Awesome psychedelic songs by (generally) non-psych bands

Sometimes, Marcia and Etrusca is all I ever need

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofn341CzgoQ

"See My Friends" by The Kinks a pretty classic example of this

the norman greenbaum group "dr. west's medicine show and junk band" were mostly a (bad) old-timey string band but then they did this b-side

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdaACh6CZW0

and then the next year greenbaum did "spirit in the sky", whatever this song is still better.

Cilla Black - Abyssinian Secret

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuqlLpXJyag

does "just checked in to see what condition my condition is in" count?

Anything from Their Satanic Majesties Request, especially She's A Rainbow.

Buck Owens--Who's Going To Mow Your Grass

Nobody's mistaking it for Electric Ladyland but it's got some great fuzz guitar and is altogether very cool.

Anything from Their Satanic Majesties Request, especially She's A Rainbow.
― van dyke parks generator (anagram), Thursday, January 2, 2020 1:34 PM

hot take: that's their best album. wrong thread maybe, but i stand by it.

Kinks: "Sitting By The Riverside"

in what way are the Kinks not a psych band

I mean no silly psych 60s things going on with these guys, nope
https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-I5mxdUIOhnc%2FT7DDFvhgzuI%2FAAAAAAAABaA%2F4u7OInKV_oY%2Fs1600%2F1KSAB.jpg&f=1&nofb=1

Nary a backwards guitar on any Kinks song. Plus, I'm reasonably certain none of them ever dropped acid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_h4bjwCT_0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AusxenG8uno

Nary a backwards guitar on any Kinks song.

do backwards vocals count?

Plus, I'm reasonably certain none of them ever dropped acid.

true of many "psychedelic" bands

do backwards vocals count?

Ah, right...backwards piano, too, I think (on "Autumn Almanac").

Are Husker Du a psych band? Shout out to Dreams Reoccurring if not

I'd say they had some psychedelic content - "Lazy Old Sun," for example. I don't think of Something Else era Kinks as being "a psych band" per se, though.

always been partial to pictures of matchstick men by status quo. a bit bubblegum for a psych song, and not a total one off - i believe they had at least one album in a psych vein before changing to "boogie rock"

I love Lazy Old Sun

Nary a backwards guitar on any Kinks song. Plus, I'm reasonably certain none of them ever dropped acid.

I bet you Dave did. Nonetheless, I think the Kinks count as a non-psych band.

mid-60s Kinks (Face to Face, Something Else, We Are the Village Green Preservation Society + assorted EPs/singles) are all peak UK psychedelia imo. Fit right in with the Beatles, Donovan, the Bee Gees, the Stones, Small Faces, etc.

Face to Face yeah but I'm not so sure about the other two. Despite some stuff like "Phenomenal Cat" I've always thought those albums were a bit anti-psych considering the fact that they were a British Invasion band. Not to mention Muswell Hillbillies and pretty much everything they did after that.

I think the Edwardian music hall thing the Kinks had going on was subtly different from the average UK psychedelic band - much less of an affectation.

Let's not forget "Fancy" though, that was pretty damned psychedelic!

some very arbitrary distinctions being drawn here.

for one thing practically every British Invasion band - the Hollies, the Kinks, the Stones, the Beatles, the Small Faces, the Yardbirds - temporarily became a psych band in short order.

To quibble slightly, the Small Faces were not a British Invasion band, were about 5 years younger and took a shitload of acid.

But, yes, bands did go 'psychedelic', I don't think the Kinks ever did fully though.

I'll grant that the Kinks carved out a very distinctive niche but too much of the stuff from the releases I cited feature various hallmarks of UK 60s psych - the fairytales, the music hall trappings, the Indian diversions, satirical character sketches, etc. I'm not saying they weren't distinct or unique (they were!) but just because they carved their own path through the psychedelic overgrowth of the era doesn't mean they weren't a part of it. I will grant that they relied less on the novelty record tricks that others went overboard on - backwards everything, sped up/slowed down tracks, fuzz guitars, phasing/flanging effects, etc. - but they dipped their toes in those rivers too (lol @ the sped up voice on "Phenomenal Cat" for ex.), just not as much.

question for the floor: is "journey of the sorcerer" psychedelic?

no

too much of the stuff from the releases I cited feature various hallmarks of UK 60s psych - the fairytales, the music hall trappings, the Indian diversions, satirical character sketches, etc.

There is fairytale stuff in Kinks? I think the distinction, in part, is that Kinks usually had a sociopolitical aspect. It was rarely, if ever, abstractness for its own sake.

Reminded of the Ray Davies review of Revolver that appeared in Disc and Music Echo. Said, "I just don't like the electronic stuff." Didn't like Yellow Sub or Eleanor Rigby. (Liked "Good Day Sunshine.")

Rainy Day in June
Wicked Annabella
Phenomenal Cat

Five Americans: "7:30 Guided Tour"

Johnny Winter: "Birds Can't Row Boats"

Superdrag, "The Art of Dying"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCNORo_tmKs

The Kinks’ purest psychedelic moment may be “Australia” for its musical setting. Davies’ lyrics were never about hallucinatory consciousness-expansion, though. It’s a stretch to call the Kinks “psychedelic” even by the loose standards by which that word is tossed around.

Link Wray: The Sky is Falling
Mott the Hoople: You Really Got Me
Steve Hunter: Eight Miles High

Also, maybe:
Peter Cook & Dudley Moore: The L.S. Bumble Bee
The Cramps: Beautiful Gardens
Van Morrison: And It Stoned Me
Yo La Tengo: Pass The Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind
Paul Roland: Meadows of the Sea
Moby Grape: It’s a Beautiful Day Today

Yellow Magic Orchestra - Lotus Love

Hate to quibble but uh... if Moby Grape is not a psych band, who is?

My take on this would be chuck Berry’s “Concerto in B Goode” - could be a Can outtake

Can a mod just change this thread title to “what makes a song psychedelic”?

sitar-y sounds

phasing fx

good thread concept imo

Mellow psychedelia until it lets loose about 5 min in

https://youtu.be/cBG11b-nyCs

Low - Poor Sucker

https://youtu.be/ob0CILJ93bA

A number of songs on this excellent album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARAcJgWFGB4

herman's hermits - blaze

https://img.discogs.com/4Sgkfjmvb3qaYWOdcSCTkBtLdDM=/fit-in/600x597/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1152084-1371348081-4335.jpeg.jpg

particularly "moonshine man"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=od03nUU0J60

have to imagine there's a whole discussion of "fake psychedelia" elsewhere on ILM

anyway did the hollies ever get heavier than this ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEj0MBhC_7g
the hollies - maker

you'd also have to include chad & jeremy's LP "of cabbages and kings" and "in our image" by the everly bros.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6W4dnD8LkE
everly bros. - glitter and gold

...

lol @ the kinks being a psychedelic band, are you HIGH or something ??

Nancy and Lee - Some Velvet Morning

lots of the so called "baroque pop" acts cross the line sometimes towards psychedelic pop

in this thread the Kinks are psychedelic and Moby Grape is not psychedelic, which tbh makes this thread kinda psychedelic

also someone said Van and Astral Weeks is more deeply truly powerfully psychedelic then a boatload of Austin Powers ass lookin boys twee bullshit

That CCR thing way up there is bitchin'. So is this Youtube comment:

"With this masterpiece the CCR proved, even without a single word, they were not only virtuoso musicians - they were profound philosophers, too."

Was gonna cite 'Daily Nightly' by the Monkees but then realized they have several other songs that fit this bill and then subsequently questioned whether they might not actually be a psych band and then my head exploded into a cloud of multicolored flower petals.

Basically the entirety of Bobbie Gentry's The Delta Sweete.

This really depends on how one defines psych music. I like what Michael Hicks says on the subject,

"To understand what makes music stylistically "psychedelic," one should consider three fundamental effects of LSD: dechronicization, depersonalization, and dynamization. Dechronicization permits the drug user to move outside of conventional perceptions of time. Depersonalization allows the user to lose the self and gain an "awareness of undifferentiated unity." Dynamization, as (Timothy) Leary wrote, makes everything from floors to lamps seem to bends, as "familiar forms dissolve into moving, dancing structures"... Music that is truly "psychedelic" mimics these three effects.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychedelic_music

But beyond that, great psych music by generally non-psych bands? I'd go with this killer double A side 45, "Walking Through My Dreams/Defecting Gray" by The Pretty Things, even if it doesn't check all of Hicks' tick boxes - http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=ailY08G6hhc

I feel like I'd have to loosen up quite a bit wrt that set of standards (otm though they may be) or nothing beyond Orb's 'We're Pastie to be Grill You' would qualify.

this thread is nonsensical

Sweet, bro, your dose is finally kickin' in.

genre definitions are by nature porous and contextual. The way I break psychedelia down has to do with specific periods and geographies for which the term was widely deployed, at the time that music was being made. And then considering what the common characteristics/identifying markers were for music made within that period and place. What was considered "psychedelic" in the UK in '66-'68 is pretty wildly different from what was considered "psychedelic" in the US during the same period. Similarly that stuff bears little resemblance to later electronic music dubbed "psychedelic". The term is fluid - the only thing that makes a track more "authentically" psychedelic than another is how much it conforms to what was considered "psychedelic" at that particular time/place.

Which is relevant to the thread question, because in the vast majority of cases musicians *moved through* psychedelia, like a costume that was put on and then discarded after it had outlived its usefulness. Some bands committed more heavily than others (the Beatles), some bands may have only made one or two songs in an attempt to cash-in (too many to mention), some bands sprang forth fully formed as psych bands but then moved on (Pink Floyd), some were on the periphery but definitely dabbled (the Kinks), some just followed along with the crowd for awhile (the Rolling Stones). But *all* of that stuff shares common technical approaches, themes, musical vocabularies that are readily identifiable.

With UK psych I think Andy Partridge's truism that it consisted primarily of British R&B bands + novelty record effects + nostalgia for childhood signifiers. Which manifested itself as songs about tea time, mythological and historical figures, WWI/WWII, etc. with an instrumental palette expanded beyond the standard guitars/bass/drums to include tape effects, classical orchestration, Indian/Asian elements, electronics, fuzz pedals, studio trickery. And beyond that is the presentation of the music itself - the Carnaby Street clothes, the day-glo art nouveau record sleeves, TV performances with spinning moire patterns, etc. To my ears (and eyes), anything that ticks a bunch of these boxes qualifies as UK 60s psych, and would have been considered such at the time.

US 60s psych is a whole different thing, of course.

With UK psych I think like Andy Partridge's

Pavement - The Hexx

Gene Vincent take on Summertime if I remember rightly. Reminded me of Can when I listened to it a lot a couple of decades ago.

In the Garden by Eurythmics psych/ Britfolk featuring half of both Can And Blonde as sidemen.

Can are psychedelic?

that’s like saying the velvets are psychedelic

All music is naturally psychedelic when you really think about it, amirite?

especially if you smoke enough weed

i listened to flow motion by can on acid at new year and it was p psychedelic

(specifically the title track)

I think the confusion/tension here is between psychedelic as a descriptor of the music's effect on the listener and psychedelic as a *genre* akin to bebop or dub reggae or NWOBHM.

In defense of my Moby Grape suggestion, "It's a Beautiful Day Today" comes from post-Spence Grape and there is little psychedelic about the "'69" album other than the Spence leftover "Seeing." Even "Beautiful Day" isn't particularly psychedelic except that hearing it makes me feel like something is kicking in.

Soundtracks is probably the most psychedelic early Can record. Or the Inner Space tunes.

Kinks discussion reminds me that early versions of The Who Sell Out came with "FREE PSYCHEDELIC POSTER INSIDE."

https://images.eil.com/large_image/THE_WHO_SELL%2BOUT%2B%2B%2BPOSTER-531494b.jpg

Pretty Things were probably on the path with Emotions and still in the ballpark after with SF Sorrow, plus there's that first Electric Banana record that I've still never heard...

pretty much:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0bdLdTJdKI

never seen that Sellout poster before, v nice!

xps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79bLbv-JCwY

Kinks discussion reminds me that early versions of The Who Sell Out came with "FREE PSYCHEDELIC POSTER INSIDE."

Now this (the 1968 album by Intersystems) really was something else entirely.

https://img.discogs.com/7aptAh1VHDXvmi-zwO1gCf6SMe8=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-8809427-1470205717-4963.jpeg.jpg

I know I did post this on another thread the other day and I know they were on the fringes of psych sometimes, but this song is certainly the most straightforward psychedelia they ever did and I love it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eFk9bAXzkI

lots of good suggestions in this thread BUT i wish scott was still posting random cool tunes :(

speaking of the bonzos "cyborg signal" by big grunt is pretty psychedelic imo

"i'll search the sky" by the nitty gritty dirt band

i also like psychedelic covers of not necessarily psychedelic songs, like the bluebeards' version of "come on-a my house" or curt boettcher's take on "tumbling tumbleweeds".

Finding it odd that somebody would find the music of Can non psychedelic. I think it is a descriptive that is used quite a bit for it.
I have been listening to psychedelic music since my early teens. So am wondering if you have ears if you are coming out with something like that

I have been listening to psychedelic music since my early teens. So am wondering if you have ears if you are coming out with something like that

it is of course freaky “out there” free rock I just don’t consider all freaky “psychedelic” but I’ve only been listening to psychedelic music since my early teens, also I suck

Yardbirds kind of owned this idea at one time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4DdAs0PddQ

I thought the Yardbirds had a consciously psychedelic era before being returned to something more poppy at least in the studio by management. Thought they remained pretty psychedelic live.
Also yhought they were pretty influential on psych elsewhere.

Thought the Hollies did 2 consciously psychedelic lps too. At the time that psych was the current thing.
Thing about the Hollies that intrigues me is hearing somewhere that they had been a harder rocking band early on that was forced into something poppier by management. & not having heard what they sounded like beforehand.

I think sometimes people use psychedelic to mean something like ‘interested in variation’.

Finding it odd that somebody would find the music of Can non psychedelic.

That had to be some kind of joke.

https://youtu.be/SnZWxIXE6E0

Paul Nicholas - Run Shaker Life

(Really good psych-folk, way better than his later abominations)

Chubby Checker - "Goodbye Victoria"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fsh-0D53bps

It's from a completely weird one-off LP the Chubster recorded while living in Holland in the early seventies and subsequently disowned. Probably the best work he's ever done tbh.

Pre-psychedelic era, but this is as psychedelic as it gets:

Les Paul & Mary Ford "Smoke Rings"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK3APtfqp5Q

Chubby Checker - "Goodbye Victoria"

hell yes, this is the stuff

you may be interested in jimmy reed's 1973 quasi-psych LP "i ain't from chicago"

this is typical:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=897RhUOgBF8

see also: electric mud, "concerto in be goode" (mentioned above), junior parker's "taxman"

buffy sainte-marie's LP "illuminations" has a handful of tracks that qualify, but this one fucking RIPS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrgM3OpkTTw
"adam"

goodbye victoria - stuff identified!

personally i think "Fumeux fume par fumee" by Solage should count... it's a song all about smoking... from before 1492... so what was he smoking?

_Finding it odd that somebody would find the music of Can non psychedelic. _


That had to be some kind of joke.

Psychedelic just means weird and experimental ok I’m done

― brimstead

i mean, according to the people who compile the "rough guide" cds, definitely

I probably associate some of their softer, melodic, early stuff like "Tango Whiskyman" with psych more than, say, "You Doo Right."

On the whole, I'd say early Can was almost as peripheral to psych as the Velvet Underground, though.

I'm finding this bizarre. I can't think of Can as not being psychedelic sounding just because the first person I've ever heard say that they're not allowed to be thought of as psychedelic says so.
I find them profoundly psychedelic much like I find early 70s electric Miles psychedelic and certain eras of Sun ra and Pharoah Sandsers and other spiritual/space jazz to be psychedelic.
I've been listening to the band for the last 35 years, possibly a bit longer.
& today I found out that there are genuinely people in this planet who are aware of Monster MOvie and think it isn't allowed to be thought of as psychedelic sounding. I find that profoundly weird.

& that somebody is trying to reduce the idea of other people who listen to that music and find it psychedelic must be confused because they must just be thinking any music that is weird and experimental must be psychedelic is just creepily arrogant.

psychedelic, psychedelic
psychedelic, psychedelic
psychedelic, psychedelic
oh oh oh, psychedelic

I don't think of "Monster Movie" as being very psychedlic either fwiw.

Hey steveolende, fuck you

Exactly what I should have said to you in the first place.

heavy vibes itt

weird thread

the most psychedlic music I've everheard is without exception music I've heard while on psychedelics

that included Dean Martin one time

This turned out well

“Mother Sky” is psychedelic as fuck, and Tago Mago & Ege Bamyasi are psych canon

But psychedelic means different things to different people

it was literally a toss-up between bumping the Loud Family thread and starting this

glad I made the right decision tho lol

(xp) Indeed.

You either accept a historical definition or a wholly subjective one. But you can’t have both.

The Reasonable Person Psychedelic Orchestra rules

may i kindly suggest we post more songs

and don't be afraid to post songs by more recent acts either

Sleater-Kinney: "What's Mine Is Yours"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GcpNvYFMGE

the dragonfly/purple dancer single is a path fleetwood mac should have followed a bit more, kirwan and spencer duets had potential
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RicSJtQVmI

just listened to that chubby checker album, holy shit. one of the songs climaxes with him yelling "lets get together and make a SPACE BABY!" A+++++++, would psych again.

I assumed that the thread was supposed to be about lps or tracks like that and things like Muddy Waters Electric Mud and the Howlin Wolf equivalent rather than attempting to dismiss bands that are pretty widely recognised for sounding psychedelic.

"sounding psychedelic"

this is a meaningless phrase

also there is already this thread: Black Acid Rock - S/D

this is classic ilm

ok I'll play the little game that I should have just ignored. How do you define psychedelic in a way that somehow excludes Can.

Or what were the credentials and the correct phrase for amounting to psychedelic.

I would think the crucial point was that the sense of hearing experienced the sound as being psychedelic hence sounding psychedelic.

the latter is a wholly subjective category that no one will agree on, rendering the usage of the term pointless. Using the term that way doesn't tell you anything about how the music sounds, who made it when/where, how it was performed/composed/produced. All it tells anyone is that you, as a listener, associate this particular piece of music with taking psychedelic drugs. And how is that useful for anyone.

like let's say both the Bee Gees "Red Chair Fadeaway" and Can's "Mother Sky" are considered "psychedelic". These two pieces of music have nothing in common. They don't sound similar, they weren't composed or produced in a similar style, they don't share lyrical associations, they don't share instrumentation, they were made in different times in different countries by very different sets of people - one is an abstract fairytale pop song with a mellotron and harmony vocals and the other is a ten minute long mostly instrumental chugging metallic groove with polyrhythms and a stinging electric guitar lead - why on earth would you want to group these songs together or imply that they share any musical DNA?

and yet, somehow, the term is used and ppl generally understand what is meant... expand yr mind & see the connections, man

ppl generally understand what is meant

they obviously don't, as this clusterfuck of a thread proved within the first 10 posts.

just to say that the first track by the loud family is a phantastic jam i didn't know before. not quite sure if i'd call it psychedelic though. it is quite heavy though. what about this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3r54Rrigr4

^nah

I thought Gish was pretty psychedelic when I heard it around the time. Couldn't really take the voice that much though.
THink I far preferred Mercury Rev around the time.

how about Schooly D "PSK", the sound of PCP

or Ken Nordine's "Sound Museum"

see I can list random songs too!

ok u win the psych award jfc

the PCPGees

they were made in different times in different countries by very different sets of people

I don’t really get what this has to do with anything tbh. There have psych bands all over the world for like the last 50 years. And lots of them would even say that they were influenced by Can

they were made in different times in different countries by very different sets of people

I don’t really get what this has to do with anything tbh. There have psych bands all over the world for like the last 50 years. And lots of them would even say that they were influenced by Can

woah check out the echo in here

Gish was written & recorded under the influence of vast amounts of LSD, so surely it literally qualifies as psychedelic music

Another possibly contentious suggestion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qXRjEQ7eEo

I like both "Rhinoceros" and that SY song a lot, but neither seem either "psychedelic" or "Psych" to me (tho I'm no arbiter of psych, self-proclaimed or otherwise)

gish was psychedelic that's right but the smashing weren't later on. so they belong in this thread, no?

What makes Gish psychedelic? The guitar pedals? It's a pretty straight-up hard rock record.

if this isn't psychedelic - just look at the cacti - i don't know what is. later on howe mainly travelled the american desert rock roads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3YwOYjrqbQ

under the influence of vast amounts of LSD, so surely it literally qualifies as psychedelic music

oh cool, didn't know "Wu-Tang Forever" was a psych record too!

What makes Gish psychedelic? The guitar pedals? It's a pretty straight-up hard rock record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-JdFM41RUg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtiMdE23L2o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xfi7MTaI9d4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51PP8TwXrxE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvKjpGP6P5Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftSUchAdVTE

it is the sound effects, lots of stereo effects between the two channels. besides the silent loud dynamics and the general fucked-upness or weirdness of the sound the first time you listen to it.

Do you consider, say, Nothing's Shocking to be psychedelic?

xp. concerning the pogues:

so his teeth were sore from the beginning on...

quite standard rock.

the psychedelic share is below 10% i'd say.

Like the 60s, this thread began with a lot of good music but ended in disillusion and confusion

the psychedelic share is below 10% i'd say.

but Shane was taking a lot of acid at the time so it must be psychedelic music QED plus they used funny 60s visual effects in the video

Do you consider, say, Nothing's Shocking to be psychedelic?

Possibly less contentious suggestion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiloWOFuY08

later on the jane addiction album delves more into the boring heart of hard rock, it seems.

Phil Ochs - The Crucifixion

xp It has all that stuff you mention... if anything, I think it's more "psychedelic" than Gish!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQEvq2WDh9Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mnx8jnsYfc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4pNOBIAaLI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlJ27Dcv4fc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kK-1axSGkXc

Phew, some people were almost having fun talking about music there for a minute, good thing you stepped in, wouldn’t want this thread to get out of hand

everything I posted was psychedelic according to at least one metric posted on this thread so far

a) about psychedelics
b) made by someone on psychedelics
c) sounds "psychedelic" according to random person who has taken psychedelics
d) features "weird" sounds like stereo panning or has "dynamics" or similar

xp

but Shane was taking a lot of acid at the time

i would consider om as free jazz not as psychedelic but what do i know.

Shakey is having a bad trip

I'd argue a lot of Dan Deacon's stuff is pretty psychedelic, at least in the sense that say Animal Collection is

I have achieved the higher stages of enlightenment, realizing that everything is psychedelic maaaaaaaaaan

I'm so sorry my mild generalisation about psych music offended you to your very soul dude, I shall remedy this by trying to avoid engaging tedious genre pedants in discussion in the future.

I don’t really get what this has to do with anything tbh. There have psych bands all over the world for like the last 50 years. And lots of them would even say that they were influenced by Can

― Death to (NickB), Monday, January 6, 2020 9:53 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

yeah would agree with you there. THought it bizarre that that band were supposed to be not worthy of the epithet or however whoever wants to put it. Would think that any influence picked up from them would translate to sounding pretty psychedelic.
Would also think that most people who listen to music would have some shared idea of what did denote the term.
Certainly been a big part of what I've listened to for the last few decades. Music from the time the term was first being used through to other things influenced by that and other related influences since then.
Love the melange of influences playing off each other.

it's not you Pheeel it's this whole thread

it's not you Pheeel it's this whole thread

― Οὖτις

yes, it's Literally Everybody Except Shakey

it's the thread where people list all kind of random shit for no reason but clutch their pearls if I suggest the Kinks had a psych period.

Did think that odd. Would have thought there were a couple lps there at least sound pretty much of the period. So would've included.

d) features "weird" sounds like stereo panning or has "dynamics" or similar

Interesting thing about Can is that they didn't use echo/delay and 'psychedelic' effects like stereo panning and phasing - apart from on "Tago Mago", which is why parts of that album sound kind of dated? In my opinion!

Slightly bemused in general by the idea of Can being some sort of avatar of psychedelia when so much of their music is based on minimalism and avoidance of excess - yes, granted they've got the improvisational jamming aspect too. So "Mother Sky" has the wild acid rock guitar but listen to the bass and drums, where does that fit into 'psychedelia'?

^ this is basically my point about that Smashing Pumpkins song

Do you consider, say, Nothing's Shocking to be psychedelic?
― BeerAdvocate in the streets, Wookiepedia in the sheets (morrisp), Monday, January 6, 2020 5:29 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ki5KsuP3mzM

I once played with a pine cone for a good forty minutes while listening to this album

also off topic but

well if you want a friend feed animal

right on

feed ANY animal

Slightly bemused in general by the idea of Can being some sort of avatar of psychedelia when so much of their music is based on minimalism and avoidance of excess - yes, granted they've got the improvisational jamming aspect too. So "Mother Sky" has the wild acid rock guitar but listen to the bass and drums, where does that fit into 'psychedelia'?

― Frozen Mug (Tom D.)

file next to "pink floyd", i believe

Obviously there is a divide in this thread about whether psychedelic is a feeling or a carved-in-stone genre signifier, but I just wanted to vouch on behalf of Smashing Pumpkins that the bassline in the second chorus of Rhinoceros does feel very "60s psych". It's got that walking "Hey Joe" quality.

Cellophane Symphony by Tommy James and the Shondells

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qNQXb18l8g

classic example, love that record

Country rock outfit Goose Greek Symphony open side two of their 1970 debut with this insane track..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TB-rvitI50

Slightly bemused in general by the idea of Can being some sort of avatar of psychedelia when so much of their music is based on minimalism and avoidance of excess - yes, granted they've got the improvisational jamming aspect too. So "Mother Sky" has the wild acid rock guitar but listen to the bass and drums, where does that fit into 'psychedelia'?

― Frozen Mug (Tom D.)

file next to "pink floyd", i believe

― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Monday, January 6, 2020 8:27 PM (two days ago)

The argument about Can's psychedelic aspect is totally understandable, but I think Tom's mention of minimalism as something separate is important. That's why I brought up the Velvet Underground, for their minimalism and their avant-garde aspects that were more from the art world and that predate psychedelia. So, I think that is true also not only of Can's minimalism, but their own avant-garde aspects. If "The Murder Mystery" is more art-world avant garde than it is psychedelic, than surely "Mother Upduff" is, too.

I've always thought "Mother Upduff" sounds like it was inspired by the Mothers' "Help, I'm a Rock". An aside there.

Yeah, another band in that mix. But you could substitute "European Son" and "Father Cannot Yell" in my comparison.

I know that I'm far from alone in finding that music psychedelic.
& that isn't going to change any time soon.

like i know there's this ongoing tension as to whether or not we're having this discussion seriously but to me "psychedelia" isn't this thing that magically appeared on haight street (or, you know, in texas) in 1966, i feel like it's a false dichotomy and that "minimalism" is an authentic part of the psychedelic movement, fuck i'd call the silver apples psychedelic as all hell. i just don't get the hair-splitting, i mean are there people here who want to argue whether or not "flight reaction" by the calico wall or "back seat '38 dodge" by opus i belong more to the worlds of "the avant-garde" or psychedelia? do "the murder mystery" and "what's become of the baby" not belong to the same genre because the bands fucking hated each other and didn't at all go to the same parties? i mean, where are we coming at this from?

There’s a solid connection between minimalism and psychedelia. The minimalists’ repetition and drones create unusual effects such as time dilation for the listener, the same way as do Indian ragas and other Eastern musics associated with psychedelia. Just consider Terry Riley. Lou Reed alludes to Eastern music’s repetition in an essay written in 1966: http://velvetforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=145408

I know that I'm far from alone in finding that music psychedelic.
& that isn't going to change any time soon.

Kinda don't think the thread is about persuading you either way.

Ben Shepherd from Soundgarden seems to bring out the more psychedelic side of that band, Switch Opens and She Likes Surprises especially.

5 million elvis fans can't be wrong, the king is trippy as balls

Interesting thing about Can is that they didn't use echo/delay and 'psychedelic' effects like stereo panning and phasing - apart from on "Tago Mago", which is why parts of that album sound kind of dated? In my opinion!

Not sure I agree with the premise here. While Tago Mago is where Can really went all out with studio effects, tracks like "Future Days," "Bel Air," and "Chain Reaction" variously use tremolo, phasing, hard panning, field recordings, etc and strike me as very psychedelic in a mellow, balmy way.

looool this thread, well done ilm. I came here to post Blondie's "Fade Away and Radiate," and "Shadow" by The Primitives, a trippy little bit of Indian-sounding psych amongst the pop punk nuggets of Lovely and find 200+ posts of harshed mellow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs6RLx8Jujo

Not sure I agree with the premise here. While Tago Mago is where Can really went all out with studio effects, tracks like "Future Days," "Bel Air," and "Chain Reaction" variously use tremolo, phasing, hard panning, field recordings, etc and strike me as very psychedelic in a mellow, balmy way.

In a subtler, less corny way, for sure. By the way, "Chain Reaction" mellow and balmy, are you sure?

i mean, where are we coming at this from?

evidently everywhere and nowhere at the same time

There’s a solid connection between minimalism and psychedelia. The minimalists’ repetition and drones create unusual effects such as time dilation for the listener, the same way as do Indian ragas and other Eastern musics associated with psychedelia. Just consider Terry Riley.

I posted a Steve Reich piece upthread fwiw

I totally take the idea that minimalism was significant to psychedelia from Butterfield Blues Band's "East-West" to Silver Apples, etc. But I don't believe the appeal of minimalism proper, Reich/Glass etc., was altogether to do with its psychedelic aspect. I think there's an element of it that maybe comes more from 20th century moves away from composer-dominated content, starting in music with serialism and into Cage and which you see in other art forms (surrealist techniques, abstract painting, etc.). And if I'm thinking about Reich's Four Organs, my base-level analysis of what kind of music it is would not be to say, "It's psychedelic music" (though it may have some commonality).

Similarly, one wouldn't say that Kurt Schwitters or Andre Breton were psychedelic writers. This colors my view of things like "European Son" and "Father Cannot Yell" in spite of the fact that one could rightly say that they are not dissimilar to "What's Become of the Baby." I definitely believe that there was an element of the Velvet Underground, and maybe Can too, that was intentionally NOT psychedelic. Is that not why the second and third VU albums had black and white covers? Is that not why "every color is bad???"

"That's what Jaki said"

This is precisely what, for me, distinguishes the cover of Monster Movie from, say, a Hawkwind album cover.

We had a thread recently where we were discussing how the Dead & VU were different, despite their similarities (or something).

I think They Might be Giants must fit into this, something like "See the Constellation" or "I'll Be Haunting You" scans as psych-rock to me which they are definitely not as a whole

"Where Do They Make Balloons?"

https://youtu.be/c9zG0mRvmaE

^^ pastoral psychedelia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_FTSVuyej4

When I was a kid I heard this weird psychedelic avant-garde violin piece by McKendree Spring on late night radio. I bought the album, only to discover the rest of it was decidedly UN-psychedelic wimpy folk-rock.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSbZdd-PF7o

I was pleasantly surprised that the 50s Stars Who Tried to Adapt to the Psychedelic 60s video was sincerely appreciative rather than mocking.