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Psyched By Mike McGuirk 'PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC IS something that takes you on an internal, visceral journey, further than just through the instruments you're watching people play. It doesn't have to be drug-induced, by any means. But it certainly has to push aside certain 'rock' boundaries – archetypes of rock or jazz or something, you know. There's a higher goal there, and whatever it is, I don't know. But you know at the top of the psychedelic mountain there's a wizard there, to bestow something on you." Comets on Fire's Noel Harmonson said this. Even though he denies it, I think he was talking about acid again. Psychedelia describes a broad range of music; it may have started out as music to listen to while sideways, but over the years the definition and what passes as psychedelic have become pretty subjective. I think something is psychedelic when it makes me wish I were high. Anyway, here are five records you should check out if you're new to the Comets and what they're doing. These are just some suggestions and are in no way meant to be the last word on anything. So calm down. Monoshock, Walk to the Fire (BlackJack, 1997) I mentioned this band a lot in the article, but they're so important that they need to go here. Walk to the Fire is four sides of cough-syrup psych-rock, meaning it's gonna fall down any minute and Pink Floyd never existed. This was the first band to make a connection between the Stooges' Funhouse and psychedelia. Monoshock's demented twin brother Liquorball is playing at the Hemlock Tavern in a couple weeks as part of Anthony Bedard's Psychedelic Reclamation Project or something. You better go. Mainliner, Mellow Out (Charnel, 1996) Mainliner are a Japanese hard psych group that cut every riff in half and then play it for 18 minutes, while one dude moans into a microphone and another dude plays something called "Motor Psycho Guitar," which means he takes Jimi's guitar heroics and literally kicks the shit out of them. Then he lights them on fire. Finally, he pees on them. This is one of the loudest records ever recorded. Growing, The Sky's Run into the Sea (Kranky, 2003) Growing can actually communicate with their amplifiers. This record is perfect for acupuncture, for looking into the part of your soul that used to be a plant, and for ruining your speakers if you put the bass over "1." John McLaughlin, Devotion (Douglas, 1970) I just heard this album for the first time a few months ago, and even though it's a part of the fusion thing that went so horribly wrong, there's more than a little of it on Comets' Blue Cathedral. There are some great Floyd-y keyboards, and the rhythm section is from another planet, but most important, John McLaughlin can shoot laser beams out of his fingertips. Randy Holden, Population II (Hobbitt, 1969) Randy Holden was a member of Blue Cheer for a little while before he flipped out and moved to Hawaii. Before that, a label called Hobbitt Records put out his solo debut. With dinosaur-slow guitar riffs and a drummer who's doubling on the keyboards trying to keep up, the album sketched out the parameters of both heavy psych and stoner metal. According to nut-job music critic and psych artist Julian Cope, this album was recorded in a cathedral with 20 amps wired up to each other. One guitar, 20 amps. You do the math. The only other thing you need to know is that the first lyric on the album is "I love the sound of a guitar playing." |
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