string electric guitar, for me. If you play it you can’t prevent from being hypnotized by all of their harmonics since the first time. It is more easy to play than people think, even easier than the sitar ...

3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
5th Dimension (Byrds). They are the best American band ever, great LP and meticulous songs. Soft psychedelic music that flows like water...

4. What was the first song you remember listening to in an 'altered' state?
Sugar Spun Sister (Stone Roses) or Brimful of Asha (Cornershop), I don’t know which one was the first song. It was in high school days, about 12 years ago, now I am 32!

5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
Alchemy (Dire Straits). Amazing, A timeless story...Really paranoid, Every musician seemed to be stoned, euphoric and they played really good. Brilliant never-ending guitar, drums, Hammond, keyboards solos....

6. Who are your favorite Spanish psychedelic bands? (Any album recommends?)
The Sunday Drivers (album:Little Heart Attacks). They split up last year. They had great success in France as well.

Sidonie (album: Sidonie (2002)). They are still alive.... In the beginning the sound like Nuggets and brit psych...

Automatics (album: Space Rock Melodies). They played in the 90’s. Really good brit pop and madchester-like tunes. They sounded like Ride.

7. If you could cover an entire album, even if you may be the only one who ever heard it, what album would it be?
Sweetheart Of The Rodeo (Byrds). In fact, most of the songs included are covers but it’s one of my fav’ albums. McGuinn and G.Parsons are wizards there. In Spain, I have the feeling that both are undervalued, I don’t know why...!!

8. Syd or Roky..? Why?
I prefer Roky because he gives me energy to live in every song he made. I think he is more methodical and straight than Syd and his first tunes are more intelligible than Pink Floyd first era. Moreover,I like his neo-country skills when he plays the acoustic guitar. I prefer McCartney than Lennon...However, most of the other guys in the band prefer Syd and Pink Floyd than 13FloorE.

9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?

Really difficult question !!!millions of songs but for instance:
Eight Miles High (Byrds)
SF Sorrow is born (Pretty Things)
Love you to (Beatles)
2000 Light years from home (Rolling Stones)
Guess I was dreaming (The Fairytale)
The Light of Love (Humble Pie)
Suzie Q (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
Forget all about it (Nazz)
My friend Jack (Smoke)
Pictures of Matchstick Men (Status Quo)

I like very much recent psych bands like Brian Jonestown Massacre and even Wilco, and all the late 80’s-early 90’s brit bands but those were the parents!

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question:

Jordi: Ok, If you let me I’ll ask 3!, what do you know about 60’s or recent spanish psych-pop/beat/ rock bands or scene? What are your best psych bands in the present, now? Knowing my psych influences, any new bands to recommend me?? thanks!!
All the best!

-valis: Great questions Jordi! OK, I'll take 'em in order:
1. 60s Spanish bands seems limited to Los Broncos, Los Cheyenes, and a few others; there were certainly Spanish-speaking bands who embraced psychedelia -mostly from Mexico, Latin & South America, as far as I'm aware. (I know the Love, Peace, & Poetry series didn't have a Spain volume.) As far as the NOW, well...you mentioned early -and I emphasize early, Sidonie, as great. (They've since gone a new Spain-centric direction, and that's ok.; Dhera Dun are good, The Gurus,The Winnerys, (weren't The Gallygows from Spain?), and so on....Spain's always seemed to embrace power pop more than psychedelia -to me. (Added two hours later: ROSS! "Glass Onion World" is an all-timer to these ears, and Los Negativos, of Piknik Caleidoscópico, fame...)

2. Best psych' bands in the present? I could be typing well into the weekend amigo.
Asteroid #4 seem atop their game and as good as any band in any era of this great genre; The Grip Weeds, too; Secret Colours, Pond/Tame Impala, Helicon, a Spanish-adopted revival by The Chemistry Set, Cotton Club, Oblisk, and on and on and on....see this: Best of 2010 for a LOT more. (And 2009 & 2008's lists are still available on the blog, too.) There's just so many worthy bands right now, yours included! It is a new Golden Era.

3. With your tastes, given your answers, I'd strongly recommend the newest Darker My Love release, Alive As You Are, on Dangerbird. Pure Byrdsian delight, especially the latter era. Every song reveals a layer of magic and is a prize to behold. Actually an astonishing album, start-to-finish.

Also, The Sun Blindness,from Australia. Their Far Arden album really channels an era out of time's flow perfectly. It's still available to download here.

Try those and let me know what you thought, ok? And best to the band in San Sebastien this weekend! Thanks Jordi!

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-02-08T09:39:00.005-06:00

Back to it! This week's Pick is those wildly psychedelic Strange Ones known as The Lumerians, from San Francisco. (Now it all makes sense, eh?)

We chose a track from their 7", released last year on Rococo Records, "Chevaux Fous," as our Pick, solely due to the fact we couldn't get the video they did out of our head! See for yourself and behold the insanity:

Chevaux Fous from m m on Vimeo.

The Lumerians unleash a new album on us three weeks from today, March 1st, on Knitting Factory Records, titled Transmalinnia!

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday,on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.

TUNE Into...

2011-02-04T02:25:00.004-06:00

...February!
New year, new tricks from the Master -DJ Stod! After the month hiatus he's back and in full-on psychedelic mode to bedazzle and bewilder your ears and the stuff between 'em. Are you ready? Get it, here! Then, let him know what you thought. OK? (Tracklist posted in a few weeks.)

Tracklist:
==============

01 The Falling Spikes - Feedback Plan B
02 Ultimate Spinach - Mind Flowers
03 Death In Vegas - Anita Berber
04 Secret Colours - Chemical Swirl
05 Juan Trip' - Overby
06 Dead Mellotron - 1993
07 Lower Heaven - Fallen Angel
08 Red Winter - Luna
09 fuxa - Marty Suicide
10 Lovedust* - Space Kadets
11 Asteroid #4 - Losing Touch With My Mind
12 Glissage - Burned In Blue

* - w/Ricky Maymi, BJM

-valis Pick of the Week

2011-01-25T08:55:00.005-06:00

This week's Pick is from one of THE hot spots for psychedelia the world o'er: Philadelphia. It's The Orange Drop.

Marc, Matt, Dave & Blaze bringin' the good stuff..!

You can listen to the archived stream here; or, hear it this Friday,on The Dead Man's Turn Me On, Dead Man show on Live365, where it's heard every Friday at noon eastern time, as well as Mr. Atavist's Sunrise Ocean Bender show, heard every Friday from 3 to 6am eastern, on WRIR in Richmond, VA.