In honor of the day-and nick nicely's birthday, I'm reprising an 18-month old post we did back in January of 2008. nick was one of the first psychedelic musicians I contacted when I concocted this format we know as "10 Questions." I believe it worthy of a repost, especially on this most auspicious day.
Hail Psych' fans! We're back with another installment of "10 Questions" and today's guest really needs little introduction. Credited by Andy Partridge as providing the kick he needed to create the Dukes of Stratosphear, (and for that alone we're all indebted), by creating one of the true classics of the genre, "Hilly Fields (1892)", we're proud to welcome nick nicely!
1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music." (It is music that may) expand conscious borders while blurring razor edged reality .
2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why? Electric guitar, because it is flexible and emotional. With effects it opens the door to the abstract and can bring sensations of disorientation and release in a way that, say a sitar, can't.
3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time? Shit I don't know, Hendrix.., maybe Electric Ladyland.
4. Roky or Syd, why? Syd because he wasn't structurally or sonically confined. His musical influence on his time and beyond are clear, an innovative and creative force.
5. Alice In Wonderland or The Wind In The Willows? Alice
6. What psychedelic album do you wish more people knew about? Annot Rhul - Lost In The Woods. Introduced to it recently by a friend on one of 'those' days. True I might have loved anything I heard then but this was tripped out enough for me…
7. What band, active today, most defines "psychedelic" to you? Don't know this either. I like psychedelia to drift between abstract and figurative, to trip out and have tunes. Translucence by nick nicely has just the blend I like... . ...unsurprisingly.
8. What album would you most like to cover in its entirety, why? Right well I'd probably go for something in a minor key that has no heavy psych effects on it so it'd be possible to do a radically new treatment. Maybe folk. OK, Espers II.
9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs? 1. Setting Sun - Chemical Brothers and Noel (lovely tripout bit , pure acid at no 1 on the national chart , excellent)
2. If 6 was 9 - Jimi
3.I Am The Walrus --The Beatles
4.Energy 52 --Cafe Del Mar
5.My White Bicycle ---Tomorrow
6.Michaelangelo ---23rd Turnoff
7. Voodoo Chile --Jimi
8. Don't Follow the Sun--Barry Henning
9. Tomorrow Never Knows--Beatles
10 is a tie betweem Emily by PF , 40,000 Headmen by Traffic and 8 Miles High by the Byrds
10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question. Ok Valis...which is best: UK or US psych’ and why?
-valis: Wow! This one goes deep nick. My first response is UK, with attachments. If we’re talking about the beginnings of psychedelic music I’ll take the UK. My listening habits for that era are in the 70-30 range, UK to US. I think the sense of playfulness and themes of UK psychedelia has more appeal to me than the harder themes typically found in the brand of psychedelia being made Stateside. UK psych’ just seemed to mushroom (no pun intended) exponentially-and overnight, so that sheer volume is overwhelming. SF Sorrow, as an example, will always be held in high regard, as well as The Move, The Idle Race, Traffic, The Beatles (!), etc.
That being said, if we move forward to the Neo-psychedelic movement, the 80s to the present, it may lean more to the US. Bands like Plasticland, Rain Parade, the Chesterfield Kings, Bobb Trimble, Dimentia 13, the Fleshtones and Fuzztones, the Green Pajamas…, are all worthy of any psych’ fans attention; the UK certainly had their share, too: the Chemistry Set, the Steppes, the Shamen-(at least for that drop-dead, bang-on debut, Drop,) as well as the Bevis Frond and the pastiche Dukes of Stratosphear, among others. From then on, 90s to the present day I’d say it’s almost a 50-50 split…..to these ears. The best thing about it all is the fact that one CAN have their cake and eat it, too….from the right side or the left side! It’s the best of times! We have current practitioners, from all over the world, making viable and mind-blowing contributions and all the rich past efforts, too. Thank Pan for TWO ears! And thank you, nick.
If you'd like to hear nick's newer works, try here and for further information, from a fan site go here! ===================================================================================
( In all honesty I'm unsure of the future of the blog; whether the model is sutainable or there's even widespread interest. I'm unable to hide my disappointment at the lack of comment on the Summer Solstice compilation, Vol. II, recently posted. Despite over 150 downloads in the first month the comments are appreciated but too scant for belief. So I'll contemplate the fate...thanks. -valis)
When the heat is on you turn to someone who knows all about HOT. Our guest today comes from hot & makes hot music. Dallas, Texas, IS hot. Real damned hot, (and getting hotter according to the "+ 100 days" charts.)((Serves 'em right if you ask me for that wretched piece of sh*t "football team/prison gang" known as the Dallas Cowboys. F__K 'em. I think I hates 'em.., no-I know I do. Erm anyway....back on track mister....))
He's been playing music for a very long time but for our purposes we turn to the late 80s, say 1988.., and the formation of the Burnin' Rain!
We have Mike Pemberton !
Here's a bio' by Lyric LaCeile,(and thank you Lyric):
" Mike Pemberton started out as the token ‘white’ boy playing guitar in an all-Black funk band in the late 70’s . It was a memorable experience to say the least. In the early 80’s he joined Deep Ellum band, ‘Model 12’, with Josh Weinberg and Jim Nabors....A very handsome guy, with a laid-back attitude, Pemberton eased onto the scene with flair and self-assurance minus the cockiness we could all do without. In the tradition of the ‘13th Floor Elevators’, ‘The Chessmen’, ‘Mouse and The Traps’ and ‘The Nomad’s meet the “Burnin’ Rain”, brainchild of Mike Pemberton and Mark Migliore, founder, Rockadelic Records, conceptualized in 1988. Using vintage ‘Vox’ guitars, amps and fuzz boxes they hired Jim Edgerton for vocals , Erich Anderson sounding very Manzarek-esque on Vox Organ and brilliant , veteran rock drummer Chris Gore. In a typically bohemian environment, replete with lava lamps, incense, carpeted walls, in an old brick two-story four-plex on Worth Street in historical East Dallas, their highly palpable chemistry shaped the sounds that quickly become ‘Burnin Rain’.
The first session produced “Piece of your Love”, and “All Night Long”, (the third 45 rpm on Rockadelic Records), a quick- selling 500 !. Within two months of the band’s formation, Mark Miglioure and Jim Edgerton split to form their own band, “Fish Eye Lens”. The surviving members located an old high-school pal, Dan Connelly, (formerly of ‘Danny and The Daylights’) to fill out the gap on vocals and lead guitar, producing their first effort, “Visions” on the ‘Mind and Eye’ label, with distribution through Rockadelic Records, Dallas and ‘Resonance’ of The Netherlands and New York City. The grainy, raw effects on tunes like, ‘Smoke Stack Lightening’ were due in part to a classic four-track Crown reel-to-reel recorder and a Gretch guitar owned by Pemberton. Danny’s natural swagger with the guitar and his organic, coarse, blues-driven voice brushed on the final touches of what would become one of the hippest, most talented bands in Deep Ellum, and the Southwest.
The next 10 months were spent honing their dazzling, vibrant 12-song repertoire. Within a month of pressing, Semiphore Records in Holland heard their music, instantly signed the band, repressing ‘Visions’ with 4000 sold as they began recording their second album, “Iwaska”. Iwaska is a South American vine that local shaman used in ritual ceremonies, inducing a drug-like trance with visions of places they never physically inhabited… . Featuring seasoned local Dallas chanteuse Cricket Taylor on the psyche-rock, bluesy, swaying duet with Danny, “Dreams”, opening with a light rainstorm track layered underneath, “What is it that you want, or do you really know, dear? Tell me do you have a dream ? Well find it , chase it, la la la… …..” Oh, you’ll sing along, trust me. “I have let others get to me at times, but I won’t let it stop me, no, I’ll let it inspire me, I will”……the sweet echoes of a voice too early taken , Danny Connelly’s haunting layers in harmony plead “Don’t let your dreams go too far”…..get ready for the chill.
Their third record, “Pictures In The Fire”, was a triumph in its simplicity. Still retaining the raw, edgy sound with a more finessed, mature result, noted especially in the title song, with Pemberton on guitar,Bobby Faubion on bass Chris Gore drums,Dan Connelly vocals and Erich Anderson ..boards each song left you with the feelings of euphoria. Thier live shows were etched into the memory of those fortunate to experience them. From live shows at clubs like Club Clearviw, Trees.The Bomb Factory and two headline shows at the Frye Street fair in Denton Texas. The Record is still till this day the best seller and is the one that will stand the test of time standing on its on merits as the bands most psychedelic effort to date.
The fourth record by the band "Ritual Medicine Show" on Rockadelic records was the last studio recording with all five members. Mike ,Bobby,Chris,Erich and Danny. This effort by the band was yet another great release. Each member brought thier own style,influences and sound to take the bands music to a whole new level. With fuzz drenched guitar tracks like Flying Saucers, to the mysterious jug sounds of the Underground, the band had scored another pure Texas psychedelic classic that sells as well as "Pictures in the Fire". Recorded in the summer of 95 at Hai Tex Studio and engineered by Andy Childs on a 16 track tape this fine record is in the collections of some of the most discerning music lovers all over the world. The Burnin Rain CDs can be had at CD Baby.com 12.00 each and have been enhanced and remixed to bring out the best of the old recordings. -Journalist, Unsigned Magazine, Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK -Music Biographer -Hostess and presenter, UK Featured Artists Site, http://www.myspace.com/lyricuk
For me the blast that is "Love Is Like Dying" or the amalgamation that is "Slip Inside This Slide Machine", (complete with jug!), are prime slices of the true wafer and a testament to this band's dedication to the Trip. They're not taking the short path. Plus, I respect any band who sings about Sirius, the Dog Star. (Hmmm, might should've saved this post for August 23rd?)
Let's plumb the mind of a fellow traveler:
1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Psychedelic music to me is the white man's version of soul music.
2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
The most psychedelic instrument is the jug. Even though it is so simple it takes an ordinary song and transcends the sound into another dimension another plane, a higher plateau. Tommy Hall's playing of the jug was one of the most defining moments in the sound we call Psychedelic.
3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
If stuck on an island there could be only one album that i would have to grab off the shelf and that album would be Easter Everywhere. Is there a better album ever recorded? Tell me about it.
4. You can go back in time and save one ill-fated rocker, who do you save and why?
When i was in the 10th grade i found out about Hendrix and i was saddened to find out that he had been dead for 10 years. It would be so nice to hear him exploring the way he did but sometimes the brightest stars always burn out the fastest. Stacy Sutherland was another guy that i wish i could have saved, his guitar work meant- and still does to this day, the world to me.
5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
Some people may laugh at this one but i always liked Neil Diamond's Solitary Man. It had undertones of a soft psych song. Another song i liked was John Lennon's Number 9 Dream. There was something mysterious and prophetic about the words. It stands above most of his later songs.
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 liked being the second generation psych guy because i think- thanks to technology, we were able to do things that the first generation guys had to struggle to make those same sounds. I do admire how they did it with just amps and tape trickery and some of those sounds are still hard to duplicate to this day .
7. What band active at the peak of Burnin' Rain did you most appreciate musically?
A local band that had started the local Psych movement was Lithium Xmas, they had been playing around town playing the Stark Club and parties. When i saw them i knew that i wanted to explore the psychedelia like they were. Mark Riddlin and i had played in a new wave band called Model 12 in the mid-80s but we both knew there was a bigger statement to make one that would make a lasting impression.
8. If you could-even without anyone else ever hearing it, cover another album entirely, which one would you love to give a go at?
There are many dreams that one has that could go unfulfilled but mine is to do the 13th Floor Elevators' Bull of the Wood album. To me it is one of the best unsung statements of psych history that will ever be. I am still amazed at the music genius of simple Texas boys from Kerrville and the depth of their understanding of complex rhythms and tones that were never heard before. God rest his soul,Stacy Sutherland.
9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?
!.Slip Inside this House (13th Floor Elevators) 2.Slide Machine (13th Floor Elevators) 3.We Sell Soul (The Spades) Rocky Ericsons 1st band 4.Foolish Baby (The Briks) Dallas 5.Uncle Kirby (Countdown Five) Corpus Cristi Texas 6.Every Night a New Surprise (The Moving Sidewalks) Houston Tx 7.Whats then Matter (The Ant Trip Ceremony) 8.The House of Yesterday(Hydro Pyro) 9.Lost in My World (Dug Dugs) Mexico 10.The World is a Bomb (The Survival) Mexico
10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question.
Mike: What was your first song that you heard as a child that turned you to the world of psychedelic?
-valis: Well Mike.., I wouldn't have known it as such until much later in life but two tracks from my kidhood did things to me:
The Rolling Stones "She's A Rainbow" & (in that category with your Neil Diamond track as an unlikely source) Redbone's "Come And Get Your Love." (It took me years to realize it was that electric sitar they're using what did it to me.) It wasn't until my late 20s, (late 80s), that I went full-blown.
Hoping the Summer Solstice Compilation, 2009, sated your needs these past two weeks and extends to the rest of the year! Great groups, eh?! (Hoping you've found time to offer thanks to them, too. It means a lot.)
Returning to our regular schedule, we've a fantastic & fascinating guest for today's post. A veteran of more than 30 LPs released at this writing, from the mid-80s to now, he's a creative force and a pleasure to have spoke with via intermessage systems. It's Yukio Yung (a/k/a Terry Burrows)!
Here's a brief bit of the Stewart Mason-penned Bio' from AMG:
"Yukio Yung is the pseudonym of Terry Burrows, a London-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist with an apparently limitless appetite for both pseudonyms and side projects. Aside from his best-known alias, which he first used in the mid-'80s as one-third of the psych pop group the Chrysanthemums, Burrows released instrumental prog rock as Push-Button Pleasure, acid house dance mixes as YooKo, and free jazz-influenced pop art experiments as the Jung Analysts. To top it all off, Burrows released albums of avant-garde minimalism under his own name. All of this is in addition to his day job as a prolific author of computer manuals and music instruction books.
Born in Ipswich, England, on January 14, 1963, Burrows taught himself guitar, bass, drums, and saxophone as a teenager, in addition to pursuing a classical education on piano that had begun at the age of five. Although influenced by punk, it was more the anti-record industry D.I.Y. ethos that attracted him than the music. Burrows' influences included Syd Barrett, the Kinks, the Who, and the entire Canterbury Scene with its prog rock sound that centered around the Soft Machine and its various offshoots, along with other '60s-influenced post-punks like XTC and the Television Personalities. By the mid-'80s, Burrows had started his own indie label, Hamster Records, releasing albums by his first band, the Jung Analysts, and similar non-commercial artists. A chance meeting with singer/guitarist Alan Jenkins, whose psych pop cult band Deep Freeze Mice had just broken up, led to the formation of the Chrysanthemums, for whom Burrows was lead singer and keyboardist between 1986 and 1991; the band name, like Burrows' newly adopted stage name of Yukio Yung, came about as part of his fascination with Japanese culture."
My interest came via his work in the Chrysanthemums, and-most notably, their covering the entire Odessey And Oracle by the Zombies.
Anyone who has the good taste to do that is clearly thinking with the right brain cells. (Imho.)
OK, what's he think about our favorite genre?
1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Any aural stimulus that evokes a state of sensory immersion.
2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
The recording studio in its in many forms... Even the MacBook on which I’m writing these notes whilst sitting in a café. That's bloody psychedelic!
3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
Tough...
Either ‘Piper at the Gates of Dawn’ (Pink Floyd) or ‘Electric Music for the Mind and Body’ (Country Joe and the Fish) for very different reasons.
4. What was the thought process behind doing a cover of "Odessey and Oracle" in its entirety..? Were there other albums under consideration as well?
Alan Jenkins of the Deep Freeze Mice, with whom I founded The Chrysanthemums, introduced me to The Zombies in the late 80s. I immediately fell in love with ‘Oddessey and Oracle’. My plan had been to do a compilation album version for my label with all the bands involved covering one of the tracks, but I mentioned the idea to Alan and he liked it, so we decided to do it as a band. I don’t recall any other cover plans, except the Yes album Tales of Topographic Oceans – I liked the idea of covering an album I’d never heard... Indeed, I still haven’t heard it...
(Stewart Mason's review, from AMG:
" Song-by-song covers of entire albums are fairly rare, and rarer still are those that don't either try to rework the album into one specific style (think of George Benson's jazz-pop The Other Side of Abbey Road) or exist only to mercilessly trash the original. Despite guitarist Alan Jenkins' sarcastic amendments to the liner notes of the Zombies' original Odessey & Oracle, the back cover of which is presented here in modified form, it's clear that he and bandmates Terry Burrows and Martin Jenkins are fans of this '60s Baroque pop classic. Although the Chrysanthemums transform Rod Argent and Chris White's songs into a variety of pop styles, most of them rooted in the skewed psychedelia that's the Chrysanthemums' stock in trade, the results are respectful if not reverent. What's most interesting is the way the reworked songs reveal new facets. The original "Care of Cell 44" is so pretty that it's easy to miss how deeply strange the lyrics are. The Chrysanthemums' version, which substitutes sound effects and tape loops for the original's orchestral interludes, brings out that oddity. Elsewhere, the acid house groove of "A Rose for Emily" works much better than it has any right to, and the sneering hardcore punk setting of "The Butcher's Tale (Western Front 1914)" fits the horrific wartime imagery perfectly. While the ultra-chirpy "Friends of Mine" sends up the terribly twee original a bit, speeding up the tape until Burrows sounds almost like Alvin of the Chipmunks, it's still all in good fun. The closing track, a hazy, extended psychedelic jam on "Time of the Season," featuring some lengthy Hendrixian solos by Jenkins, bears little resemblance to the original other than the familiar slinky bassline, but it's otherwise a perfect recreation of the ethos of its time. ")
I have a long-standing plan to cover an entire Top 30 singles chart from May 1973...
5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
This is an interesting question. I remember about 10 years ago Todd Dillingham lending me a Kate Bush album claiming it was an incredibly psychedelic album... Can’t remember which it was but I’m sure it had the word “dogs” in the title... But I obviously didn’t get what he saw in it... Then again, I remember him coming over and telling me how psychedelic Dollar were... His is a strange world! I guess for me a lot of ambient music or Krautrock would fall into the psychedelic category. I think I’d even describe my noise band Tonesucker as psychedelic.
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?
Can’t really say since I wasn’t in a pioneering psychedelic band. I know a guitarist called Brian Godding who had a band in the 60s called Blossom Toes, whose debut album is an absolute psychedelic classic, but he doesn’t get what all the fuss is about – I think he just views it as something he was doing in 1968 before he did something different. He’s basically a jazz musician these days.
7. Assemble a psychedelic "Supergroup" of musicians for us from among your favorites:
Barry Melton (CJ and the Fish) (guitar) Brian Godding (Blossom Toes) (guitar and vocals) Keith Moon (drums) Simeon (Silver Apples) - keyboards Ramases (vocals and songwriting)
with
Paul McCartney – bassoon John Lennon – oboe George Harrison – french horn Ringo Starr - theremin
8. You're in a discussion with your great-great-great grandfather, through time travel; what song of yours are you going to play for him from your catalog as an example of what you do?
Tonesucker – Beware The Ides Of March (Parts I – IV)
9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?
Mostly fairly obvious ones...
1. Look at me I’m You – Blossom Toes 2. Matilda Mother – Pink Floyd 3. Zen Rebel – The Flowerpornoes 4. Tomorrow - Strawberry Alarm Clock 5. Porpoise Mouth/Section 43 (run them together) - Country Joe and the Fish 6. Flight Reaction – The Calico Wall 7. Tintern Abbey – Vaccuum Cleaner 8. Imposters in Life’s Magazine – The Idle Race 9. Defecting Grey – Pretty Things 10. Strawberry Fields - Beatles
10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question.
Yukio: Give me the recipe for your favourite meal, and your favourite cocktail!
-valis: OK:
Meal: Five dried grams of psilocybes, placed in mouth, and chewed slowly. Cocktail: Light rum over ice with diet soda and a splash of lime......repeat the cocktail process throughout the evening after said meal.
Thanks Yukio/Terry!
(We've received a comment from Terry:
Hello -Valis... Thank you kindly for all of that...
A few points/queries...
1. Whilst my old MacBook is pretty damned psychedelic, the silver MacBook Pro that I've used for the past few years is truly mind-blowing...
2. My supergroup deliberately omits a bass guitarist. Sometimes the bass part will come from Simeon's bleeps, but mostly it'll be McCartney's bassoon...
3. I now realise the Kate Bush album that Todd lent me years ago was 'The Dreaming'...
4. Is the version of Flight Reaction the same as the one from The Pebbles series? That's how I first came across it in the 80s...
5. I'll try your tasty meal/cocktail combo over the weekend...
As this SUNday marks the official Summer Solstice, (Northern Hemisphere), I thought I'd post this on Friday as opposed to waiting. Call it "something for the weekend."
Once again, just like last year, we invited several bands to participate in the "Surprise Summer Solstice" Compilation. And, just like last year, many took us up on said invite! Salute!
This year's compilation features 17 bands hailing from all over the globe: Belgium; the U.K.; Sweden; and the U.S. I think they're all worthy of our thanks and praise and hope you'll figure out your own way to do so. My own "thank you's" have been repeated, ad inf. Please make them know YOU appreciate the effort, too.
Also, before I start the proceedings, a big "Wow!" to Andrew Goldfarb, a/k/a The Slow Poisoner, for his original artwork, as well as our "graphics master"- gomonkeygo, for his refitting the material for this year's compilation. You're wizards!
OK, on with the show...your psychedelic psoundtrack for the Summer, 2009:
01 - Trevor Tyrrell - Trip the Upward Slip
Mr. Weird Owl gets the Summer started with a slow campfire track with a blaze and a fistfull of psilocybes...
02 - Bipolaroid - (Trip Inside This House of the) Rising Sun
We'd expect nothing less from the Man From New Orleans; ricketty and haunted, an absinthe provocateur...
03 - Cosmic Trip Machine - (Not) Very High
Belgium's entry is stronger than what comes from their monasteries, and better for you, too!
04 - The Time & Space Machine - The Trip (Inside This House)
Oh yeah! Richard Norris remakes one from Vol. II and treats to a special cake!
05 - The Resonars - Trip Inside This House
Desert-dwellers ratchet it up like a lick from a Bufo Alvarius...
06 - The Modeens - Sonic Daydream
More desert-dwellers! It ain't the water folks, it's the peyote...(does that saguaro answer back?)
07 - The Psychedelic Psynchronicity - My Golden Room
Who's THIS hiding behind a nom-de-fuzz and an Amanita Muscaria..? (Go ahead, bite from the left side, don't mind the Maggots, Mans!)
08 - SeepeopleS - What Makes It Go
Carolinians tippin' over the Apocalypse Cow checking for the Blue Foot...
09 - Alpha Stone - Planet 13
Bassman Pete recalls mate Kung Fu Clive and we all get a kick!
10 - Teenage Filmstars - Physical Graffiti
Ed Ball gifts us a scorcher to support OUR sickness...
Have a GREAT Summer everyone, most sincerely! Psychedelia forever!
And before I go trippin' into the sunset, let me share this with you:
Now the leaves are fallin' down In this old cathedral town... I'm a pilgrim and a stranger travelin' through, Mr. Blue.
I'm a scarecrow on a hill, I'm a lonesome whipporwhill, we got hip, we hot high, we got happy.
I have found a strange motel where they work to make you well, and the Matron's blue kimono whispers and sways as she prays.
In the yard the zombies wait, they don't know that it's too late to get hip, to get high, to be happy...
My Marie My Marie No one knows what I did to be free My Marie My Marie
I must take another trip, inside this house, I lose my grip and I cannot stop the shapes from takin' a hold of me and if you're not comin' back I'll just fade from blue to black we'll get hip, we'll get high, to be happy we'll get hip, we'll get high, to be happy we'll get hip, we'll get high, to be happy we'll get hip, we'll get high...
Greetings! Posting a day late due to a snafu which absorbed my time yesterhence. (It just wasn't in the cods I guess.) Anyway, we're back and in a very fishy situation today. Believe me!
Today's guest reminds me of a friend I had, from Germany, who visited us several years ago out west. It seems just prior to his visit he'd caught the fishing bug. A bad case, too. He was obsessed. Had to fish every day. While I like fishing-somewhat, I've just never got the point. Nor the enjoyment. Let's not start with the whole "day in nature" aspects either. I get that. It just bores me. Stiff. To tears.
All this as prelude to introducing our (beloved) guest today. A man who LOVES fish and is rather obsessed by 'em, too. (I've no idea whether he enjoys the catching of fish like my friend previously mentioned.) I wonder if he's a Pisces?
The link between the classic Canterbury Scene of the '70s and the D.I.Y. psychedelic pop scene of the '90s, Todd Dillingham is a one-of-a-kind artist.
Equally capable of writing concise, catchy little pop songs, twisted psychedelic explorations, and sprawling prog rock improvisations, the North London resident is like a one-man combination of XTC, Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians, and the Bevis Frond.
Remarkably, for a one-man band who plays almost all of the instruments on his records, Dillingham came late to music, not recording his first songs until he was already into his thirties.
His first album was a limited-edition self-released cassette, 1989's Stalking the Wily Chub, with a homemade cover designed by his brother, music journalist and psychedelic poster artist Mick Dillingham. (Dillingham has something of an obsession with fish, which regularly appear in his album titles and cover art.) Brother Mick took an even more active role in Dillingham's next project, the Bizarrdavarks, a trio featuring the brothers and Bevis Frond mastermind Nick Saloman that placed two tracks on 1990's Woronzoid, a double-album compilation on Saloman's Woronzow label. Saloman and Mick Dillingham also appeared on Dillingham's next recording project, the Saloman-produced Art Into Dust, which was supposed to appear on Woronzow in 1990 but was shelved, eventually appearing on the Voiceprint label in late 1992 with the addition of one later track, a nearly half-hour jam on Pink Floyd's classic "Interstellar Overdrive."
Dillingham's association with Voiceprint, a label associated with the '70s Canterbury Scene spearheaded by the Soft Machine and Hatfield and the North, began in 1991, when Caravan LEGEND Richard Sinclair invited Dillingham to record an album with himself, drummer Andy Ward (Camel), and reedman Jimmy Hastings (Caravan, Soft Machine, National Health). The resulting Wilde Canterbury Dream received rapturous reviews among prog rock diehards, but Dillingham's next two releases were a pair of more immediately accessible psychedelic pop EPs in the style of XTC's Dukes of Stratosphear side project: the Norwegian release A Dash of Haddock (1993), and the German release Arthur Woodcote (Is His Name) (1994).
Dillingham's next two albums, both released in 1994, re-emphasized the prog side of his musical personality, although the live Radio Session included a few '60s-style freakbeat rave-ups as well. Vast Empty Spaces (produced by Peter Gilesof the legendary Giles, Giles, and Fripp) marked a reunion with Ward, with Curved Air's Mike Wedgewood and Anthony Alridge of the jazzy and eccentric Skaboosh! contributing bass and violin, respectively. With the exception of occasional extended improvisatory workouts, Dillingham then retreated from progressive epics into a marginally simpler and considerably poppier form of psychedelic pop. The self-released Astral Whelks, which included contributions not only from Ward but Ward's Chrysathemums bandmate, Yukio Yung, was the first evidence of this new focus, but it was 1995's Sgt. Kipper, with its priceless cover portraits of Dillingham, Yung, and Ward in Sgt.Pepper-style satin outfits, that delivered Dillingham's most consistently poppy and groovy set of tunes. (AMG)
Alright let's pull in that line and see what we've hooked:
1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Mindblowing, effect-ridden tunes meant for acid listening for ultimate pleasure.
2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
The guitar as nothing beats a killer backwards guitar solo.
3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
Sgt Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour(tied)
4. You can go back in time and sit in on one famous album's recording session, what album do you want to witness being made and why that one? . it has to be sgt pepper to see the fab 4 at their artistic peak and watch sir george martin at the mixing desk..
5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
Many but i shall choose The Dreaming by Kate Bush which in my humble opinion is the greatest lp by a female singer/songwriter ever..perfect songs and awesome production in the psych vein
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 can see no real advantage as great psych will always be great psych whatever the era.
7. Who do you think are some of the best makers of psychedelic music right now?
The Pillbugs Dog Age I dig my own stuff too, but thats a bit narcissistic lol
8. Why the obsession with fish?
Well when i was younger i used to play on a spectrum 128k and one of the games i could play on it was match fishing... the names of the fish in this game remained in my head and somehow had to find a release before i was driven O fishly mad...So the fish got placed on various releases.. the title astral whelks was of couse a play on the lp astral weeks...i just thought whelks sounded better..
9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?
1.strawberry fields forever/beatles 2.lucy in the sky(mono mix)/beatles 3.i am the walrus/beatles 4.dear boy/paul and linda mccartney 5.tomorrow never knows/beatles 6.changing woman/buffy sainte marie 7.itchycoo park/small faces 8.vacuum cleaner/tintern abbey 9.1983 a merman i should be/jimi hendrix 10.moons/r stevie moore
10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question. Todd: i would love to know your top 10 psych songs from the period 1966-1971
-valis: Today, the list would look like this, (tomorrow it'll be different. Heck, in two hours it'll be different!):
1. The Beatles - Tomorrow Never Knows 2. 13th Floor Elevators - Slip Inside This House 3. Tomorrow - Real Life, Permanent Dream 4. The Pretty Things - Baron Saturday 5. Our Plastic Dream - A Little Bit Of Shangri-La 6. The Easybeats - Peculiar Hole In The Sky 7. Traffic - Paper Sun 8. The Pink Floyd - Lucifer Sam 9. Snow - Caterpillar 10. The Beatles - Glass Onion
Greetings & salutations Voyagers! I'm back from hiatus, recharged & regrouped to go further.., thanks for your patience. (Besides, it's JUNE! The Gateway to Summer! O' blessed season.)
Okay, onward & upward: today's guests got their start in 1980 and released their first album, on VOXX, in 1982. They've also put out albums on Midnight, Pink Dust, Enigma and Restless. That's a helluva' CV!
Psych' fans, it's Eric Stumpo & Debora D. of Plan 9!
"Outside of its art college, Rhode Island hasn't exactly been a storehouse for modern rock music. But the state has a group to be proud of in Plan 9, whose Frustration is exciting garage psychedelia. The swirling, mesmerizing effect of four (!) guitars recalls the best of the late '60s and gives able support to Eric Stumpo's emotional vocals. There are no original songs here, just covers of period gems like Them's "I Can Only Give You Everything."
The French-only Plan 9 is an assortment of 1981-'84 studio recordings (plus a live cut) by various lineups, including a poppy five-piece fronted by singer/guitarist Brian Thomas. (Three songs — two of which overlap the LP — by that formulation also appear on the "Hideaway" maxi-single.) Surprisingly, these recordings manage to hang together as an album.
Dealing with the Dead features eight originals, played with a '60s sound so convincing you'll swear you can smell incense burning. Stumpo's vocals are great, a whiny growl cross-breeding Michael J. Pollard and John Kay; the massed guitars and Deborah DeMarco's atmospheric keyboards increase the sense of déj… entendu even further. Far more convincing than a lot of other similar-minded outfits, Plan 9 knows just how to launch a magic carpet ride to the center of your mind. Diabolical.
I've Just Killed a Man is a steamy live album recorded as a six-piece in Boston, Washington, DC, New Haven and back home in Providence. A trio of ace covers, including the MC5's "Looking at You," and a guest appearance by head Lyre Jeff Conolly on "I'm Gone" add extra excitement to the spirited fun.
Keep Your Cool covers lots of stylistic ground, including the film noir ambience of "Street of Painted Lips" sung by DeMarco, an unclassifiable rollicking instrumental ("King 9 Will Not Return") and various stripes of '60s rock, running the stylistic gamut from Spirit to Steppenwolf. Although some are a little undeveloped, the band's songs are solid; the two covers are righteously arcane.
Anytime Anyplace Anywhere is a five-song EP of new material, including the title tune and "Green Animals."
A revised seven-person lineup on Sea Hunt cuts the guitar army down to three and adds a female sax player. The LP removes Plan 9 from revivalism, leaving in the resulting vacuum a rather plain-sounding rock band with a predilection for guitar solos. Sea Hunt is by no means bad, but the lack of focus creates an imbalance that Stumpo's unexciting originals doesn't resolve. The dreamy title track drifts along aimlessly for almost fourteen instrumental minutes; it's followed by the Ramonesque eleven-second "Human Mertzes." Faced with a choice of the lady or the tiger, Plan 9 fluffs it.
Eric, Debora and the rhythm section from Sea Hunt drafted a cool new lead singer named Pip and made Ham and Sam Jammin' as an economical quintet. Although the band's direction hasn't really changed, the elimination of two guitarists leaves DeMarco's colorful keyboards room to stretch out and be noticed; a guest violinist provides a provocative alternative to Stumpo's fevered riffing on most of the songs. Overall, Ham and Sam is better than Sea Hunt, although still nowhere as wacky or enjoyable as the band's early work." (All praise to: Charles P. Lamey/Ira Robbins for the above.)
By the by, that description of Dealing With The Dead is right-on! It's long been a favorite 'round here, and-my headphones love it.
Let's see what these two think, shall we? Read on...
1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Music that creates a mind-altering experience or a change in one's perception of reality.
2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
The Mind. Because it connects any instrument to the body.
3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
Elevators Easter Everywhere
4. What legendary lost recording or unfindable bootleg would you most like to have?
Jimi Hendrix/Arthur Lee recordings done at the time of Love's False Start LP (Everlasting First)
5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
Wind Harp Song From The Hill LP U.A. Records 9963
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?
We grew up in the 60's so a lot of our music is an extension of that experience. That has to be considered an advantage for us. However, all music is an extension of one's life experiences. And making discoveries at any point in time is fundamental to creativity.
7. If someone had never heard Plan 9 what track would you play for them first as a defining song?
That's Life
8. What do you think is the enduring appeal of psychedelic music?
Same as 1.
9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?
In no particular order:
Elevators - Slip Inside This House Painted Ship - Frustration Spirit - Clear Wig - Crackin' Up Love - You Set The Scene Gentlemen - It's A Cryin' Shame Doors - When The Music's Over Third Bardo - 5 Years Ahead of My Time Moving Sidewalks - Flashback Hendrix - Are You Experienced?
10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question.
Eric & Debora: What's the first music you listened to that influenced your life?
-valis: Growing up in the 60s, as a young kid, the first music that really hit me was the Beatles-like so many others. I also have a fondness for Motown soul due to the influence of a teenaged aunt who played records non-stop. It's all sort of fallen into place from there.
Thanks Eric & Debora! We'll be back next Friday with another new post. Again, thanks for waiting!
For those who pay attention to the Archdrude and his Address Drudion, you might recall his pipping us to the post back in June of last year about a band from Montreal-Pas Chic Chic:
" I’ve also been hugely impressed by AU CONTRAIRE, the debut album by Montreal’s Pas Chic Chic, whose urgent, disorientating and eloquent experimental psychedelic pop inhabits a bizarre hinterland somewhere between Alan Gill’s beautiful early Dalek I Love You COMPASS KUMPAS sound, The Teardrop Explodes circa ‘When I Dream’ and ‘Thief of Baghdad’, and Dave Balfe and Bill Drummond’s Lori & the Chameleons project as played by Stereolab. Whirling ice-rink string synths, uppity toy soldier snare drummers and clamorous tragic male’n’female French language vocals conspire to create a sound of huge tragedy and loss. Fucking eh… Several of the band members previously appeared in well-respected bands that I personally never rated much, but this new ensemble is really something to watch out for. Check them out at paschichchic.com, or via Semprini Records. "
As usual, the Drude is right on. The album's an impressive debut from the needle-drop!
Julian didn't mention my fav' track, "Aude aux Ondes." Seen here:
Today's guest is none other than Roger Tellier-Craig!
Let's see what's in his mind, shall we?
1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."
Mysterious, atmospheric, ethereal to some extent, ambiguous, vaporous, FX and studio trickery = mindfuck!
2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?
The studio itself. To me that’s where all the magic happens, it’s where you get full use of FX like space echoes, reverbs and phasers which can pretty much make any instrument sound psychedelic. The mix is a big part of it too; you can build dense walls of sound, create illusions of depth in the way you position instruments with panning, use cut & paste techniques which can add a dose of surrealism to your sound. I’ve always personally preferred listening to records than going to gigs…
3. Favorite psychedelic album of all time?
Wow! Hard one. I guess I’d have to go with the one that’s been around the longest in my collection, no points for originality here, It would have to be The Pink Floyd’s “Piper at the gates of dawn”.
4. If you could be a member of any psychedelic band in history, which one would you choose and why?
I guess that’s what I’m trying to do with this band! I’m trying to be a member of all my favorite bands, which makes for a quite schizophrenic result I guess…Again, if I have to choose only one band, I think I’d have to go with Floyd. I guess everything they touched during their heyday is something I would have loved to be a part of, whether it’s composing the scores for those Barbet Schroeder movies, and Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point”, performing their songs in the sun-drenched Teatro Grande in Pompeii, and simply writing some of my favorite “out” music from the era…
5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?
Tricky question. I don’t know what to tell you! To me, pretty much everything I listen to is psychedelic to some extent; Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music” is as much psychedelic as any Cluster, Neu! or Popol Vuh, as is Bruce Haack’s “Electric Lucifer” and Catherine Ribeiro’s early 70’s records, etc…I could go on and on! I think I have a pretty broad definition of psychedelic music…Even New Age stuff like Iasos, Ashra or any of those electronic Sky Records from the late 70’s is psychedelic to me! I guess it brings me back to your first question: psychedelic music to me is anything that sounds like you’re floating, that doesn’t sound “grounded” or “down to earth”…
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?
Well, I think that the history behind us gives us more possibilities in mixing up a lot of different aesthetics and creating some pretty rich juxtapositions, but there’s also the danger of misdirected nostalgia for the past where you end up simply rehashing what’s been done before in a context where the edginess of making things up as you go is all gone. I find that music and art are usually way more interesting in the times where the ones making shit up don’t yet quite understand what they’re doing, where they’re driven by some weird obscure force…
7. What bands playing psychedelic music right now excite you?
The Alps, from San Francisco; Vancouver’s Magneticring, aka Josh Stevenson who’s toured alongside Samara Lubelski and used to play with Jackie O Motherfucker; the Boredoms, some of Black Dice’s stuff. I’m not such a big fan of current music though…
8. What inspires your own psychedelic music?
The sun, memories of the Mediterranean, movies and experimental films, all the bands and musicians I love…
9. Top Ten Psychedelic Songs?
Songs, eh? How about I give you my 10 favorite “tracks”, in no particular order:
Faust - So Far Pink Floyd - Cirrus Minor Neu! - Hallogallo Silver Apples - Lovefingers Fripp & Eno - Swastika Girls Franco Battiato - Plancton The United States of America - The American metaphysical circus The Velvet Underground - Venus in furs Os Mutantes - O relogio Popol Vuh - Vuh
10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question.
Roger: What’s your definition of psychedelic music?
-valis: Today I think I'll go with yours. (It always seems to find-and fit, the space in between the spaces.)
Thank you Roger, and best wishes to the explorations by Pas Chic Chic. CQ their album here.
