Something about Tuesdays has started smelling a lot more psychedelic, and in the nasal orifice of a certain psychedelic band from Los Angeles, psychedelia smells like strawberries. We continue our psychedelic exploration of the 1960s with the genre of psychedelic pop music and one of the bands that mastered this potential corny genre was Strawberry Alarm Clock, who rode the line of bubblegum and psychedelic music like a professional.
So, I guess the first question we have to ask is what exactly is psychedelic pop music and why is music that can be considered “watered down” relevant on our psychedelic trip? The answer to this question is simple. Psychedelic pop, at its finest, is not hackneyed, but rather creative and infectious. Yes, I understand that because the music had to fit under the description of “pop” it usually needed close-knit harmonies and catchy rhythms, but, while it was “mainstream” at the time, these necessities did not take a way from the music’s worth. While the music succumbed to rigid specifications, it was still allowed to venture forth into the world of guitar distortion and zany instruments. Take a listen to this.
In the first 20 seconds the genre is practically described. “Incense and Peppermints” by Strawberry Alarm Clock was released in 1967 and it hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The keyboard mixes beautifully with the reverbed, distorted guitar. The background vocals provide a haunting beginning to the tune. The song’s high-pitched keyboard provides an unmistakable psychedelic presence to the song that is a shining example of why the song is psychedelic.
Can you get the song out of your head? No. I didn’t think so. It fits the pop convention perfectly and this is why it was so popular. I consider this an instrumental work of psychedelic music and I disagree with those who believe that pop’s conforming to the psychedelic phenomenon was a bad thing. It allowed pop bands to create psychedelic pieces (a la Beach Boys) and psychedelic bands to market themselves with pop classics like “Incense and Peppermints.”
I sat at my desk on the 14th floor, typing my masterpiece. Water crawled to my feet and slowly began to accumulate. It’s presence helped coax my thoughts into flowing through my fingers. It rose by the minute, up to my knees by the time I approached completion. I would not give up. At the last moment I hit the period key for the final time and sent the piece onto the internet for all to see. The water then ripped me from my seat and dragged me out to the ocean, where I floated in a sea of calm insignificance.
My regards to all of those affected by the tsunami and the related disasters in Japan. May your nation come out of this stronger than before, and your dead rest peacefully.
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So as promised here is the second post of the weekend.
In light of the recent happenings in the east, I’ve decided to honor a tremendous Japanese band. Ghost is the name of an absolutely amazing psychedelic acid folk rock experience which was created sometime during the late 1980’s. Their first album came out in 1990, and they have been making great music ever since. In 2004 they released the album entitled Hypnotic Underworld, which is what really put them on the map, especially in the western world.
They have also been described as living a nomadic existence, only playing shows in ruins of ancient temples or
abandoned subway stations. I would do a countless amount of things to be able to attend such an event. Japanese hippies are hands down one of the most intriguing combination of people I can imagine.
The album is half concept album and half chill jam album. The first four songs on the album are entitled Hypnotic Underworld parts 1-4 respectively, and are about the listener’s escape from this Hypnotic Underworld. Basically it is that spacey psychedelic concept vibe you have learned to love, but with an added eastern folk influence. The result is brilliant, giving it almost jazz like qualities.
Part 1, is a sort of introduction to the Hypnotic Underworld. A scratchy horn plays this dreary nonsense, while random instruments clamor in syncopated madness. It builds and builds until it finally gives to part 2, which opens up with an amazing bass line. The horn finds it’s tune finally and a piano complements the both. This jam lasts for quite the while, instruments coming and going, sort of as if one would be just hanging out in a hypnotic underworld I assume.
Parts 3 and 4 are in the youtube video above. Part 3 represents the realization of one’s surrounding and the eventuating escape from the hypnotic underworld. It is a very powerful rock song featuring synths, guitars, drums, and amazing Japanese lyrics. The full works. And then part 4 comes along which is a short, almost heavy-metal, drum solo. The final escape I suppose. Really cool in my opinion.
After this 4 part concept work, the rest of the album is individual songs, and I am not too sure where the concept actually ends because sadly I cannot understand Japanese. But I can assume that the next song continues the story in some sense simply based on the title. You escape the hypnotic underworld to hang out in the hazy paradise!
It is actually a cover of a song by the same name which is by a band named Earth and Fire. It is melodic and beautiful. It begins with guitar fills punctuating an almost heavenly sound which is created by that beautiful riff and the vocal “ooh-aah”‘s. With a short climbing of a scale and the strum of an acoustic guitar, the song moves on to the main verse. The singing is movie-like and the harpsichord reminds me of the 60’s scene ever so slightly. A Japanese psychedelic ballad. Guitar solos spring up ever so often, eventually matched by the harpsichords, creating a build that is simply glory to the ears.
These first 5 tracks already create an astounding musical experience, meanwhile 6 tracks still remain on the album. I will allow you to explore them on your own. And maybe someone out there who speaks Japanese can translate some of the lyrics and tell me if it really is a concept album.
&)
-oko
P.S. Aww hell here is one more song from the album, because it’s that good. I present to you 10 minutes of chill, entitled Ganagmanag!
I lay in bed for what seemed like years, stocking up on a forgotten amount of dreams, depressed that I was powerless to be productive, and browsing the internet as if it contained the secret to life. Not that the internet does not have the secret to life per say (it is the secret to life). This is unfortunately how I spent my first spring break of the semester. Yea, I did also do social things – but I was the only one with spring break, great timing SUNY system… And yes we here at SUNY binghamton also have two spring breaks this year… part 2 will be in 3 weeks. Maybe I’ll get off my lazy ass and write a novel.
And as a result of the excitement of finishing my album last weekend (…it’s not finished, the crutches of perfectionism), I missed my section on this blog! : (
But that means I’ll write two sections this weekend! : )
So.
I learned about the artist named Baths in a very peculiar manner. Sometime last summer a childhood friend of mine visited. I think the last time I saw him was when I was like 14. He, at 12, moved to Poland and later to Chicago, from were he now was visiting.
I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out that we shared many of the same musical likes, and we proceeded to share artists. Lo and behold he was a polish hipster like me! I was only a little skeptical when he told me that he knew someone that knew Flying Lotus, but was very impressed when he invited me to this underground music sharing website which I didn’t mention just now.
And so, one of the bands he told me about was Baths.
To be honest, at first I was like “cool!”, but never actually gave it a thorough listen.
Then one day I happened upon this video.
Pure F’ing Art – The opening sound clip seems to agree.
* I describe my interpretation of the video in this review, so maybe you might want to watch it once on your own so that you may possibly come up with a unique one? Just a suggestion! *
So this samurai fellow is stumbling through these beautiful lush woods, with his katana drawn, and arrows sticking out of his back. Not looking too good, he falls to his knees and breathes his last breath. A heroic warrior’s death. And meanwhile, the entire time this unrelenting beat is playing, representing the man’s fall, like a broken clock winding away. These are exactly the types of beats in modern music that I absolutely adore by the way. It makes no sense, but it just flows in some machine-like fashion, like the thoughts of refined yet chaotic organisms.
The bass is simple but it fits nicely. The beat subsides a bit, and the vocals come in. They may be hard to accept at first, but you just have to realize how unique they are. And they seemingly represent the forest ghosts now descending on our fallen samurai, who now is emitting his soul, in the form of bluish smoke.
The beat returns. The ghosts push the man’s soul back inside, wrap his wounds, and begin to drag him away across the forest floor. He regains consciousness at one point, only to realize that he is a sacrifice for some sort of forest ghost queen. The bass strums now more relaxed. She swoops in for a kiss, and the man envisions himself swimming with her underwater, a brief guitar/piano solo embodying the experience. (someone tell me what instrument it is lolplz)
She then proceeds to remove the cloth covering his mouth and begins to eat his soul. The entire forest then begins to secrete it’s own soul. And the video ends.
And it’s a hell of a video if you ask me. And yes, I am pretty sure drugs where related in it’s making. It’s about a very-grim topic too, and you can tell it’s a good because it actually leaves you with a neutral feeling at its finish. The man either was wounded in combat and was now hallucinating as he died, or the whole thing took place in some crazy fantasy setting. Assuming the former, the ghosts represent whatever was keeping him bound to the world, the forest queen most likely being his lover.
The part at the end where he is swimming, I think, definitely represents a sort of peaceful dying vision. And that would mean that the mysterious forest queen lover did the samurai a favor. Unless, of course, that that fact doesn’t out-weigh the soul-eating part in your books. It’s really up for interpretation. Pretty damn clever if you ask me.
And the music! It starts off very experimental and weird. Awesomeness to my ears! But then it continues this trend by slowly morphing into this very relaxing and melodic piece. You don’t even realize there’s a guitar playing until the very end. And the vocals are almost shrill, but they too prove to drive the song in an almost surreal fashion, like you don’t know what to make of them so you simply accept them. Eventually they calm down, the same lines being repeated, lulling out in a sense.
A very good song with a very good video, by a very talented artist.
If any of you guys have a unique interpretation of the video, please share! Mine, I’m pretty sure, is the obvious interpretation. I tried not to dive too deep…
&)
-oko
P.S. If you would like to know more about polish hipsters (lol), then here is a very good documentary which I recently watched. It shows a lot about the current art and music cultures and sub-cultures developing in Poland and how the youth are embracing them. Cool place if you ask me. From Poland with Love
We move now to the psychedelic folk portion of our 60’s Psychedelic Experiment. Psychedelic folk is not as specified as last week’s garage rock psychedelic genre. Psych Folk (for short) exploded in the mid 1960’s as one of the most malleable forms of psychedelic music. One of the reasons why Psych Folk became the most common form of psychedelic music (at first) was because it was not a huge jump from current music. Psych Folk simply adjusts acoustic instruments and adds obscure sounds common with psychedelic music. As it became more refined and widespread, musicians added creative vocalization (like chanting).
When people explore the foundations of this broad sub-genre, most point to the band above, The Holy Modal Rounders, as one of the main Psych Folk originators. The Holy Modal Rounders came from the burgeoning music scene in Greenwich Village. They released their eponymous first album in 1964. The album is folk, but underneath the obvious exterior is some elements of latent psychedelia. (By the way, Sam Shepard played drums for them for a time – yes, the playwright).
Many people point to the Holy Modal Rounder’s version of “Hesitation Blues” because they actually mention the term “psychedelic” in this song. They pronounce it “psycho-delic,” but it was the first mention of the term in a song, ever. That stands for something. But, do listen.
This is simply a sped-up folk version of the blues classic. Yes, Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber have cool voices, but their Psych Folk mastery did not come until later. Listen to this.
“The Bird Song” released on the 1969 album The Moray Eels Eat the Holy Modal Rounders was featured in the movie “Easy Rider” which profiles the counterculture (and AWESOME music). This is a classic example of Psych Folk. We have a old-timey piano riff that you could hear at a saloon playing over a reverbed nasaly voice. In the background you can hear the airy backdrop of the song. This is clearly upbeat psychedelic music that has folk elements (especially with the addition of the acoustic guitar.)
No trippy nonsense today. I’m preparing to release my own music sometime next week and therefore am pooling my creative mental energy. What kind of music it will be considered I have no idea. And considering how I listen to such a vast array of different music, hopefully it will make no sense. I am hoping to invent a new genre – electronic poetry. Wish me luck.
Among the artists that influenced me the most are Dungen, Flying Lotus, and Animal Collective. But one band I feel stands out in particular given the type of music I tend to make. This band spoke to me when I was an angst addled teenager and the type of music just made so much sense.
The band is named Ratatat, like the sound that bullets make when they bounce off things… It’s a two-man group from Brooklyn which makes very chill electronic and heavily processed guitar sounds.
Today I’m gonna be showing you some of their less popular and older, but nonetheless chill, songs. Their music is almost genre-less to be honest. But as they were starting out they found a very unique niche. They were very good at making hip-hop beats. Actually one of their first albums was simply entitled “9 beats”, and no too long after it was remixed to feature various famous rap artists (such as Jay-Z and the notorious B.I.G.) rapping over it. This attracted people who listened to rap, but their fame grew a lot more swiftly on the indie scene as a result of their first two LP’s.
The first, being self-titled, included one single. The song above, while not the single, I feel like is a exceptional song. Named Lapland , it starts out with a slow instrumental drive, and then a quick sample of a gentlemen saying “you know what?” drops the song into a intense beat which sets the foundation for vibaciousness. Throughout the piece, synths and guitars are brought in and out, but the beat remains the same. That is what most of their music does. In my opinion you either like the beat or don’t.
The second album, named Classics was very similar and included three singles (progress). It includes the song above, Nostrand, which is an exalting piece. Most of the beginning is a slow, bass driven drive. The guitar enters about a minute in and chills you out with a super smooth riff. But what it’s actually doing is preparing you for utter bliss that is the drop at about 1:50. A shout, some clapping, and something which could be a guitar, or a synthesizer, or pure glory, does it job cheering up even the most depressing of situations. Truly great.
Most of their is this awesome. I’m showing you none of the singles because when hopefully you decide to give this band a listen on your own, the singles is what you will most likely hear first anyway. And then these other songs might go unheard.
A lot of their music is used in popular media, namely movies, commercials, and television series, so you actually may have heard some of it before. It definitely has to do with the simple, yet calm nature of their music and the lack of words. I almost consider it modern day elevator music, but obviously exponentially better. If they played this in elevators people would start camping out in them and I assume that wouldn’t be safe.
But let’s get back to the lack of words notion. As a kid and to this day the very idea of rap abhors me to my very existence. I could never understand what the rappers where trying to say and the only words I heard were things like “guns, titties, and diamonds” which would make me want to hit the nearest wannabe gangster in the face with a flail.
People would then use the excuse that it’s “funny”. No, it’s not funny. These people aren’t being serious, their acting. Funny is a comedian, or better yet youtube videos. This on the other hand is the media industry fucking with your child-like minds. They’re telling you that excessive drinking, drugs, lavish parties, and such are ok because they want you to fail at life. Or at least be more depressed as an adult. It’s 60’s psychedelia gone haywire. It’s a form of mind-control and it’s working.
…Sorry tangent. Nonetheless I spent my teenage years not listening to rap, and then one day I heard Ratatat. Hip-hip beats… but without the rap! My mind was blown, as I assume many other’s were because I am pretty sure that this band is responsible for the Trip-Hop movement to which artists like Flying Lotus now belong to.
I honestly would have no problem with rap, IF IT MADE SENSE AND WAS INTELLIGIBLE! (cough electronic poetry lol) And besides, trust me, I know about lyrics that don’t make sense – I’ve listened to the Mars Volta since I was like 15. But that’s for another time.
Something about Tuesdays has started smelling a lot more psychedelic, and in the nasal orifice of a certain psychedelic band from Los Angeles, psychedelia smells like strawberries. We continue our psychedelic exploration of the 1960s with the genre of psychedelic pop music and one of the bands that mastered this potential corny genre was Strawberry Alarm Clock, who rode the line of bubblegum and psychedelic music like a professional.
The Music Court 